SASNET HISTORY 2000-2016 Part 1: Lars Eklund’s story, page 1–42 Part 2: Activity report 2001-2010 page 43–79 Part 3: Activity report 2011-2016 page 80–195 SLIDE SHOW 2001–2012 SLIDE SHOW 2013–2016 Responses to disputed report, page 196-199 https://nordicsouthasianet.eu/ 1 SASNET – a unique national Swedish research and information network – BY LARS EKLUND In May 2000, the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) was created through a grant from Sida/SAREC and Lund University with the aim to create an institutional base in Sweden for academic competence building and thematic work on present day South Asia. The long-term goal was to strengthen the relatively weak academic competence in Sweden in the field of South Asia. SASNET soon became a successful network, funded by Sida for 10 years and after that by continued Lund University funding. Till December 2016, SASNET was a unique feature – a national all-Swedish research and information net- work, not found elsewhere in the World. However, from January 2017 SASNET was transformed into a local Lund University research centre. It still keeps the network name but in reality it is a completely diffe- rent institution than the ”old” SASNET. This is the story of old SASNET, 2000-2016, the SAS- NET that was built up by Staffan Lindberg and myself in 2001, and within a few years became an interna- tionally highly recognised network connecting all Swed- ish and Nordic researchers in the field of South Asian studies. SASNET highlights So many highlights to remember during the 16 years I was working for SASNET. The 2004 European confe- rence on modern South South Asian Studies, was the largest gathering of researchers in the field ever on Swedish soil, and it definitely put SASNET and Lund University on the map. The four summer conferences SASNET organised for young scholars including mas- 2 ters students and PhD candidates in Falsterbo 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 was an equally extremely succsssful initiative and contributed to the formation of a South Asian students association. Out of the several hundred visitors to SASNET over the years, coming to hold lectures or just do networ- king, nothing can beat the spectacular December 2009 visit by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Under strict security a large delegation of 22 Bangladeshi MPs and ministers came to Lund along with newspaper and TV teams for a seminar and lunch with Vice-Chancellor Per Eriksson (during which I had the opportunity to sing a Rabindranath Tagore song for her). Of course, I am even more proud that my work with developing the SASNET Internet Gateway became a success story, not the least the detailed information pages on more than 300 Swedish university depart- ments working with Souh Asia related project in all fields – from Theatre Studies to Mining and Public Heath. Before I started to collect and compile this information nobody really knew the size and variety of this knowhow, apart from such obvious departments such as of Indology, language studies and Social Anthropology. Finally, I am so proud of the monthly SASNET Newsletters, that I compiled from January 2001 till April 2016, All together 186 Newsletters, and something between 2 000 and 3 000 pages of pro- viding news about South Asia related research and education, as well as info about conferences worldwide and lots of other useful information. The recipients were in the final year 2016 circa 3 500, and out of these the largest country group consisted of Indians, the second were Americans and on third place came Swe- des. Swedish research lacked behind The background to the creation of SASNET was a new Swedish strategy formulated by the Ministry of Fo- reign Affairs in 1998 on Swedish relations with Asia based on a report entitled ”Framtid med Asien. Förslag till en svensk Asienstrategi”. This report stated that Sweden must develop and increase research and higher education in regard to South Asia, since it was felt that academic competence in the field of South Asia was relatively weak in Sweden compared to the study of East and Southeast Asia, and was far behind other European countries. Though several Swedish universities did carry out research on South Asia, Sweden lacked a critical mass of scholars and expertise in the field. The government therefore decided to set aside funds through Sida and its research department SAREC for the creation of a centre or network to be co-ordinated at one of the Swedish universities. 3 Competition between three universities In June 1999 the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) invited the universities of Gothenburg, Lund and Uppsala to send in declarations of interest how to best co-operate in building this competence about South Asia. In the directives a number of conditions were given, among them that the university in order to qualify should also make its own funds available for the project, and a second condi- tion was that the project should work on a national basis. In May 2000, Sida decided to give the responsibility to Lund University to develop a South Asia Centre ac- cording to the plan it had submitted. The Lund University application was selected for the task because its proposal was more national in character than the others. It was based on a plan prepared by a working group led by Professor Staffan Lindberg, eminent sociologist with a long-standing focus on South Asian Studies. Contrary to the applications from Uppsala and Gothenburg, the Lund application envisioned that the net- work should not primarily consist of a physical centre formation at one university, but instead the network should build upon and develop the overall South Asian competence already existing at the Swedish univer- sities. This vision won the government’s hearing, and Swedish South Asian Studies Network was created. 2000 Planning conference Moreover, the plan was based on an idea that the network would have a very limited amount of staff, and instead let up to half of its yearly budget go to finance planning grants for new South Asia-related education and research projects at all Swedish universities, thus no priority for just Lund Uni- versity. It turned out to be a successful idea, which Sida a few years later expanded into more similar academic net- works. Lindberg was appointed acting co-ordinator and Jan Mag- nusson from the School of Social Work acting programme secretary, and the first strategy was to organise a two-day conference in October 2000 inviting scholars from all Swed- ish universities (and most important the key persons behind the two competing applications) to discuss SASNET’s co- ming organisation and activities. 70 Swedish South Asia researchers came to Lund and the conference became fruitful. It resulted in a modified plan for the building of the network that was submitted to Sida, and in November 2000 Sida decided to fund the activities for the first two years. Read more. A nationwide & Nordic reference group was also formed to monitor the work being done in Lund. The group consisted of senior professors and South Asia specialists from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH); Karolinska Institutet Medical University; Uppsala University; University of Gothenburg; Karlstad University; University of Oslo, and two Sida repre- sentatives. SASNET staff 2000-2009 • Staffan Lindberg worked as SASNET director on a 50 % basis till June 2007 when he retired. Staffan passed away in January 2019. • Anna Lindberg took over charge as SASNET director on July 1, 2007, but on a 100 % basis. She retired on Novem- ber 1, 2016. • Lars Eklund worked as byrådirektör/webmaster/pro- gramme secretary from 21 January 2001, initially on a 50 % basis but fom August 2001 on a 100% basis. His title was changed into deputy director from 2004. He retired on De- Rