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Shastri News - May 2009

Contents

New programme deadlines

The Shastri Institute is pleased to announce that all application materials are now available for the following 2009-10 grants and awards:

India Studies Fellowships (For Canadians)
June 30, 2009

Scholar Travel Subsidy Grants (Indians/Canadians)
July 15, 2009 & February 15, 2010

Millennium Development Goals Research Grant (Indians/Canadians)
August 31, 2009

Partnership Development Seed Grants (Indians/Canadians)
September 30, 2009

Student Excellence Awards (Canadians)
October 30, 2009

Lal Bahadur Shastri Student Prizes (Canadians)
January 15, 2010

Information on more grants will follow in the next few months.

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Expert line-up for the University of Montreal’s upcoming Summer School on India

This year’s Summer School on India at the University of Montreal is drawing in some of the world’s leading experts on India today. A dozen speakers are set to give their in-depth views on the emergence and importance of the new Indian giant. The seminar will run from Monday, June 29th to Saturday, July 4th, 2009, and will offer simultaneous lectures in both English and French.

Among topics being covered:

  • Democracy and Capitalism in the Land of Castes
  • Religion and Spirituality: From Foundational Myths to Daily Practices
  • Social Inequalities and Justice in India
  • Artistic Creativity: Literature and Cinema
  • Women in India: Marriage, Family and the Informal Economy
  • An Emerging Power Facing Challenges
  • India in the World: Diaspora, Regional and International Policies

The training course will be led by, among others, Christophe Jaffrelot, France’s renowned India specialist, Mira Kamdar, from the World Policy Institute and Karine Bates, anthropologist specializing in Indian women’s issues. David Malone, former Canadian ambassador to India, will also give a lecture.

The University of Montreal’s Summer School caters to local citizens, members of public office, journalists, business managers and members of NGOs who are interested in international issues. Graduate students are also eligible for credits at the Masters level.

For more detailed information in English click here.
For more detailed information in French click here.

Theses sessions are part of a larger set of Summer Training programs, which include: China: how it changes and changes us; The Obama presidency, Year One; Climate Change International Law; Taking stock of the Biodiversity Convention; Pluralism and Radicalisation in the Muslim-Arab World; Understanding and Preventing Terrorism and Peace Operations: Manufacturing Peace. The University of Montreal offers this week of lectures in two versions, entirely in English and entirely in French. Its center board, the CERIUM, is headed by Mr Raymond Chretien. Not coincidentally, these schools occur during Montreal’s famed Jazz Festival.

All info here: www.cerium.ca/summer
And in French: www.cerium.ca/ete

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Kwantlen researcher wins million-dollar grant to work with community on issues of youth violence

“It is much easier to keep youth out of gangs than it is to try to extract them once they are already caught up,” explains Dr. Gira Bhatt of Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey BC. “We are trying to identify factors that protect youth from ever getting involved in gangs in the first place.”

Dr. Gira Bhatt is humbled and inspired by the opportunity to direct a major research project involving ten academic researchers and 11 community groups for the next five years. Her objective is to reduce the amount of gang related youth violence in BC’s lower mainland by focusing on the positive factors that keep high-risk youth out of gangs today.

It is no coincidence that almost half the community groups involved in this project represent Surrey’s South Asian Diaspora. Over 115 youth have died due to gang related violence in BC’s lower mainland in the last 12 years, and a large majority of those victims have been Indo-Canadian. Bhatt, who was born and raised in Mumbai, has a PhD in Social Psychology from Simon Fraser University and is personally connected to the issues of ‘identity and acculturation’ that have become her life’s work. She is a research chair for the South Asian Community Coalition Against Youth Violence, which has taken a proactive stance to prevent further youth violence and support positive youth development in the South Asian community. The community will benefit directly from the project with 31 per cent of the $1 million grant going directly to the community for training and education.

The Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) provided this grant under the Community University Research Alliance program (CURA), which recognizes innovative research that is community based. In a stiff nationwide competition, it is a noteworthy accomplishment for Kwantlen Polytechnic University to receive this funding after only recently obtaining university status. In this accomplishment, it joins such prestigious company as the Université de Montréal, the University of Toronto, Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa. Kwantlen Polytechnic is also one of the newest Canadian members of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

To keep up-to-date on the progress of this project please visit the project website.

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Delhi University campus welcomes students from Saskatchewan

On May 20th, 2009, the Centre for Canadian Studies of the University of Delhi hosted 19 Canadian students from the University of Saskatchewan. During a half-day Focus Canada-India international workshop, these MBA students participated in discussions on bilateral issues surrounding business education and research, economic ties, history and culture. Three students presented at the event. Dr. V.K. Vasal, director of the Centre, presided over the workshop and was encouraged by his interactions with this eclectic young Canadian team.

The students are participants in the Edwards School of Business International Study Tour, which journeyed to India for the first time this year. During their ten-day visit, the participants aim to gain greater understanding of how companies conduct business in different parts of the world. They will be touring several companies, in addition to meeting at prestigious institutions such as the University of Delhi.

Two directors from the Edwards School of Business, Dr. Leslee Harden and Ms. Jill Salamon, joined the students in India and presented at the Focus Canada-India international workshop in Delhi. Officials from both universities agreed that they should work to deepen the relationship between their institutions and consider more student/faculty exchange and collaborative research programmes. The University of Delhi and the University of Saskatchewan share a history of collaboration involving student exchanges, summer internships and visiting professorships since the late 1990s.

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Synergy '09 Education Conference: Canada, China, India

Following the spectacular success of previous “Canada-India: A Synergy in Education” events held in 2007 and 2008, the highly anticipated sequel in 2009 will feature yet another education giant, China.

While Synergy I in 2007 brought hundreds of Canadian institutions together to discuss common objectives, challenges and opportunities, Synergy II conducted in 2008 in partnership with FICCI brought specialists from India who discussed specific vocational areas and presented joint partnership opportunities.

The Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) is delighted to announce Synergy ’09, which will feature the “who’s who” of Canada’s ‘internationalization’ efforts, be attended by the Indian and Chinese High Commissioners and will have sessions conducted or moderated by key stake holders such as:

  • Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) & Canada-China Business Council (CCBC)
  • Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities (MTCU)
  • Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade (DFAIT)
  • Canadian Education Council Network (CECN)
  • Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE)
  • Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC)
  • Association of Universities & Colleges of Canada (AUCC)
  • Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
  • Academica Group & Blakes

This landmark event will be held at Pearson Convention Center near Toronto on Sept. 17, 2009. Synergy ’09 not only highlights educational activities & opportunities in China and India, it presents unrivaled networking opportunities and is a must attend for Canadian institutions and academics interested in operating in either or both countries.

The idea behind the Synergy series is to foster an exchange of thought via a networking event to further the interests of those currently involved in or considering involvement in the ‘International’ education arena. It will also explore and share opportunities in this burgeoning sector and create an awareness by highlighting each other’s experiences and pitfalls to avoid. The conference presents an opportunity for institutions to showcase their programs and accomplishments with their peers and is a strong testament to the expansion of the “education triangle” between the three countries. Via power packed sessions, you will hear from policy makers within governments and associations and receive tips from experts active in China and India while learning about exciting opportunities, recent changes and how they may impact you.

For a detailed agenda and to register or sponsor, please visit http://www.ICEunlimited.com/Synergy2009.aspx

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The global economic downturn, G-20 and India

The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, in association with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the Canadian International Council, is pleased to invite you to a presentation on “The global economic downturn, G-20 and India,” which will assess economic policy expectations post-Indian elections.

The distinguished guest speaker will be Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Director and Chief Economist of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), one of India’s leading independent economic policy think tanks. He is a member of the Boards of the State Bank of India and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and was Chief Economist of the Confederation of Indian Industry and a member of the National Security Advisory Board. Dr. Kumar has served at the Asian Development Bank and as Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance. He has authored many books and is an active columnist.

This event, as part of ICCC’s Distiguished Speaker Series, will be held Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 6:00 pm, registration at 5:30 pm at the McGill Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish Street, Montréal H3A 1X9.
A reception will follow.

ICCC, APFC, CIC members have free admission, and there is a $10 change for non-members (cash only).

Please RSVP to

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How Will Disenfranchised Peoples Adapt to Climate Change?

Fourteen community activists and activist scientists from Brazil, India, South Africa and Arctic Canada gathered at York University April 16 -17 for an international conference: Strengthening the Ecojustice Movement: How Will Disenfranchised Peoples Adapt to Climate Change? They shared stories about their local vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change, and discussed strategies for addressing inequities in climate change causation, mitigation, funding, education and global/local politics.

Three Indian participants shared their input at the conference: Prof. Joyashree Roy, Head of the Department of Economics at Jadavpur University (Kolkatta), Vivek Jha from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Delhi, and Chaitanya Kumar from the Indian Youth Climate Network, a Hyderabad-based coalition uniting Indian youth and Indian youth-oriented organizations who are concerned about climate change. Their unique perspectives provided a sample of the many different issues being faced in India, and the different types of people interested in fighting climate change.

Arctic Canada was also represented by three participants: Joe Linklater, Chief of the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation, Yukon, who has considerable experience building and implementing public policy and First Nation self-governance, Andy Norwegian, a Language Specialist with the Deh Cho Divisional Educational Council, Northwest Territories, and Aaju Peter, who graduated from Akitsiraq Law School and was recently called to the bar. She advocates for Inuit rights to seal and sealskin products as well as the Inuit right to be involved in issues related to Arctic waters.

The conference was sponsored by York University’s Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). It sought to address how specific peoples from four disparate nations around the globe may address common concerns on the impact of climate change. The participants came from very different regions and different cultures, but found common issues and solidarity from which to build new understanding about how to address and adapt to climate changes. Their collective efforts have enabled them to better raise their mutual concerns with politicians, industry, academics, and the general public by sending out the message that these concerns are global and not just local to individual nations or disenfranchised peoples within them. However, these peoples may be the most vulnerable and bear the brunt of environmental changes that will affect their ways of life for generations to come.

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SFU field school update

Simon Fraser University is happy to announce that its Fall 2009 Field School to India will now also include a non-credit option. Non-credit participants are invited to join the field school either for 3 weeks (Sept. 26-Oct. 17: Delhi, Agra and Fatepur Sikri) or for the full programme (Sept. 8 – Nov. 18). For more information, please visit the programme website by clicking here.

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New publication

Prof. Papia Sengupta, Canadian Studies Faculty Research Fellow of the Shastri Institute, has recently been published in the International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations. Her paper entitled “Linguistic Diversity and Economic Disparity: An Issue for Multiculturalism in India,” addresses the discord between majority and minority linguistic groups in India, arising due to the latter progressing faster than the former, and presenting a set of wider issues which need to be adequately addressed by multiculturalism.

Sengupta, who is an assistant professor of Political Science in Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, has also been invited to present her paper at the Ninth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations in Riga, Latvia, June 16-19, 2009. The Conference examines the concept of diversity as a positive aspect of a global world and globalised society.

A copy of Sengupta’s paper may be purchased for a reasonable rate at the following site: http://ondiversity.com/journal/publications/

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Shastri News - April 2009

Contents

Earlier deadline for major grants

Millennium Development Goals Research Grant
Application deadline: August 31, 2009.

Our service/communications survey results indicate that most of you prefer applying for grants during the summer months. In response to this feedback we will be revising the deadlines for our grants in 2009-2010. Please stay tuned as many deadlines will be coming earlier than in previous years. Upcoming grant details and application forms will be posted on our website by the end of May. Please feel free to contact our offices throughout the application process if you have any questions or concerns. At this time all grants are still subject to the approval of our budget.

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IIT Bombay hosts Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet

“We have much more to offer each other, sharing economic opportunities, investment links, and research collaborations in this great global marketplace we share with all its potential for partnerships. As both India and Canada deal with the urgent challenges of global recession, let us not lose sight of this tremendous potential that lies ahead, and the opportunity to strengthen our partnerships.” ~ Kevin Lynch

On March 19, 2009, The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay hosted Mr. Kevin Lynch, Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, who provides non-partisan advice and support to the Prime Minister of Canada. Mr. Lynch was accompanied by his wife, the Consul General Mr.Gary Luton and other consulate staff.

During his time at IIT Bombay, Mr. Lynch met with the Director, Professor Devang Khakhar, the Deputy Director, deans, faculty members and student leaders. In his address at round table discussions, Mr. Lynch noted that, “one of the challenges India and Canada share is how to continually ramp up the quality of our academic institutions and the excellence of their research capacity to meet the fierce competition of the global market-place.” He sees much promise for Indo-Canadian collaboration and stresses that, “we have much more to offer each other, sharing economic opportunities, investment links, and research collaborations in this great global marketplace we share with all its potential for partnerships. As both India and Canada deal with the urgent challenges of global recession, let us not lose sight of this tremendous potential that lies ahead, and the opportunity to strengthen our partnerships.”

IIT Bombay already holds several Memorandums of Understanding with Canadian Universities, and looks forward to building stronger connections.

For a more detailed account of Mr. Lynche’s address at IIT Bombay, please click here.

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Student field school in India - Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University (SFU) invites students from across Canada to participate in its field school in India on Contemporary Arts this fall. Students will discover a mix of cultures rich with history and tradition as they engage India’s theater, visual arts, music, film, and dance. Based in Delhi, the students will travel throughout Northern India from India’s holiest city to the epicenter of Indian film. The programme promises to be anything but the ordinary for students pursuing a truly non-traditional learning experience.

Field School Director: Professor Patricia Gruben, School for the Contemporary Arts

Application Deadline: May 26, 2009

For course information, timelines, cost, and funding opportunities, please see the field school brochure or visit SFU’s Website.

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Lester Pearson lecture series draws crowd at UDSC

On April 24, 2009, the University of Delhi held its 15th annual Lester Pearson Lecture at the South Campus in New Delhi. Dr. V. K. Vasal, Director of the Center for Canadian Studies, introduced the Lester Pearson lecture series as the most prestigious event amongst the multiple activities organized by the Center throughout the year. Prof. Malashri Lal, Joint Director of the University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC) , delivered the welcome address and, as per traditions of the Center, H. E. Mr. Kenneth Macartney, Acting High Commissioner of Canada in India, read a citation in honor of Mr. Lester Pearson, former Prime Minister of Canada. Prof. Dinesh Singh, Director of UDSC, delivered his presidential address and invited the speaker Mr. Pavan K. Varma, Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relation (ICCR) of the Government of India.

Mr. Varma spoke on the topic ‘Culture, Identity and Globalization.’ After an exposition of key terms, he highlighted the important role of culture in determining the identity of a person. In this regard, he emphasized the need to preserve culture. Mr.Varma sparked discussion by proposing that increasing globalization potentially challenges the survivability of ancient cultures, such as that of India, and thereby the identity of a person.

Over 100 diplomats, bureaucrats, academicians, researchers, students and community members attended the lecture.

The Center for Canadian Studies at the University of Delhi would also like to recognize the team of gifted students from Lady Shri Ram College for Women who won the Centre’s eighth Pierre Trudeau Memorial Debate this February. This year’s debate grappled with the idea that, ‘the rise in Fundamentalism is a sure sign that a melting-pot approach is preferable to a multicultural one.’ We at the Shastri Institute would also like to offer our congratulations.

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Publisher/Distributor seeks Indo-Canadian author to write on the Komagata Maru incident

Formac Lorimer Books is seeking an Indo-Canadian author to write a 120 page account of the 1914 Komagata Maru incident. The work would be part of a series of non-fiction books for teens dealing with events in Canadian history where the government based its policies, decisions and actions on racist or cultural prejudices. For each book they have contracted authors from the cultural background of the historical victims.

The desired work will have a high interest/low vocabulary style, aiming at about a grade five reading level but a grade 8-12 audience. The work should include an account of the situation of Indian immigration into Canada prior to the Komagata Maru incident and a narrative of what happened to some of the passengers aboard the vessel. Ideally, the author will also be able to relate the impact of these experiences to subsequent generations. The book will close with an outline of Indian immigration policies since 1914, discussing how the government apology and reparations came about.

All interest/queries should be directed to:

Pam Hickman
Children’s Acquisitions Editor

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Impact of the economic crisis on Asian developing economies

Mr. Rajat Nag, Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is currently the most senior Canadian serving in one of the Bretton Woods international financial institutions. He visited the University of Ottawa on April 23 to lecture on Asian developing economies and the impact of the current global economic crisis. The session attracted over 80 professors, senior University of Ottawa professionals, diplomats, Canadian government officials, members of the NGO community and students.

The main message conveyed by Mr. Nag was that the financial meltdown in the West has led to a sharp recession of the real economy in Asia and the Pacific, which will last at least until 2010 or early 2011. As a result of the recession millions of people are unemployed and have slid back into poverty. The ADB supports national governments’ credit and fiscal stimulus packages to prevent the rise of social unrest, which can then feed political instability.

For the last three decades, rapid growth in Asia and the Pacific has led to a drastic reduction of poverty from 1 among 3 to 1 among 5 Asian citizens. This has been unprecedented and not achieved in other regions such as Africa and Latin America…

The current global crisis has led in 2008-09 to a sharp decline in growth impacting people’s lives, especially the lives of the poor. The crisis will keep more than 60 million people in developing Asia—including 14 million in China and 24 million in India—trapped in absolute poverty this year, and nearly 100 million more in 2010. These are people in Asia who would have otherwise been freed from the shackles of poverty had economic growth continued at pre-crisis levels…

A recent ADB/UNESCAP/UNDP study suggests that economic growth reduces both income and non-income poverty, although its impact on the latter is weaker. If these relationships hold, a 3 percentage point reduction in the region’s GDP growth rate in 2009 translates into about 10 million more undernourished people, over 56,000 more deaths of children under 5 years, and 2,000 more mothers dying at childbirth. This also implies a delay of one year in achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets relating to infant mortality and hunger. The ADB emphasizes the need for protecting social expenditures during these years of economic crisis.

To read all of Mr. Nag’s speech, please click here.

The University of Ottawa is already arranging to have Mr. Nag give a follow-up lecture this fall. In the meantime, the University is continuing a productive dialogue with ADB’s Washington office on developing cooperation and linkages with the School of International Development and Global Studies (SIDGS).

If you are an academic (Indian or Canadian) whose research has the potential to impact Millennium Development Goals, we strongly encourage you to consider applying for our Millennium Development Goals Research Grant.

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York welcomes filmmaker, musicians from India for celebration of poet-saint Kabir

The poet-saint Kabir was once again inspiring a new generation at York University in March when the South Asian Studies Programme and the York Centre for Asian Research hosted the ‘Joruneys with Kabir’ event series. It featured Indian filmmaker Shabnam Virmani and award-winning Indian vocalist Prahlad Singh Tipanya and his ensemble. Three films and a concert were highlights of the visit, which also included visits to undergraduate classes. The events were held on 16-17 March 2009 at York University.

Kabir, one of India’s great religious poets, lived in Varanasi in the fifteenth century and remains extremely popular within and beyond the large Hindi-speaking areas of North India today. Over the centuries the body of work attributed to Kabir has grown, due to the dynamic and fluid nature of oral tradition. In far-flung regions, Kabir is sung in different dialects and local musical styles among various communities.

Kabir was unclassifiable as Hindu, Muslim, or yogi, though he bore marks of all these traditions. He belonged to a family of Muslim julahas (weavers of shudra caste status) and is believed by many to have been the disciple of the Hindu guru Ramanand. Fiercely independent, he has become an icon of speaking truth to power. Often abrasive and uncompromising, he exhorted his listeners to shed their delusions, pretensions, and orthodoxies in favour of an intense, direct confrontation with the truth.

The tour arose from the Kabir Project, a Ford Foundation-funded project that began in 2003. It brings together the experiences of a series of journeys in quest of this 15th century mystic poet in our contemporary worlds. For more information, visit http://www.kabirproject.org.

The stop at York University was one of three Canadian stops on a two-month North American tour organized by Professor Linda Hess of Stanford University. Hess is also the subject of one of Virmani’s Kabir films, Chalo Hamara Des: Journeys with Kabir & Friends, which unfolds through the interwoven narratives of two people from two very different countries – Dalit folk singer Prahlad Tipanya and Hess. Three of the four documentaries that Virmani wrote, produced and directed for the Kabir Project were shown to enthusiastic audiences with lively discussion.

“Most importantly, we had an excellent community turnout,” said Nijhawan. Positive media coverage means that interviews with the tour members have and will be shown across Ontario and North America.

The event would not have been possible without the support provided by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, Scotiabank, Office of the Vice-President Academic and Provost, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Social Science and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

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Himachal Pradesh welcomes Canada Research Chair

The Centre for Canadian Studies Development Programme (CSDP) in Shimla was happy to welcome Dr. Henning Bjornlund, Canada Research Chair in Water and the Economy at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, during his recent visit to northern India. Dr Bjornlund is an internationally recognized authority on irrigation water management who specializes in the use of economic instruments. He has published widely in this field and is currently editing a new book entitled ‘Incentives and Instruments for Sustainable Irrigation.’

During Dr. Bjornlund’s visit, the CSDP Centre in Shimla arranged for him to lecture at the Dr. Y. S. Parmar University of Forestry and Horticulture in Nauni, Solan. Dr. Bjorn spoke on ‘Sustainable Irrigation – Lessons from the past’ with dignitaries on the Dias including Professor K. S. Verma, Vibeke Bjornlund and Professor K. K. Kaushik, Director CSDP Shimla.

In his presentation, Dr. Bjornlund discussed how a number of early irrigation systems in the world have proven sustainable for thousands of years. Some of them are still sustainable today, but many have not survived the confrontation with modern irrigation technologies, while others are currently under threat. Dr. Bjornlund provided examples from Oman, Bali, and Iraq and led a discussion on the lessons that can be applied to today’s irrigation challenges.

Following their stay in Shimla(April 21-25, 2009) Dr. Bjornlund and Mrs. Bjorlund flew to Oman where he is currently conducting a research project funded by the Royal Geographical Society in London.

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New appointment for Ratna Ghosh

Professor Ratna Ghosh, current recipient of a Shastri Institute Millennium Development Goals Research Grant, has been elected to a three year term by the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) of the United States. She will be Vice-President, President-Elect through 2010 and President in 2011. We would like to offer our congratulations as we continue to support Professor Ghosh in her world-class research initiatives.

CIES was founded in 1956 to foster cross-cultural understanding, scholarship, academic achievement and societal development through the international study of educational ideas, systems, and practices. The Society’s members include more than 2000 academics, practitioners, and students from around the world.

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Shastri News - March 2009

Contents

Shastri Institute Photo Competition Results

The Shastri Institute would like to thank all those who submitted photos to our photo competition this year. The submissions depict some of the quality work being done by scholars and students in India and Canada. We invite you to visit our Photo Gallery on the Shastri Institute website for the competition results. Congratulations to Prabjit Barn, Shastri Institute Youth Intern, who was our competition winner.

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Award Announcements

This month the Shastri Institute distributed its bi-national research-based awards. The response to these grant competitions was overwhelming this year and we would like to congratulate the successful award recipients for standing out among so many exceptional applications.

Partnership Development Seed Grants

This grant serves as a catalyst for new partnerships between Canadian and Indian academics by sponsoring activities such as workshops, seminars, conferences and planning meetings that bring the two partners together. The goal of this grant is to build awareness of collaborative opportunities, to promote sharing of knowledge and expertise and to showcase Canada-India research. Five grants were distributed this year to the following projects:

Dr. Karanjot Kaur Brar and Dr. Smita Bhutani, Panjab University, and Dr. Elizabeth Finnis, University of Guelph
Women and Sustainable Agriculture: Experiences from the Field

Dr. Phil Dearden, University of Victoria, and Drs. Rajesh Tandon and K.B. Kaustuv, Participatory Research in Asia
Creating an India-Canada Community-based Research Partnership Program for Environmental and Social Sustainability

Dr. Purnima George, Ryerson University, and Dr. Mary Alphonse, University of Mumbai
Partnership Development between the University of Mumbai College of Social Work and Ryerson University School of Social Work

Dr. M. Parameswaran, Simon Fraser University, and Dr. V. Lakshminaryan, Raman Research Institute
Collaborative Research and Development of Micro-Fluidic Unit for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infantile Diarrheal Epidemic in Indian Rural Areas

Dr. Robin Wright, University of Windsor, and Dr. Santiago Joseph, Bharathidasan University
Tamil Nadu Child and Family Health Study: Socioeconomic Factors Interrelatedness to Health Status and Quality of Life of Children and Mothers in Triuchirappalli and Four Adjacent Districts



Millennium Development Goals Research Grant

This grant provides funds to a bi-national research team to undertake a two year public policy relevant research project towards one or more of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This year the following project was funded:

Dr. Ratna Ghosh, McGill University, and Dr. Paromita Chakravarti, Jadavpur University
Women’s Empowerment and Education: Panchayats and Women’s Self Help Groups in India

The Millennium Development Goals Research Grant and the Partnership Development Seed Grants are funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

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On the Map...

Have you ever wondered where the Shastri Institute is represented within India and Canada? We have over 80 well-reputed member institutions of higher learning spread across both countries. Learn more about them through our new interactive map available on our website.

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A Life-Changing Opportunity for Two Budding Academics

A year ago, Katie Shaw and Cornelia Dragne were graduate students at the University of Victoria and India was a place far removed from their minds. Their studies, however, led them both to join a research team with a bi-national, India-Canada scope. The impact of this project changed both their lives.


The project, a comparative study of the formal and informal political learning of women, required the students to conduct interviews with female elected officials both in India and in Canada. Katie learned of the opportunity through the key investigators, Drs. Darlene Clover and Catherine McGregor, who were also her MA supervisors. Cornelia was attracted to the project because of her focus on women and education. Neither student had ever conducted research abroad before December of last year when they boarded a plane to India for the first time.

Besides the initial culture shock, both women acknowledge that the most challenging aspect of conducting interviews in rural India was not speaking the local languages. They were interviewing anywhere from two to thirty women at a time with the help of a translator. Cornelia describes a common situation where, “the women were so eager to share their thoughts that they would all talk at once for several minutes and afterward the translator would try to summarize the conversation …It was hard not to feel like you were missing a lot.” These challenges were easier to overcome thanks to the team’s partnership with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). Having partners who were embedded in the culture and were able to prepare details prior to the team’s arrival was an incredible asset for which Cornelia and Katie were most grateful.

For Katie, the experience has built an awareness of the challenges that women face balancing politics with childcare, education and personal health. She was intrigued by how pivotal family approval was for the successful political activism of women in both countries. Since her personal studies focus on youth engagement, she also took note of the inter-generational impact of their research. The project has made her consider pursuing career paths in international fields.

As a PhD Student working hard on her thesis, Cornelia was surprised at how much the women of India boosted her moral.

As an academic, I sometimes wonder how much difference my work can really make. At first impression, the obstacles facing the women I met seemed almost insurmountable, but the women were not discouraged, they showed an incredible amount of agency and optimism… It was a transformative learning experience. ~ Cornelia Dragne

This project has been funded in part by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

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India Welcomes Two Canadian Visiting Lecturers

Two distinguished scholars from Canada toured India in February as the Shastri Institute’s visiting lecturers. Dr. Daniel Drache, Professor of Political Science at York University and Associate Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, arrived in Delhi February 8. He traveled from Delhi to Bangalore lecturing on international markets, globalization and public movements at 11 universities and Canadian Studies centres along the way. Professor Drache drew from his new book, Defiant Publics, to offer timely insight on American politics from a Canadian perspective. His lectures captured the attention of faculty, research students, social activists, artists and postgraduate students.

Ms. Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a distinguished Canadian Anishinaabe writer and an authority on aboriginal literature and art. Her stories and poetry pay homage to the story-telling traditions of the First Nations people. During her February visit to India Akiwenzie-Damm spoke on contemporary First Nations art, drama and literature at ten different universities and Canadian Studies centres. She delivered the Keynote Address at a two-day International Seminar on ‘The Reality of the Indigenous Woman: Canada and India’ at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

Both academics had the opportunity to lecture at the reputed Reaney Canadian Centre at Gujarat University around the time of the James Reaney Memorial Seminar. The Seminar was held to pay tribute to James Reaney, a decorated literary and theatrical Canadian figure who supported the Centre through a donation of his personal library. Reaney passed away in June 2008 at the age of 81. Gujarat University held a Memorial Seminar on February 17, 2009. The dignitaries on the dias were Ms. Kateri Akwenzie, Dr. O. P. Juneja, a well known Canadianist, and Dr. S. D. Desai, a well-known drama critic. Dr. Daniel Drache lectured at the Reaney Canadian Centre three days earlier.

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Addressing Obstacles in Canada - India Academic Relationships

In November 2007, the Canadian Bureau of International Education organized, along with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a Forum on Canada-India Higher Education Linkages. At that Forum, it became evident that Canadian post-secondary institutions conducting academic business with and in India are facing a number of problems, both operational and policy-related. Just around that time, the Asia Pacific Foundation commissioned a number of papers dealing with these issues, a selection of which can be found here.

February 2009, a group of 25 people involved with Canadian post-secondary institutions doing academic business in and with India met in Banff to address the major obstacles that prevent Canadian post-secondaries from being as successful as our competitors in our Indian ventures. (Many thanks to HRSDC for funding this workshop, and to Kathleen Scherf, President and Vice-Chancellor, Thompson River University, for organizing the event). Most commentators agree that the scattershot, unorganized approach that Canadian post-secondaries have taken in order to advance their individual projects is not a hallmark of the more successful nations doing academic business in India, such as Australia, France, and the UK. Accordingly, this results-based workshop focused on what Canadian post-secondaries could do collaboratively to improve the field for all. The participants chose to focus on developing strategies to address a small number of very serious obstacles, concentrating their efforts where they will provide the greatest leverage. Participants were heartened by the convergence of various interests in improving the performance of Canada’s Indian international education portfolio, from changes in CIC student visa policy and procedure, to the preponderance of federal and provincial delegations visiting India, to Minister Kenney’s recent announcement that Canada will seek to increase its numbers of Indian students studying in Canada.

The Banff Roadmap, February 2009 presents the participants’ assessment of the most serious obstacles, and their proposed strategies for addressing them. For the full text document please click here.

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The Ontario Maharashtra Goa (OMG) Student Exchange Program

Lalu Mansinha
Academic Director

A substantial increase in student interest in the Ontario Maharashtra Goa (OMG) Student Exchange Program fortuitously coincides with the opening of the OMG India Office, located in the newly opened International Center of Pune University. For 2009-10 we are seeing a breadth of student applications in architecture, law, mining and mechanical engineering, visual arts, political science, human rights, women’s rights, and development issues.

Each selected student on the OMG program is awarded a bursary of $2000 (for one term) or $2500 (for two terms). Member institutions do not charge tuition fees to OMG exchange students, both in India and in Canada. For the OMG students from Maharashtra/ Goa, the tuition scholarship is substantial, amounting to about $12,000/ year at Ontario universities. For more information please visit http://www.omgprogram.org

A student writes after spending a term in Ontario on the OMG Exchange Program:
“I have returned to India after my fall semester but I am so much amazed by my experience that I want to go back for the winter semester…. I would like to thank on behalf of all the OMG participants for giving us such a LIFE time opportunity to study in one of the finest universities of Canada.”

A mother in Canada contacted me in November 2008, worried about her son at Pune University. I met John Quillevere (not his real name) at Pune in the campus apartment which he was sharing with a group of French students. Here are excerpts from my letter to John’s mother;

I saw a handsome happy smiling young man, completely at ease in India. He loves the country and the people. He eats off the street vendors; he walks around and explores the slums. And everywhere people warm up to him. In his explorations of the slums, so many times he has been invited into their homes, offered instant hospitality, food and drinks, by complete strangers. John noted that in Canada people do not talk to strangers. ‘In Pune’, he says, ‘they strike up conversations with me anywhere’. So he has lots of friends, in class and out. John expressed appreciation of the OMG program for allowing him this opportunity to study in India.

With the recent appointment of Ms. Vaishali Potnis as the OMG India Program Coordinator, based in Pune, we expect a significant increase in interest in the OMG Exchange Program in Maharashtra and Goa. We are also helped by the Canada Education Center (CEC), with Maria Mathai in the Delhi office. Suchita Tirkey, of the CEC Bangalore office is a part time OMG Program Consultant. In Ontario Agnes Poleszczuk, assisted by Dagmar Todd administer the program from offices provided by York University. The original concept and the initial structure of OMG were initiated by Dr. Sheila Embleton and Dr. Roopa Trilokekar of York University. John Manning of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Government, of Ontario, has been unfailing in his support of international student mobility programs at Ontario universities.

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Senior Curator of the Canadian Museum of Civilization visits India

Dr. Stephen Inglis, Senior Curator of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, has recently returned from a trip to India to give the keynote address at a conference titled: “The Representation of Region and Nation in Literary and Cultural Studies.” The conference was held at Madras University and was organized by Canadian Studies stalwart Professor S. Armstrong of the English Department. Dr. Inglis took the opportunity to visit faculty involved in Canadian Studies at Madurai-Kamaraj University in Madurai. While passing through Delhi, he met with Joint Secretary, Ms. Gaitri Kumar (Foreign Affairs) and Joint Secretary Mr. V. Madan (Culture) to discuss the possibility of a “Festival of India” in Canada in 2010-11.

I made good progress through meetings with archivists, scholars, collectors and artists on my research on popular art in 20th century South India, particularly toward a biography of K. Madhavan, cinema banner, calendar and magazine cover artist (1907-1979). ~ Dr. Stephen Inglis

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New Publication

A new article based on research funded by the Shastri Institute SHARP programme has recently been published:

Agriculture in Uttarakhand, India – Biodiversity, Nutrition and Livelihoods, by Mohammad Rais, Bohumir Pazderka and Gary vanLoon in the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 33, 1-17 (2009).

Full text available here.

This paper emphasizes the need to develop policies that will continue to support the rich agrobiodiversity of the hill regions of North India while providing for nutritional and economic needs of the population. It appears in the March edition of the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture.

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Call for Papers: International Conference on “Policy, People and Peace"

In May 12-14, 2009 the University of Jammu will be holding an international conference on “Policy, People and Peace : Democratization of Foreign Policy and Participatory Democracy in Canada and India.” This DFAIT-supported interdisciplinary conference will be held in collaboration with McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, under the auspices of the Centre for New Literatures, Culture and Communication, University of Jammu. It will address important key issues such as: Peace-keeping Policies and Practices; Peace-building through Participatory Democracy and Development; International Peace-keeping operation and peace-enforcements in troubled areas; the Role of NGOs and local bodies, associations and organizations in generating peace-keeping consciousness especially in women and the youth, both in Canada and India.

Abstracts (300 words) are invited and these may be sent by April 15, 2009 to:

Professor Posh Charak,
Director, Centre for New Literatures, Culture and Communication
University of Jammu
Jammu-180006 (India) Tel.: +9419797219

Also welcome to contact Professor Rama Singh, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton or Professor Chandra Mohan , Academic Advisor
(+9810683143)

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march email pics

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Shastri News - February 2009

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Shastri Grant and Award Winners Announced

Grant to Promote Instruction in an Indian Language

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Ranbir Johal, Department of Modern Languages, has been awarded $8,000 to develop a course in Punjabi (Punjabi 3301) through which students will be able to study literature written by Canadian Punjabi writers.

York University
Ian Smith, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, has been awarded $8,000 to develop a course on Tamil Language and Culture.

Grant to Develop a Canada/India Joint Course

Athabasca University (Alberta) and the University of Madras (Tamil Nadu)
Drs Evelyn Ellerman and Bharathi Harishankar have been awarded $8,000 to collaborate on the development of a senior level comparative course in Indian and Canadian film.

McMaster University (Ontario) and the University of Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir)
Drs Rama Singh and Posh Charak have been awarded $8,000 to collaborate on the development of a course on “Mahila Shanti Sena: A constructive peace movement led by women” which will be made available in Canada and India in alternate years.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Student Awards for Outstanding Essays and Papers on India

Meera Varghese received this year’s graduate prize for her paper on: “Becoming the Goddess: Dance and Embodiment of Feminine Identity in the Indo-Canadian Diaspora.” Meera Varghese is a graduate of the MA Ethnomusicology program at the University of Alberta and is a Bharatanatyam performer and teacher.

Backstage at the Frederic Wood Theatre in Vancouver, Vidya Kotamraju sits facing her reflection in the dressing room mirror. Her Bharatanatyam guru, Jai Govinda, has meticulously laid out her silk dance costume, temple jewellery, make-up, and garlands of orange and white flowers. With a playful smile, he makes a grand gesture towards Vidya and declares: “At 7:00, I’m going to change this into a Goddess…” (PDF full text)

Gurdeeshpal Randhawa received this year’s undergraduate prize for his paper on: “Implications of Partition and Colonial British Policy for Modern India.”

The departure of the British Raj was not just a triumph for Indian nationalism but also a testament to a centuries-long defiance by Indian society against Colonial Britain’s Manifest Destiny. Every August 15th, in the midst of India’s monsoon season her skies are littered with kites and flags and her streets reverberate with patriotic songs as she celebrates her independence. However, while India annually pays tribute to her acquisition of autonomy, she often fails to recognize and remember the bloodshed that characterized her first few months of independence…(PDF full text)

More Student Excellence Award Profiles

Adam Malloy
After living in Darjeeling, India for four years, where he worked with rural communities to improve education for marginalized children, Adam Malloy returned to Canada to complete his own education. As an undergraduate student of Social Justice and Peace Studies at King’s University College, Adam has devoted much of his studies to social, political and economic issues in India. He will be using the Shastri award to further his research on Ghandian nonviolence, specifically as it is employed in the struggle for an independent Gorkhaland, and other current and active social resistance movements in India.

Karen Rideout
Karen Rideout is a PhD Candidate in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems at The University of British Columbia. This program allows her to combine her background in nutrition and environmental and public health with her love of food, farming, and other cultures. Karen’s dissertation Growing communities: (Re)embedding people in the food system in India and Canada examines ways to shorten the physical and conceptual distance between producers and consumers of food as a route to counteract some of the social, ecological, and health problems of modern diets. She is examining how visionaries and activists are working to preserve traditional foods, ways of production, and the place of food in local culture. “I am very thankful to receive this Student Excellence Award, which will help finance one of the most important phases of my PhD dissertation research – follow-up and feedback – in late 2009. I plan to bring my preliminary results back to the people with whom I worked, to share the outcomes of the research and to ensure that I represent them accurately in my final thesis.”

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IASL McGill Helps Initiate India’s First Air and Space Law Centre

McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL) in Montreal is helping to establish India’s first Air and Space Law Centre at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (RMLNLU) in Lucknow. The centre, which is currently being established, will admit about 50 students for a proposed six-month undergraduate certificate and two-year LLM degree programme. This degree will qualify students to become legal experts for national and international airlines, space-related enterprises, or for organizations like the Indian Space Research Organization.

RMLNLU is seeking help from McGill’s IASL (the world’s oldest and the leading air and space law educational institution) to train their faculty members in this new field. In addition, RMLNLU’s two-year LLM degree programme will include four months at McGill University where students will obtain IASL’s Graduate Certificate in Air and Space Law before continuing their studies in Lucknow. Prof. Balraj Chauban, Director of RMLNLU would like to begin the programme as soon as possible and expects all the required formalities to be completed by April of this year. The IASL is also helping RMLNLU in the organisation of an international air and space law conference in December 2009 in Lucknow.

Professor Ram Jakhu of IASL at McGill visited RMLNLU in January and is optimistic about the potential for collaboration on this initiative. He spoke on the global emergence of the field of Air and Space Law to an audience of faculty, students and administrative staff. He also carried out a study on “The Case for Enhanced India-Canada Space Cooperation” with funding from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF). His final report is available on APF’s website and will also be published in the first issue of Space Policy 2009.

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Research Opportunities in Udaipur

After a constructive visit to Udaipur last January, Dr. Madhumita Bhattacharya is eager to explore further research and development opportunities with her associates at the Vidya Bhavan Society, an organization that seeks to provide quality education to underprivileged sections of society. Dr. Bhattacharya, from the Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University in Alberta, was invited by the Society to conduct workshops with their teachers, principals, and researchers on the topic of diversity amongst learners of the 21st century. She was encouraged by their keenness to learn and integrate new ideas. During her trip Dr. Bhattacharya also visited some of the local schools and was impressed with their implementation of strategies to teach practical skills and self sufficiency. She was able to discuss new teaching prospects with many of the teachers she met.

Some of the research areas that Dr. Bhattacharya identified during her visits include gender equity in education, introduction of technology in education in rural India, bringing classroom learning to the community, and creating a self-sustainable system of education. Dr. Bhattacharya has currently proposed a research project on gender equity. She plans to assess the language and content of classroom textbooks and teacher/community attitudes towards male and female students in primary schools in Udaipur to determine their impact on the sustainability of female education.

In another research project she plans to use mobile technologies to deliver learning materials to children from low socio-economic backgrounds to assess their learning outcomes. She has communicated with Nokia India in this regard, and is currently exploring the possibilities of funding from other organizations. Dr. Bhattacharya is interested to hear from possible research collaborators, sponsors and research students both from Canada and India who would like to be involved in these endeavors. She can be contacted by email at .

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Shastri Institute Canadian Studies Library Launches Union Catalogue

We are pleased to announce the launch of our much-anticipated online catalogue to promote resource sharing among Canadian Studies libraries throughout India. The catalogue, which is now accessible through the homepage of our website, currently contains an extensive database of books. We are working to build on this foundation by incorporating periodical articles, theses and dissertations, CDs, videos, and a database of Indian specialists on Canadian Studies.

The development of this catalogue has required much time and effort from Reshma Rana, In-charge of the Canadian Studies Library in Delhi. We would like to also recognize the three Canadian interns, Tara Mawhinney, Fiona Harbour, and Ariel Lebowitz who contributed to the collection of data and to the Directors of Area Studies Centres at Delhi University, SNDT, Kerala University and MS Baroda University who facilitated the interns and the librarian during their data collection visits. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) Canada has provided funding for this initiative.

As a Canadian Studies library intern in 2005-06, I had the opportunity to travel to eight Canadian Studies centres across India to catalogue their books, which are now included in Shastri Institute’s online union catalogue. The experience was very enriching both personally and professionally. I learnt a lot, met many great people and was able to share my interest in Canadian Studies and librarianship with others pursuing similar scholarly work. My time in India provided the essential work experience I needed to become a librarian at McGill University, instilled in me a life-long love of travel, and left me with lots of wonderful memories! ~ Tara Mawhinney, Intern 2005-2006

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Guelph University Succeeds with its Semester in India

Study-in-India programmes provide invaluable opportunities for Canadian undergraduate students, but they are also challenging for most universities to oversee. They require extensive administration, committed faculty, strong connections in India, and a pool of informed and interested students. After almost two decades of running its semester abroad in India, Guelph University has managed to develop a strong and healthy programme. Guelph’s secret: catering to a broad student base by offering a variety of courses, a full semester of credits, and an opportunity to explore India from north to south.

This year Guelph University received an overwhelming 80 applications for its 2010 Semester in India programme. From this pool they will select around 25 students to travel with two faculty members for 14 weeks living and studying as a group in India. Guelph offers the programme every other year and has yet to have difficulty recruiting students to participate.

“We always offer the course during the winter semester,” expains Dr. Gauri Mittal, current Programme Chair, “because the climate in India is more accommodating at that time. We start in the south, in January and February and move northward in later months to take advantage of the best possible weather.” Simple details like these go a long way in ensuring that students have good experiences. Along with courses on development, religion, history, language and the arts, Guelph offers at least one hard science course each term so that science majors can participate and return to Canada with credits applicable to their majors. This has certainly added to the success of the programme since around 30 per cent of the applications they receive come from students outside the social sciences and humanities. The programme also provides students opportunities to integrate into host families and visit a wide variety of local charities and historical sites.

Guelph deals with its biggest programme challenges – health and safety – by informing students of the risks and encouraging male coordinators to bring their wives to India to provide support and care to the predominantly female student participants. Guelph also tries to ensure that finances do not hinder students from applying by making the programme affordable and putting costs in perspective. The student expenses for the programme totals around $7000, but if students consider how much they spend during a typical semester on tuition, rent, food, and other living expenses, they usually find that the cost is quite reasonable.

Thomas Able, a participant from 2008, claims that his time in India contributed to “the best year of [his] life.” He found that the programme offered a more dynamic and culturally interactive approach to learning and, as an International Development major; he felt that the trip “reaffirmed [his] interest in the Global South.”

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UVic and PRIA find Strength in Collaboration

A delegation from the University of Victoria (UVic) is meeting with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) this February to discuss current and potential collaborative initiatives. Since 2004, UVic has been sending student interns to PRIA under a programme funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. This programme led to a reciprocal internship for PRIA staff at UVic and to a Memorandum of Understanding in 2007. As they build on that milestone, these institutions plan to continue exchanging interns, conducting joint research and implementing joint courses. They are currently working on an online course to provide training and development to people working in civil society all over the world.

Collaborating with PRIA has proven to be an effective way for UVic to add new levels to its research and teaching capabilities. Heather McRae, Programme Director at UVic, explains that, “the University of Victoria and PRIA build on each others’ skills and learn throughout the process. PRIA brings to the partnership its years of experience supporting democracy and social change through its work with community groups, government agencies and individuals at the grass roots level.” The University of Victoria has the academic experience and administrative capabilities to help train PRIA staff and manage online courses with an international scope. “For UVic, this is an opportunity to work with a well-respected and recognized NGO, connecting theory with practice in the development of community-based research, knowledge mobilization and in facilitating the student experience through research internships and exchanges,” says McRae.

The current UVic delegation follows an ongoing flow of exchanges that they deem necessary to the maintenance of a healthy and lasting relationship. Participants in the delegation include Dr. Budd Hall, Director, Office of Community-based Research; Dr. Darlene Clover, Professor, Faculty of Education; Dr. Maureen McDonald, Dean of Continuing Studies and Dr. Evert Lindquist, Director, School of Public Administration.

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India-Canada Collaborations in Cancer Care Set Sail

PORT, a national Psychosocial Oncology Research Training programme in Canada is developing exciting new collaborations with oncology centres in Bangalore, India. Dr. Carmen G. Loiselle, PORT Programme Leader, recently initiated academic exchanges with Indian colleagues at NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences) and at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bangalore. PORT expects these exchanges to foster the development of new research and clinical practices by bringing together individuals from various disciplines who are committed to improving cancer care. The projects they have commenced will shed new insight into gender issues and health service utilization as they examine ways to provide optimal cancer care for young and old. Ultimately, PORT would like to develop tailored psychosocial oncology interventions that positively affect the experiences of cancer patients and their families.

For the past five years, PORT trainees have conducted research primarily within a Canadian health setting. This partnership arrives at a critical point in PORT’s development as its interests span internationally. Clinicians, trainees and mentors will now benefit from the cross-section of innovative and grassroots work being jointly conducted in Canada and India. Together, they will contribute to the growing body of literature in this important field.

As Dr. Loiselle underscores, “PORT’s main mission has been to develop supportive interventions that are responsive to the psychosocial needs of patients and families who must cope with cancer and its aftermath. We have already learned a great deal from our Indian colleagues who are committed to providing culturally sensitive care to the much diversified population that they serve.”

PORT is funded by the Candian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC). For more information, please contact or
http://www.port.mcgill.ca.

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Dr. Rahul Mehrotra to speak at the Canadian Centre for Architecture

The Canadian Centre for Architecture will be hosting a lecture by Rahul Mehrotra entitled “Mumbai: Kinetic City” on Thursday April 9, 2009 as one of the last Shastri 40th anniversary celebration events. Dr. Rahul Mehrotra is principal of the firm RMA Architects of Mumbai, India and an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT, USA.

The lecture will present a reading of Mumbai through its emergent urban form and city culture in general. Today, Mumbai is comprised of two components occupying the same physical space. The first is the Static City, which is built of more permanent material such as concrete, steel and brick; it is comprehended as a two-dimensional entity on conventional city maps and is monumental in its presence. The second is the Kinetic City, which is incomprehensible as a two-dimensional entity, it is perceived as a city in motion – a three-dimensional construct of incremental development. In fact, the Kinetic City, bazaar-like in form, can be seen as the symbolic image of the emerging Indian urban condition. The processions, weddings, festivals, hawkers, street vendors and slum dwellers all create an ever-transforming streetscape – a city in constant motion where the very physical fabric is characterized by the kinetic.

The Static City, on the other hand, dependent on architecture; for its representation is no longer the single image by which the city is read. Thus architecture is not the ‘spectacle’ of the city nor does it even comprise the single dominant image of the city. In contrast, festivals such as Diwali, Dussera, Navrathri, Muhharam, Durga Puja, Ganesh Chathurthi and many more, have emerged as the spectacles of the Kinetic City. Their presence on the everyday landscape pervades and dominates the popular visual culture of Mumbai and other Indian cities. The Kinetic City presents a compelling vision that potentially allows us to better understand the blurred lines of contemporary urbanism and the changing roles of people and spaces in urban society. Here the idea of a city is an elastic urban condition, not a grand vision, but a ‘grand adjustment’.

The lecture will take place in the Paul Desmarais Theatre at 7:00 p.m.

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York University: Faculty at work in India

Professors Darryl Reed, Department of Social Science and Ananya Mukherjee Reed, Department of Political Science, are currently at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) as visiting faculty. During their six-month stay from January through June 2009 they are participating as faculty in workshops and courses at the IIMB. They will be working on a SSHRC-funded research project on social economy and will also be collaborating on research projects with IIMB faculty, including Prof. Chiranjib Sen, former President of the Shastri Institute, and Professor N. Balasubramanyam, Chairman of the Center for Corporate Governance and Citizenship at IIMB.

Professor Ali Kazimi, Department of Film Studies, was recently honoured with a fourth retrospective showcasing of his work as a director, at the ViBGYOR International Film Festival, which ran February 4-8 in Thrissur, India. The festival screened six of Prof Kazimi’s productions: Narmada: A Valley Rises (1994), Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas (1997), Documenting Dissent (2001) Continuous Journey (2004), Runaway Grooms (2005) and Rex vs. Singh (2008). Prof Kazimi himself was a guest at the event. Continuous Journey and Rex vs. Singh were also shown at the Making Migrant: Dialogs Through Film Festival in late January, organized by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust in New Delhi, India.

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Shastri News - January 2009

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Student Excellence Award Winners

This year the Shastri Institute recognizes ten outstanding students who are pursuing studies related to India. They have each won $2000 to help further their studies and prepare for a career in their field. Thank you to all the excellent students who applied. Here are the winners of 2008-09:

Mira Gambhir, Toronto, ON
As an educator and researcher of marginalized learners, Mira Gambhir witnessed new teachers struggling to create inclusive classrooms for students from diverse backgrounds. A lack of practical knowledge and skills coupled with problematic attitudes towards equity lead to the exclusion of children who were in the greatest need of safe and supportive learning environments. After her most recent role as an educational consultant for Aga Khan Foundation in India, she realized that adults and children of marginalized groups in regions of India are facing similar integration challenges as to those in the Ontario urban context.

Mira is now pursuing a doctoral degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto in hopes of better understanding how teacher education programs prepare teachers for the diversity they will encounter in their classrooms and communities. The generous support of the Shastri Institute Student Excellence Award will allow her to travel to India to begin her thesis work – a comparative international study of Indian and Canadian teacher education programs. This award will also support her Hindi studies, presentation at the National Seminar on Equity in Delhi and help her access resources. She sincerely appreciates the Institute’s commitment to supporting new scholars in their pursuit of careers related to India and most importantly in achieving their dreams.

Kory Goldberg, Dunham, QC
Kory Goldberg is currently teaching courses on education, religion, and the environment in the Humanities department at Champlain Regional College in St-Lambert, QC. With the help of Shastri’s Student Excellence award, he is also writing his PhD dissertation in religious studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). Buddhists Without Borders: Pilgrimage, Foreign-Aid, and Education in Bodhgayā investigates how Buddhist pilgrims visiting Bodhgayā change the impoverished town’s educational terrain by opening private, alternative schools promoting Buddhist values. They also investigate how these changes are received and responded to by the local agrarian Bihari, predominantly Hindu community. Kory’s thesis also examines how engagement with these schools broadens the pilgrim experience from a religious journey to a social one, thus affecting the traditional structure, devotional motivations, and activities of Buddhist pilgrimage.

With his wife Michelle, Kory recently completed writing a pilgrimage guidebook entitled Along the Path: A Meditator’s Companion to the Buddha’s Land (forthcoming 2009, Pariyatti Press). The two of them live in the woods outside Montreal with their toddler Jai, balancing the rigour and demands of academia with rural simplicity.


Poornima Padmanabhan, Burnaby, BC
Poornima Padmanabhan is a graduate student, pursuing an MA in Educational Technology and Learning Design at Simon Fraser University. Over the next few months, she will be working on her Master’s thesis, which is an exploration of the social and educational effects of the One Laptop Per Child program in India. She will apply her award towards this research, which will involve visiting a non-profit school in India and studying how children and teachers use the XO laptop (popularly called the 100-dollar laptop). Dr. Alyssa Wise from the Faculty of Education at SFU is Poornima’s advisor, and her expertise in educational technology will be valuable in helping refine her thinking. Poornima’s long-term research goals are to continue to develop skills in international and comparative education, particularly focusing on educational technologies in developing countries such as India. She is a keen traveller and amateur photographer, and would like nothing better than to spend her life visiting new places and having new cultural experiences.


Ashley McClelland, London, ON
Ashley McClelland’s relationship with India began in 2000, with a backpack and a second-hand travel guide. The next six months, spent traveling from South India to the Himalaya was a profound wake-up call, challenging her own pre-conceived notions of culture, society, and ideology, and ultimately spurring her interest in pursuing studies in anthropology. Ashley earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta, where she had the opportunity to deepen her understanding of India’s cultural, political and historical context, with a primary focus on Hindu religious thought. She is currently studying her MA in Anthropology and International Development through the University of Guelph.

Last year she had the incredible opportunity to spend five months in Kerala conducting fieldwork. This time was spent living with a family and carrying out research in Kadakkavoor panchayat, an area that experiences a high incidence of labor migration to the countries of the Gulf. Her research explores labor migration as a highly transformative movement, affecting households and the community in diverse and uneven ways, economically, socially and ideologically. “I am honored to be a recipient of this year’s Student Excellence Award and plan to use the funds to disseminate my research findings through publication, and, potentially, a workshop series in Thiruvananthapuram this spring.”

Other student excellence award winners:

Adam Malloy, Keswick, ON
Ajnesh Prasad, Surrey, BC
Karen Rideout, Vancouver, BC
Kieran Findlater, Regina, SK
Kirk Franklin Perris, Toronto, ON
Tejwant Kaur Chana, Edmonton, AB

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Hopeful Students Await University Response

Indian students await the reaction from Canadian and American universities as World Education Services (WES) upgrades its assessment of Indian degrees. Recently WES, one of the largest foreign-credential evaluators for North American universities, determined that India’s highest rated three-year degrees are now on par with North American degrees. This is a positive sign for many Indian students who are currently required to hold a masters degree before applying to graduate schools in most North American universities.

York University in Toronto conducted its own research and approved recognition of Indian degrees last spring. They found that, because India’s top non-humanities degrees include no general education components, they focus more on the actual subject matter. “It was clear that Indian students in three-year programs were learning as much, if not more, than North American students in four-year programs in terms of degree-specific content,” explains Dr. Adrian Shubert, Associate Vice-President International, York University. “Since York has begun recognizing three-year degrees from the UK, it made academic sense to include India as well.” Dr. Shubert hopes that other Canadian universities will soon follow York’s lead in developing or expanding on similar policies. Many students in India today share that same hope.

For reactions in India to the WES report, please see:

US Agency recognizes India’s Bachelor’s degree
Daily News & Analysis, Mumbai

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Student Summer Science Program 2009

We are pleased to announce a new initiative under the Ontario/Maharashtra-Goa Student Exchange Program. The 2009 Summer Science Program at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai welcomes applications from Ontario students in the fields of Biology, Health and Environmental Science. This 9 credit program will consist of courses in Forensics, Biodiversity and Infectious Diseases. The starting date of the program is May 18, 2009 and it will last five weeks. The deadline for applications is February 20, 2009.


For more information please refer to the OMG website or see responses to these frequently asked questions.

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Indian Government awards Deepak Obhrai the highest honor given to overseas Indians

On January 9, 2009, the Government of India awarded the prestigious “Pravasi Bharatiya Samman” award, the highest honor given to overseas Indians, to Canadian M.P. and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deepak Obhrai. The award was presented to Obhrai by the President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

Mr. Obhrai, whose family immigrated to Tanzania from India and who was later educated in India, was a guest of Honor at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention and delivered the keynote address at the regional workshop on Canada. Since 2003, the Government of India has been hosting the PBD convention for people of Indian origin residing outside India, to provide a platform for them to engage with India. Today, this convention has become the most prestigious event for the Indian Diaspora worldwide.

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Emerging India: Strategic Innovation in a Flat World

When the Strategic Management Society’s members set out to invoke new thinking on emerging markets, they knew they wanted to bring together top strategy scholars, and top names in business leadership. On December 12-14, 2008, they achieved this goal during their first India Conference entitled “Emerging India: Strategic Innovation in a Flat World” hosted by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. Over 450 delegates from 120 different institutions around the globe attended the conference along with 15 CEOs from leading Indian companies such as ICICI and Tata. Multinational companies including Nokia, GE and Shell also had senior executives in attendance.

The conference created a platform to integrate researchers, academic leaders, and business executives in India with their global counterparts to co-learn and co-create a greater enterprise. Fifty deans, half from India and half from abroad also met at the conference to deliberate on the topics of internationalization, institution building, scholarship, curriculum, and knowledge networks.

Professor Charles Dhanaraj of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario was a Co-Chair of the conference.

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Sowing new Seeds at Ryerson University

The study of South Asia is set to be strengthened at Ryerson University as professors unite to form Ryerson’s first South Asian Studies Group. A special campus visit by Shastri Institute president, Dr. A.S. Narang, sparked the group’s creation. Through word of mouth the group has grown from four to close to 20 faculty members representing numerous departments. Together, they plan to start a South Asian seminar series before the end of the winter term. They would also like to pool together to apply for research funding. “In the long term we would love to see the formation of a South Asian Studies minor for undergraduate students,” says Professor Wade E. Pickren, Associate Chair, Department of Psychology, who is considering different ways to get students more involved. The group’s next meeting, sponsored by the Office of International Affairs, will take place some time in February. All interested faculty members are welcome to attend. Please contact Prof. Wade Pickren for more information.

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UWO Professor to lecture at ISEC, Bangalore

Professor Ajit K. Pyati, of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario will be lecturing on Community-Based Information Centres: A New Vision for India’s Public Libraries? at the Institute for Social and Economic Change on February 6, at 3:30 p.m. This lecture follows a series he has been giving in India on libraries and information technology. For more information on Prof. Pyati’s research and teaching, please click here.

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Shashishekhar M. Gavai Welcomed as New High Commissioner for India to Canada

His Excellency Shashishekhar M. Gavai, High Commissioner for India to Canada, presented his Letters of Credence to Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Govenor General of Canada on January 21, at an impressive ceremony at Rideau Hall. In her speech welcoming the new High Commissioner, the Governor General mentioned that both India and Canada are democratic countries and share common values. She condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai and mourned the loss of innocent lives in these incidents. She hoped that during the High Commissioner’s tenure in Canada, he would work towards further consolidating and diversifying India-Canada bilateral relations in various spheres including agriculture, science, technology and energy. His Excellency Shashishekhar M. Gavai assured that he and his team would do their best to take the bilateral relations to a higher level.

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New Publication

Prof Nandi Bhatia of the English Department at the University of Western Ontario has recently published:

Partitioned Lives. Narratives of Home, Displacement and Relocation, (co-edited with Anjali Gera-Roy). Pearson-Longman, 2007.

For more information on the author, please click here.

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Speak out!

Would you like to have input into the grants we offer and the deadlines we set?
Would you like to provide feedback on our website, newsletter or application procedures?

We want to continue to improve the way we operate in order to meet your needs. Please take five minutes to complete our online survey and help us accomplish this goal. Your input will influence our planning for 2009-2010.

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Student opportunities 2009-2010

Contents

Suplimentary Information

Ontario-Maharastra-Goa Program Frequently Asked Questions
Ontario-Maharastra-Goa Program Poster

UofC brochure front
UofC brochure back
UofC poster

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Shastri News - December 2008

Contents

FICCI Summit Reveals Need for National Strategy

On November 25-26, over 50 high-profile delegates from Canadian government and academia joined with their peers from around the world in Delhi for the “Higher Education Summit” held by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Canada was honored as India’s partner country for the summit. This was a rare opportunity to openly discuss and exchange information on the current state of higher education in both countries and to seek opportunities for cooperation. The summit highlighted India’s need for new comprehensive education legislation and, Canada’s need for a national strategy for international education initiatives.

The title of the summit, “Education at a Crossroads,” speaks to India’s current situation dealing with challenges of quality, access and equity in higher education. In his opening address Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Government of India, set the tone for the summit by explaining these challenges and the new mindset required to move the education system forward. Canadians were privileged to be involved in this conversation and found that they could relate given Canada’s longstanding history of educational reform.

Paul Evans, Senior Advisor to the Board of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, used a cricket analogy to depict Canada’s current situation. “Indian institutions are already on the pitch in a sweaty and sweet interaction with well-financed, well-organized and aggressive teams from the UK, Australia, the United States and the EU…Meanwhile, it’s hard not to feel that the Canadians are still in the dressing room, peering out the window and trying to figure out what jerseys to wear. Strong individuals, strong competitors the Canadians, but far from a team,” were his comments.

James Liebenberg, Executive Director of the Shastri Institute, presented the important role the Institute has played over the past 40 years in strengthening relationships between India and Canada. He also stressed the Institute’s continual commitment to those relationships. We are honored by the recognition that the Institute received throughout the summit, and would like to encourage all parties to continue to work towards long term mutually beneficial partnerships.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) took the opportunity to launch its “Imagine Canada” campaign at the summit. This is the first national initiative to attract Indian students to Canadian schools. We can and should build on this initiative to promote two-way recruitment and facilitate mobility of advanced graduate and post doctoral students between India and Canada.


More on this topic…

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada recently released two reports pertaining to the Canada-India academic relationship. To view electronic versions of these reports, please see the December 5th APF bulletin.

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How Volunteers Shape our Work

A profile of Dr. Stephen Inglis and his Shastri Institute involvement to date

Few non-profit organizations could operate without a strong foundation of dedicated volunteers; the Shastri Institute is no exception, which is why we are so grateful for the involvement of individuals like Stephen Inglis. Acting as Chair of our 40th anniversary celebration committee this year, Stephen has been busy in both India and Canada sharing his knowledge and building excitement about our work. The experience, he says, was a pleasure thanks to an active committee of people and dedicated staff who all did their part.

Currently Stephen Inglis is the Senior Curator of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. His job provides many opportunities to promote Indian cultural studies in Canada – a passion he has developed through a lifetime of learning. Shastri grants facilitated Stephen’s instruction in the Tamil language and provided him the opportunity to gain an MA from the University of Calcutta. He followed up those experiences with a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia and with ongoing participation in Shastri Institute projects.

Stephen’s volunteer work with the Institute has included directing a summer program for students in India, chairing our India Studies committee, serving on the Executive, and co-chairing the committee that spearheaded our evolution into a bi-national organization in the late 1990s. For Stephen, it felt natural to help lead our 40th anniversary celebrations because his years of involvement have allowed him to feel the impact of this milestone. In the future, he sees the Shastri Institute using its strengths and experience to continue to evolve and dovetail its traditional work with new initiatives. According to Stephen, promoting Indian cultural studies in Canada “is a continuous effort and a job that must be done devotedly.” As long as there are opportunities to foster better understanding of India in Canada, we can count on Stephen to do his part.

Hundreds of Indians and Canadians were able to take part in the festivities that surrounded our 40th anniversary this year. Their participation would not be possible without the countless hours of volunteer work that went into planning the events. As 2008 winds down, we would like to show our sincere gratitude to everyone who has contributed to these celebrations. Thank you to Stephen Inglis, to our committee, to our member representatives who held local celebrations, and to all those who took the time to celebrate with us.

Click here for a list of celebrations held at universities across Canada.

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Celebrating with the Royal Ontario Museum

On November 14 the Shastri Institute hosted a joint reception with the Royal Ontario Museum’s Friends of South Asia Committee to commemorate the Institute’s 40th Anniversary and the opening of the Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery. Over 100 guests were in attendance for this exciting event held at the ROM. A keynote lecture was delivered by Dr. Stephen Inglis, Senior Curator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization entitled “Darshan and Distribution: Popular Art in South Asia”.

The lecture dealt with the importance and influence of printed forms of art such as framed prints, calendars, magazine illustrations, package labels and cinema posters in the recent history of India. Guests were then invited to tour the South Asian Gallery, which features religious objects and sculpture, decorative arts, arms and armour, miniature paintings and textiles spanning over 5,000 years and originating from countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet.

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Nouveau séminaire offert sur le terrain dans l’Himalaya indien

(English to follow)

Le Département des sciences des religions de l’Université du Québec à Montréal offrira trois séminaires (9 crédits – deuxième cycle), dont le dernier sera offert sur le terrain, en Inde.

À l’automne 2009, l’UQÀM offrira une série de séminaires sur la culture et la religiosité indiennes. Lors de la troisième session, en mai 2010, le dernier séminaire sera offert lors d’une session intensive sur le terrain en Inde. Le groupe remontera alors une ancienne route de pèlerinage – de Delhi à Gomukh, la source du Gange, située à près de 4500 mètres d’altitude dans l’Himalaya indien.

Pour plus d’information, veuillez vous présenter à l’activité de présentation le 12 février 2009 à 17h30 au local W-3235, 455 est, boul. René-Lévesque, Montréal.

http://www.international.uqam.ca/etudiants-quebecois-inde.html

Pour toute information ultérieure au 12 février, contacter le professeur Boisvert au 514 987-3000, poste 6909 ou à .

New Seminar Field Study in Indian Himalaya

The Department of Religious Studies of the University of Quebec at Montreal offers new seminar series (9 credits – graduate level) concluding with a field study in India.

Beginning in the fall of 2009, UQAM will be offering a series of three graduate seminars on Indian religion and culture. The third session in May 2010 will be an intensive field study climbing a historic pilgrimage trail from Delhi to Gomukh – the source of the Ganges, situated at an altitude of 4500 meters within the Indian Himalaya.

For more information, please attend an informational presentation on February 12, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. at W-3235 – 455 East Boulevard René-Lévesque.

http://www.international.uqam.ca/etudiants-quebecois-inde.html

For information not covered on February 12, please contact Professor Boisvert at 514-987-3000 x.6909 or at

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Shastri Interns in Action -- In Chennai

As part of the Elderly Health and Well-Being in Chennai project, administered by the Shastri Institute and CIDA, and coordinated through Dr. Shanthi Johnson at the University of Regina; SICI intern, Amenda Kumar has been exploring the perceptions of students training in health care professions in Chennai to understand their perspectives on healthy ageing and how their education/training shapes their professional practices and views on elderly health. As an international intern in India, Amenda has built many community partnerships, facilitated discussions with scholars about research strategies and cross-cultural awareness, and continues to gain knowledge not only through academic inquiry but also by immersing herself in the richness of Indian culture. Amenda won the first prize in the University of Regina’s International Education Week Photo Contest. She called her prize winning picture Kids at Tirumala: No matter where you are in the world, the innocence of children is universal.

Robin is an intern, under the supervision of Dr. Shanthi Johnson, with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the University of Regina and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) . One of the major challenges to health policy in India is the magnitude of India’s population as well as the large diversity of health needs of each of the states and is reflected in the different position of the states along the health transition model, characterized by different rates in fertility and mortality rates. Robin is in India, researching and building the India Healthy Life Expectancy model which calculates and projects Life Expectancy and Healthy Life Expectancy into the future, using World Health Organization Life Tables and 2001 India Census data on age specific disability prevalence. This information is useful in assessing how a country’s population is ageing; is the population suffering from increasing rates of chronic disease or is the population vibrant and independent? Also, this type of population level data is useful in determining allocation of resources for health promotion and an improved understanding of the determinants of health and can be used to predict the future needs of populations, to inform policy from the planning of health and social services and used to identify trends and inequalities present in the population. Without economic models, the status quo remains persistent and unquestioned, leading to long term problems and complications.

Report by: Dr. Shanthi Johnson, University of Regina, Amenda Kumar and Robin Lau

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The Power of Performance

Dr. Brenda Beck and her colleague, Steafan Hannigan have a clear understanding of the power of performance . They recently shared their passion for “performance” with audiences at Memorial University of Newfoundland during Memorial’s celebration of the Shastri Institute’s 40th Anniversary. “The Legend of Ponnivala” is a 26 episode series under production by Dr. Beck and her team of Indian and Canadian artists and experts. This series (re-)animates and thus helps preserve an Indian oral epic, which Dr. Beck recorded nearly 40 years ago from a traditional bard’s performance in a village in the Kongu region of Tamil Nadu.

The epic tells of the trials, triumphs, and tribulations of three generations of a ruling family. It features divine interventions and rescues, curses and miracles, adventures and austerities, journeys and dreams, and, of course, heroes and heroines. Elements of medieval south Indian village life, social structure, gender roles, political institutions, and religious traditions find expression throughout. The Legend of Ponnivala clearly has potential as an instructional aid for courses in Religious Studies but also in Folklore, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, to name a few.

The complexities of this epic tradition are best appreciated in performance and while there is no experience equivalent to that of a traditional bard, Beck and Hannigan deliver a most satisfying alternative. Their evening presentation to an audience of academics, students, and members of the St. John’s Hindu community combined an oral and visual introduction to the epic, its performance tradition, and its re-animation as “The Legend of Ponnivala.” Using photographs from Beck’s original fieldwork in the region, samples of the south Indian paintings that serve as a basis for the animated images, and a display of several folk instruments used in the composition of the musical score, Beck and Hannigan introduced the epic and their project.

A Canadian premier screening of one half-hour episode from the “Legend of Ponnivala” gave the audience a highly entertaining taste of the production. The animation and score are unmistakably Indian yet they resonate with folk music and oral literatures from other parts of the world. The animation, fashioned from the richly colorful South Indian artistic style, is gorgeous. Using his knowledge of Indian musical traditions as well as folk music from around the globe, Steafan Hannigan composes a score that blends into the original folk songs recorded in the 1965 performance. The storytelling is infinitely more engaging than any written presentation could be in part because the audience experiences the story within the context of its own visual and musical arts.

Bringing “The Legend of Ponnivala” to Memorial proved an excellent opportunity to engage diverse audiences in a project that exemplifies the Shastri Institute’s mission. Our audiences included students in Folklore, World Music, and Religious Studies, academics from a variety of disciplines, and members of the local Hindu community. All appreciated the opportunity to experience, in a new medium and context, a South Indian oral performance tradition.

Patricia Dold
Department of Religious Studies
Memorial University of Newfoundland

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"Living Gandhi and King Today"

On October 4th, McMaster University marked the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, by observing a special Gandhi- King Day as part of the Annual Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival and McMaster’s MAC Peace Week. The day included a commemmorative dinner event attended by 450 people at Hamilton Convention Centre. The Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, who was with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr when he was shot, was the keynote speaker. The week included a Write for Peace contest for high school students, cultural programs, peace literature displays, a peace walk, free Indian vegetarian food and live music.

Narayan Desai, Chancellor of Gujarat Vedyapith (India) and a prominent Gandhian Scholar and Social activist, delivered the eleventh Annual Mahatma Gandhi Lecture on Nonviolence and spoke on “ Understanding Gandhi Comprehensively.” The sixteenth Annual Gandhi Peace Festival keynote speaker was Dr. David Adams, former Chair of UNICEF Culture of Peace Committee.

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For all who love the holidays...

Around one million people celebrate Diwali in Canada every year. The warmth of this festival of lights is particularly welcomed since it usually arrives at the same time as the snow. We at the Shastri Institute have chosen this time between Diwali, Eid, Christmas and Hanukkah to wish the peoples of Canada and India a happy holiday season.

Guests at Simon Fraser University’s Diwali Gala 2008 enjoy the festivities at the Bollywood Banquet Hall on October 27. The event attracted more than 400 people and raised over $45,000 to help grow and sustain SFU’s India programs and initiatives. (click here for more photos)

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Shastri News - November 2008

Contents

University of Alberta Creates New Chair in Classical Indian Polity and Society

After acquiring a $1.5 million endowment fund from the Singhmar family of Sherwood Park, the University of Alberta began a worldwide search for an expert to develop a new position as Chair in Classical Indian Polity and Society. This position, which focuses on pre-modern India, is unique in North America. Professor Aloka Parasher-Sen fit the position like a glove. “The Faculty of Arts was committed to hiring the best scholar for the position,” explains Dr. David Mills, acting chair of the Department of History & Classics. For her part, Dr. Parasher-Sen could not pass up such an opportunity. “They were seeking to focus on the society and polity of India between 500 BCE and 500 CE. That is my precise area of expertise. Nowhere else would I get the chance to develop a chair with such a focus,” she explains.

Parasher-Sen, who arrived in Edmonton this summer, has already started to teach one seminar level course on state and society in India. She is planning to add general level courses this spring and summer and will be using the winter term to engage in her research in India and elsewhere. She has started discussions with her department and the Extensions Centre of the University of Alberta to develop field visits to compliment her courses in the future. She is excited about the opportunity to bring all those interested to India on these educational trips. The Department of History and Classics has three field study programs, but this would be the first to go to India.

When asked why it was important for Canadian students to learn about Indian history, Prof. Parasher-Sen acknowledged with sadness that many people today question the importance of studying the Arts in general. “Learning ones own cultural past is part of a natural education process.” For that reason alone, Parasher-Sen believes it is vital for Canada to be educating its multi-ethnic citizenship on global histories. Moreover, she feels that in contemporary times internationalization in the classroom is good training for the growing international demands on jobs in all fields.

The University of Alberta aims to add positions in India studies to compliment the work of Dr. Parasher-Sen. Support for this initiative was felt on campus recently as students, faculty and community members came together to celebrate the Shastri Institute’s 40th anniversary and discus the future of India studies at the University of Alberta. We would like to thank our representative, Dr. Regula Qureshi for organizing this day of thought provoking discussion and cultural performances. The events were held on Friday Oct. 17.

For more information on Dr. Parasher-Sen, please click here to be redirected to her webpage and contact info.

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Report on Symposium: Strengthening India Studies in Canada

On Monday Oct. 20, as part of the Shastri Institute’s 40th anniversary events, approximately 25 scholars and administrators interested in India studies gathered at the Schulich School of Business at York University for a Symposium entitled “Strengthening India Studies in Canada: Targets for the Next Decade”. Two past presidents (Arun Mukherjee and Gary vanLoon) participated as well as current President A. S. Narang and the President-Elect, Sheila Embleton, who also hosted the event.

Apart from welcomes, an opening session, and a summary session, there were three sessions, addressing “Documenting our Successes”, “Documenting our Challenges”, and “Addressing the Challenges”. The major challenges were agreed to be funding, visibility, and coordination; practical solutions were suggested for all of these, and will be examined in the near future both by the Executive and subsequently by the wider membership. A stimulating day was topped off by a late afternoon reception, followed by a pre-release screening of Deepa Mehta’s newest film, “Heaven on Earth”, attended by Ms. Mehta, her husband, her son, and her daughter, who all participated in a lively Q&A after the showing.

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Joining Together to Celebrate

The Shastri Institute, Carleton University and the Canadian Museum of Civilization came together on Oct. 11 to commemorate the Institute’s 40th anniversary and the inauguration of Carleton’s new Hindu Fund. The celebration was held in the grand hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and was attended by over 300 honoured guests and members of the community. Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of both Mahatma Gandhi and Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, treated participants to a lecture on Gandhi and the Hindu Tradition. Following his lecture was a performance by acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan accompanied by live musicians. A reception ended the afternoon providing opportunities for participants, performers, and honored guests to meet and mingle.

Both Dr. Stephen Inglis, Director General of Research and Collections at the museum, and Dr. Harsha V. Dehejia, Professor of Religious Studies at Carleton University, were instrumental in coordinating the day’s festivities. On behalf of all the attendees, we would like to thank them for their hard work.

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FICCI Higher Education Summit 2008

The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has invited Canada to be the partner country at its Global Conference on “Higher Education at the Crossroads: Imperatives for Policy and Practice” on Nov. 25 – 26, 2008 in New Delhi. As a partner country, Canada will have a strategic opportunity to showcase its education strengths and build its educational branding efforts in India. Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is sending a group of participants including many university vice-presidents from across the country. The Shastri Institute will be represented by its President, Dr. A.S. Narang and by the directors of both Indian and Canadian offices. It is our hope that this Education Summit will strengthen the India-Canada relationship and lead to the establishment of new innovative partnerships.

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Dr. A. S. Narang Visits Canada

Dr. A. S. Narang, president of the Shastri Institute, visited Canada this October to meet with member universities, government officials, and the Canada office staff while taking time to participate in some of our 40th anniversary celebrations. Through his visit, Dr. Narang gained deeper insight into the direction of India studies in Canada. He participated in our symposium on India studies, which brought together representatives from universities throughout Canada. He also met separately with interested faculty and administration at the University of Toronto, York, McMaster, Ryerson, Queen’s and the University of Calgary. He observed that currently, “there is a need for networking among member institutions and cooperation in lobbying with the government for collective funding and support.”

Dr. Narang’s meeting with our government funders (both the Canadian International Development Agency and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) proved fruitful in determining an understanding about the future, and his trip to our Calgary office was encouraging. “I found the Canadian office staff to be totally committed to the Institution, keen to learn more and contribute in the Institution’s growth in a creative manner.”

Dr. Narang returned to Delhi Oct. 24 where he works full-time as a professor of Social Sciences at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. He has served on the Shastri Institute’s board since 2005 and will act as president until June 2009. During this term, he will be busy networking, sharing his expertise and envisioning a clear course for our future.

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News from Members

Indian Institute of Management, Indore

Twenty Fifth Convention & Conference of SIS on The Role of the Librarian in 21st Century
Information Technology has dramatically impacted librarians and their relationship to the communities they serve. As we are at the threshold of the year 2008, we librarians must reassess and reconsider the changing library environment. Librarians, individually and collectively, cannot ignore the changing shape of information services that are emerging. Everyone knows that the primary objective of libraries is to organize and provide access of information. This objective will never change, but the format and methods that we have used will change dramatically; thus, providing new opportunities and challenges. On this backdrop the Conference will focus on rethinking the role of a library professional, both in relationship to his personal identity and the community he serves.

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Shastri News - October 2008

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Shastri Institute Sends out Youth Interns

We are happy to introduce this year’s Canadian Youth Interns who set out on September 15th to work for six months on location in India.

Amenda Kumar, Vancouver BC
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Internship: Healthy Aging in Chennai

After many years of intense study, Amenda is ready to get her head out of the books and immerse herself in the field. Amenda took many classes in International Development during her studies at UBC in the Master of Social Work program and decided the best way to learn was to go out and gain field experience. She is looking forward to learning more about Indian culture in Chennai and cannot wait to get her feet wet.

Richa Sharma, Victoria BC
Location: Keshod, Gujarat
Internship: Access to Quality Health Care and Information: How does Gender Intervene?

Richa applied for her youth internship for a number of reasons but primarily to sort out the confusion regarding her own identity as an Indian living in Canada. For the first time in ten years she has a chance to visit India and operate outside of the protection of her extended family and out side of a context where she is known as “Ms. Canadian.” This internship will provide her the opportunity to experience work culture in the non-profit sector in India and to be exposed to a different side of many of the realities and truths that are India. On a professional front, Richa hopes to clarify where to focus her future studies and to gain a foothold in the field of international development.

Robin Lau, Edmonton AB
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Internship: Healthy Aging in Chennai

Robin applied for the internship because he wanted to travel and to keep learning in his field of Health Policy and Diabetes. “I read the job posting and found something that interested me greatly. This was my opportunity to travel and to continue my research.” Robin wants to gain a new perspective on life and he hopes this internship will give him a great appreciation for his own culture as well as a greater appreciation for the culture of others



The Shastri Youth Internship Program is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency

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Small University with Big International Goals

“My dream is that, one day, all of our Students will be incorporating an international element into their undergraduate degrees,” says Ron Byrne, Vice-President, International and Student Affairs at Mount Allison University. Mount Allison recently added the VP International title to Byrne’s position as part of a larger initiative to focus on internationalization. At Mount Allison’s newly expanded International Centre, Adam Christie, Manager of International Affairs and Pronoti Majithia, International Advisor, are also excited to be filling new roles.

Mount Allison University has a student body of around 2,200 students and is situated in a town of 5,400 people. Despite its modest size and small-town feel, Mount Allison sees itself as a global player. With some recent help from the Shastri Institute, it has added India to its list of international partners. On September 22nd, we were able to visit Mount Allison to explore future India Studies initiatives and hear about the work that is currently being done.

While discussing some of the challenges that small universities face in their efforts to internationalize, Adam Christie points out that small universities do have advantages: “Since we are small, we are able to act quickly on initiatives. We have also been able to take advantage of the international connections already present within our faculty and staff.” A perfect example is the development of Mount Allison’s summer term in India program. This program has been successfully running for two years thanks to Professor Roopen Majithia, and his connections both to the Shastri Institute and to the director of the Vivekananda Institute for India Studies (VIIS) in Mysore.

Through the program, students take courses for eight weeks at VIIS and receive up to12 credits. They also participate in field trips and choose from a variety of co-curricular activities. Dr. Majithia is constantly thinking about how he can develop the program to continue to offer more enriching opportunities for both the students and faculty that participate. Since the program’s first year, one student participant has already returned to Mysore to gain work experience at a local hospital.

For more information on the Shastri Institute/Mount Allison summer term in India please click here.

If you would like representatives from the Shastri Institute to visit your campus to explore future India Studies initiatives please contact us.

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Binational Research Underway for Breast Cancer Treatment

The Shastri Institute recently funded two workshops held at the University of Windsor, which incorporated a delegation of Indian scientists from Bangalore’s St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences. The binational team is working with a rare substance extracted from the Hawaiian spider lily which apprears to induce cell death in cancer cells while leaving other cells unharmed.
For local media coverage of the workshops please click here.

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New Shastri Photo Competition

The Shastri Institute is introducing its first annual photo competition. Any individual taking part in a project or program funded by the Shastri Institute during the last five years may submit photos for consideration. The winner will recieve a prize of $500.00 and all accepted submissions will be showcased in an electronic photo gallery. Application deadline is January 31, 2009. More Info…

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Shastri 40th Anniversary Celebrations

Symposium – Strengthening India Studies in Canada: Targets for the Next Decade
October 20, 2008

Come Celebrate with us at the Royal Ontario Museum
November 14, 2008

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News from Members

University of the Fraser Valley
CISI South-Asian Film Festival

Simon Fraser University
Diwali Gala 08 – The Festival of Lights

University of Delhi
Shastri Institute Grant Recipient Published in Economic and Political Weekly

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New Members

We are pleased to welcome the National Museum Institute in Delhi as a new member of the Shastri Institute

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Shastri News - September 2008

Contents

A New Face for the Shastri Institute

We are pleased to announce that we have been making several improvements to our website throughout the past year. You may have already noticed our new look. These changes are a result of your feedback and many hours of work.

The website’s improvements include easier access to application forms, more visibility of upcoming events, a better archive of news articles and a new interactive forum. We appreciate your participation in the continual improvement of our website and we hope you will contact us with any feedback, questions or concerns.

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Kanta Marwah Funds a New Lecture Series

The Shastri Institute is pleased to announce that thanks to the generosity of Dr. Kanta Marwah a new lecture series will be held annually in Canada and India for the next five years. The Kanta Marwah Lecture Series Marking the 40th Anniversary will inform Canadians and Indians about issues of contemporary mutual importance and foster discussion and exchange on subjects of social concern. Please join us in thanking Dr. Marwah for her support.

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Ravi Seethapathy's Honor Roll Inauguration

Dr. Gary vanLoon, President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute conferred the Institute’s Honour Roll distinction to Mr. Ravi Seethapathy in Ottawa on June 12, 2008.

The Shastri Honour Roll distinction is awarded to individuals who have made an important contribution to the advancement of the Institute’s goals of building knowledge and understanding between Canada and India through academic partnerships. Since its founding in 1968, the Shastri Institute has awarded this distinction to select individuals renowned for their knowledge, dedication, and service.

Ravi Seethapathy has a bachelors degree from IIT Kharagpur (India), a M.Eng degree from the University of Toronto and a MBA degree from the Schulich School of Business, York University. He is on the Board of Ryerson University. He is the Chair of the Institute’s Canadian Advisory Council since 2004.

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Alumni Update

As we celebrate 40 years of partnerships with the academic community, we felt it was time to reconnect with some of our friends from the past. We were happy to hear how their lives have been impacted by the Shastri grants and awards they received. Their stories are now published on our website. If your life has been shaped significantly by your connection to the Shastri Institute we would love to hear from you as well.

John Sinclair

He has lost count of the number of times he has been to India, but Dr. John Sinclair is under no illusions about the value of those trips. “It has been a life-changing opportunity for me and for the students who have gone,” says Sinclair, a professor and associate head of the University of Manitoba’s Natural Resources Institute. Continue…

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News from Members

University of Alberta
Dr Romila Thapar to Lecture on Interpretations of Early Indian History in Recent Times

Two New India Studies Courses to be offered this fall

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Kwantlen Polytechnic Inaugurates New Chancellor

McGill University
Conference on Global Food Security

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New Grants

The Shastri Institute is pleased to launch 3 new grants in 2008.

Shastri Grant to Develop a Canada/India Joint Course
This grant is to be a catalyst for a team of Indian and Canadian scholars to create a new course that will be offered at both Indian and Canadian universities.
(more info)

Grant to promote Instruction in an Indian Language
In order to strengthen the study of India in Canadian universities, we will provide 3 two-year grants to support the delivery of Indian language courses. The courses must begin by the 2010-2011 academic year and must be ones that would not have otherwise been offered by the applicant universities.
(more info)

Guest Professor Grant
In order to strengthen the study of India in Canadian universities, we will provide a grant of $10,000 to support bringing a lecturer from an Indian university to teach at a Canadian university for at least one semester or a summer term. The course(s) must be offered before May, 2011.
(more info)

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New Members

We are pleased to welcome the following new members:
Carleton University
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
the University of Northern British Columbia
The University of Ottawa
The University of Prince Edward Island
The University of Calcutta
The National Law School of Delhi

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Upcoming Deadlines

October 01, 2008
All Canadian Studies Fellowships

October 31, 2008
Partnership Development Seed Grant
Student Excellence Award
Scholar Travel Subsidy Grant

November 14, 2008
Grant to Promote Instruction in an Indian Language
Shastri Grant to Develop a Canada/India Joint Course

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We thank all those who contributed to this edition of the newsletter.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and email us at with your comments and suggestions for future issues.

Editor: Sarah Hawkins

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Shastri News - March 2008

Contents

Workshop Held on Transport, Health, Environment and Equity in Indian Cities

Motor vehicle growth is occurring most rapidly in the low income countries in Asia. While motor vehicles provide mobility to millions in India, they are causing serious environmental, health and welfare impacts. The urban transport challenge is made more difficult by financial, technological, and institutional resource constraints.

A three-day workshop was held December 17-19, 2007, on Transport, Health, Environment and Equity in Indian Cities, at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. The event, funded by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, was jointly organized by Professor Madhav G. Badami of McGill University and Professor Geetam Tiwari of the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) at IIT Delhi, the first international Centre of Excellence funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation of Sweden.

The workshop brought together around 60 participants. They included academic researchers in a wide range of disciplines (atmospheric sciences, biomedical, civil and mechanical engineering, economics, environmental policy, epidemiology, management, urban policy, and urban transport planning), senior government decision makers, medical professionals, and private sector, industry, NGO, and pedestrian, cyclist, and cycle rickshaw puller group representatives, from India, Canada, and other countries. The discussions focused on the critical research needs for better understanding, and more effectively addressing, the urban transport situation in India, and useful approaches for meeting those needs. Workshop sessions were devoted to the following topics: Transport Air Pollution, and Health; Road Safety; Access for Non-motorized Modes and the Urban Poor; and The Research-Policy Interface.

Apart from contributing to the development of research approaches for addressing the urban transport challenge in India, the workshop highlighted India-Canada collaboration, provided opportunities for exploring long-term academic and research partnerships, and served as a platform from which to launch on-going debate on this important policy issue. Finally, it contributed to training future researchers, by actively involving several graduate students and research associates from India, Canada and the UK.

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Award Announcements

Student Excellence Award

François Thibeault reports that his doctoral research at the Université du Québec à Montréal focuses on the phenomenon of Buddhist pilgrimage in India. Through the observation of the pilgrims’ practices in India’s main sanctified Buddhist places (Bodh Gaya, Sarnath , etc.), he wants to show the interplay between localized Buddhist pilgrimage practices and beliefs and contemporary globalized Buddhist ideals. He will pay a particular attention to the many kinds of Buddhists (Western, Tibetan, Asian) that travel to, around and from the city of Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, and to the ways in which these Buddhists make pilgrimages to the most famous Buddhist sites of India. Mr. Thibeault will be traveling in India in April/May 2008 in order to do preliminary fieldwork. A long-term fieldwork will be conducted in 2009-2010.

Visiting Faculty Travel Grants

Rosaline Canessa, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, to attend an International Conference in Delhi on Citizenship and Governance: Re-visioning Social Transformation in the 21st Century.

Rama Singh, Department of Biology, McMaster University, to lecture at IIT -Mumbai, Banaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gandhi Centre, Mumbai, Jammu University and attend Mahila Shanti Sena Meeting in Patna, Bihar.

Brian Given, Department of Sociology and Anthopology, Carleton University, to speak in a special session of the National Seminar on Marginalized Groups: Problems and Prospects in Contemporary India on March 5-6 2008 at Vidyasagar University.

M. L. Khan, Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology to visit Concordia University in March for a collaborative research and training programme.

Michael Shepherd, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, to participate in a Workshop on Ontology, hosted by the Indian Statistical Institute, Documentation Research & Training Centre, Bangalore from March 19 to 21st. He will also participate in a workshop on Machine Learning at the International School of Information Management, University of Mysore.

Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Concordia University, to present a paper “BioMems Based Target Detection of Heat Shock Protein 90 Interactions at the Medchem India 2008 Conference in Bangalore on March 18 to 19, 2008.

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Member News

University of Victoria Signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia

President David Turpin of the University of Victoria and President Rajesh Tandon of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia signed an MOU formalizing an extensive series of activities and collaboration for the future. The University of Victoria, one of Canada’s leading research universities will be working with PRIA, the leading Indian NGO working in the area on capacity-building, governance and community-based research. PRIA is at the centre of a network of over 2000 grassroots organizations in every state in India. The MOU covers areas such as: institution building of PRIA’s continuing education operations; joint co-operation in community planning and mapping; research into the informal learning of women involved in electoral politics in both India and Canada; global networking in community-based participatory research; and the building of relationships between the Tribal Peoples of India and Aboriginal Peoples in British Columbia and Canada.

The University of Victoria sent a team of 11 community-based research scholars to New Delhi, Orissa, Kerala and Rajasthan during the last week of February, 2008. The team was lead by Dr. Budd L. Hall, University of Victoria’s representative on the Shastri Members’ Council.

University of Guelph

The Shastri Institute would like to congratulate Professor O.P. Dwivedi a long time member of the Shastri Institute’s previous Board of Directors. He will be awarded an honorary Doctorate in Environmental Studies (honoris causa) by the University of Waterloo at its Spring Convocation on June 11, 2008. This will be his second honoris causa doctorate. The first was awarded by the University of Lethbridge, in the eighties.

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Alumni News

Nalini Mohabir, recipient of an India Studies Student Research grant in 2006-2007, recently attended the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Diaspora Cultural Festival which featured a poster display of her work.

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Office News

We are pleased to welcome Reshma (Rana) Verma as In-Charge Canadian Studies Library at the India Office.

We also extend our congratulations to Sanghamitra Jana and her husband on the birth of their baby girl.

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Shastri Institute Welcomes New Member

We are pleased to welcome the University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad, Karnataka as a new member of the Shastri Institute.

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The Shastri Institute is grateful for donations to its 40th Anniversary Campaign from the following individuals:

Mahinder Chaudhry, Kingston; Kantilal Davé, Calgary; Sheila Embleton, Toronto; William Fyfe, London; H. Patrick Glenn, Montréal; Peter Harnetty, Vancouver; David Hopper, Washington; Milton Israel, North York; George Kurian, Calgary; Flora MacDonald, Ottawa; Kanta Marwah, Ottawa; Stephen McDowell, Tallahassee; N. Deo Mishra, Calgary; Edward Moulton, Winnipeg; Arun Mukherjee, Toronto; Vasavan Nair, Verdun; William Noble, Cameron; Geoffrey Pearson, Ottawa; K.D. Srivastava, Vancouver; Srikanta Swamy, St. Lambert; Suresh Thadhani, Westmount; Gary vanLoon, Kingston; Daya Varma, Montréal; Douglas Verney, Philadelphia; Jagannath Wani, Calgary; Cicely Watson, Toronto and other anonymous donors.

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We thank all those who contributed to this edition of the newsletter.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and email us at with your comments and suggestions for future issues. Please click here if you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter.

Editor: Anita Dennis
Design & Layout: Sarah Hawkins

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Shastri News - December 2007

Contents

The Shastri Institute 40th Anniversary Campaign - Funding the Future

On November 29, 2008, the Shastri Institute celebrates its 40th anniversary. For 40 years the Shastri Institute has built knowledge and goodwill between Canada and India and has enriched the lives of countless Indian and Canadian researchers, scholars, students and artists by providing opportunities for research, training and collaboration. The Institute’s cross-disciplinary focus has meant that it has contributed to the Canada-India relationship in a wide variety of areas and its emphasis on applied research has meant that it has had an impact within and outside academia. In order to celebrate its achievements the Institute hopes to hold celebrations on each of its member campuses as well as regional and national events.
The Institute is also calling upon the community that it has supported to demonstrate solidarity with the Institute and its works by making a donation to its 40th Anniversary Campaign. Your support ensures the long-term sustainability of the Institute’s current programming and provides the Institute the opportunity to continue to expand and grow. The money raised through the Institute’s campaign will go to support its student awards, poverty reduction research in India, seed grants and fellowships.

To donate to the Institute, please visit the Canada Helps website at http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=27979 or complete this Donation Form and mail or fax it to the Shastri Institute. For further information on how you can support the Institute by naming an award or grant, making a bequest or gift of stock, please contact Alana Froese at afroese at ucalgary dot ca or (403) 220-7467.

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Shastri Institute Welcomes New Members

The Shastri Institute is pleased to welcome new members Maharshi Dayanand University, Wilfrid Laurier University and Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal.

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News from Members

McGill University

International Symposium on Emerging and Novel Technologies

Defence Food Research Laboratory and McGill University are co-sponsoring an International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Food Processing on December 19 to 20, 2007 at DFRL, Mysore, India. If you are planning a trip to India and happen to be there around this time, you would be welcome to attend the conference and present a talk on any subject matter relevant to the symposium.

Please contact Hosahalli Ramaswamy for more details
Professor Food Science
514-398-7919:

Payton MacDonald: Works for Tabla

Shawn Mativetsky, percussion instructor and course lecturer at the Schulich School of Music, has just released his debut CD entitled ‘Payton MacDonald: Works for Tabla’ on the Atma Classique label. For the past ten years, Shawn has been commissioning composers to write new music for this instrument. This innovative cross-cultural music is written in the Western contemporary/new music tradition, but with inspiration from Indian classical music; this recording is the first of its kind. The album contains works for tabla that Shawn commissioned from the American composer, Payton MacDonald; his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Concertos for Tabla and Percussion Quartet as well as Alap, Jor, and Jhala for solo tabla.

For more information: http://www.atmaclassique.com or http://www.shawnmativetsky.com

Workshop on Transport, Health, Environment and Equity in Indian Cities

December 17-19, 2007, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Organized by McGill University and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and funded by a Partnership Development Seed Grant from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Canadian International Development Agency

A three-day workshop will be held December 17-19, 2007, on Transport, Health, Environment and Equity in Indian Cities, at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. The event, jointly organized by McGill University and TRIPP — IITD, will bring together academics and researchers, decision makers, and key industry and NGO representatives, to discuss the critical research needs for better understanding, and more effectively addressing, the urban transport situation in India, and useful approaches for meeting those research needs, given institutional constraints. The focus will be on the following critical urban transport impacts in India: air pollution from motor vehicles; road safety; and access for non-motorized modes and the urban poor.

Apart from contributing to the development of research approaches for addressing the urban transport challenge in India, the workshop will highlight and strengthen India-Canada collaboration, provide opportunities for exploring long-term academic and research partnerships, and serve as a platform from which to launch ongoing debate on this important policy issue.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Madhav G. Badami, McGill University
Professor Geetam Tiwari, IIT Delhi

University College of the Fraser Valley

The Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies has been busy with many events. Two newsletters have been published which include descriptions of events and photos.

For our July newsletter, please click here.

For our November newsletter, please click here.

University of Lethbridge

Ethnicity Conference: Call for Papers

Interdisciplinary Conference
Ethnicity: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century
The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
September 26 – 28 2008
Abstract deadline – February 29 2008

The organizers invite scholars from around the world to attend this conference, which will be held at the University of Lethbridge in beautiful southern Alberta, Canada. The goal of this conference is to explore issues intersecting identity theories and pedagogical approaches concerning ethnicity. We encourage researchers and teachers from the Arts and the Sciences to send us proposals.

The keynote speaker for this event is Professor Nasrin Rahimieh, Maseeh Chair and Director of Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Centre for Persian Studies and Culture and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Suggestions for areas of discussions are (but not limited to):

-Ethnicity-based and race-based stereotyping
-Human rights and ethnic diversity
-Transnational citizenship: fact and fiction
-Multicultural ideals and reality
-Ethnic representations: films, literature, and other mediums
-Comparative analysis: ethnic acceptance in international context
-Ethnicity and the body
-Space/place and ethnicity
-Teaching ethnically
-Gendered ethnicities
-Ethnicity and life writing

Because we aim to encourage discussions amongst the conference speakers, papers should be limited to 15 minutes in length. Accepted participants should inform the organizers about media requirements such as DVD, slide projection, and other equipment.

Please send abstract for paper proposals (300 words) and direct all enquiries to

Maria N. Ng
The Department of English
The University of Lethbridge

or

Michelle T. Helstein
Kinesiology and Physical Education
The University of Lethbridge

The organizers prefer an electronic copy of the abstract. Accepted participants will be notified at the end of March or beginning of April 2008.

Simon Fraser University

India Fall 2007 Education Field School

India is an exciting interplay of traditional elements and explorations in change. This programme will be based in Chandigarh, the capital of the Punjab and Haryana states, which has been shaped by its Sikh, Muslim and Hindu roots. In this context, we will use formal and informal education as vehicles to explore the development of a global perspective. This will involve diverse experiences with Panjab University, local schools and NGO organizations. Home stays with families will provide additional rich experiences.

Field School Director:
Mati Bernabei

Programme:
This field school is relevant for students who are interested in development and cultural themes, who are pursuing an education minor and/or who are interested in entering PDP. India offers a rich opportunity to explore intercultural and international approaches in education while being able to use English in a variety of contexts. The programme will involve a variety of experiences such as visits to local communities, meetings with community organizations, exchanges with university students, cultural events, presentations by different specialists, and volunteer work with community organizations/schools. Important cultural and historical centres such as Amritsar will be visited.

The programme will consist of the following three courses for a total of 12 SFU credit hours.

EDUC 370 – 4 International and Intercultural Education

This course is based both on practical and theoretical orientations to international and intercultural education including perspectives on the relationships between culture, learning and schooling. Participants will have opportunities to analyze and to reflect upon their experiences in educational contexts, home stays and intercultural experiences. These interactions will provide a basis for examining methods for developing culturally sensitive and culturally responsive teaching practices and curricula.

EDUC 471-4 Curriculum Theory and Development

Teachers play important roles in the development of curriculum expectations, experiences and learning resources. We will explore various learning contexts in India, meet with educators and students, visit schools and meet with other educators. As we explore various models of curriculum development, participants will be introduced to skills and ideas that contribute to the development of meaningful curriculum. Part of the course will involve creating curriculum units based on these experiences.

EDUC 372-4 Special Topics in Education: An Analysis of International Service Learning

An integrated range of both formal and informal learning experiences in this programme prior to leaving Canada and in India will provide a rich basis for exploration of relevant themes in international and global education. Participation in, and reflection upon, a volunteer placement in Chandigarh and the daily intercultural interactions will be an experiential basis for this course.

For further details please visit
http://www.sfu.ca/international/abroad/fieldschools/

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New Publication

Canadian Policy on Nuclear Cooperation with India: Confronting New Dilemmas, edited by: Karthika Sasikumar and Wade L. Huntley. The Simons Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Research, Vancouver, B.C. 2007.

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Canadian Studies Lecturer to Visit India

Dr. John Reid, Saint Mary’s University, will undertake a lecture tour in India during January and February 2008.

Dr. Reid is a historian with expertise in Aboriginal History. He has written about the aboriginal nations of northeastern North America (Eastern Canada) over thirty years. Currently he is coordinating a research project exploring interactions between indigenous civilizations and the British Empire in Asia and in the Atlantic world.

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We thank all those who contributed to this edition of the newsletter.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and email us at with your comments and suggestions for future issues. Please click here if you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter.

Editor: Anita Dennis

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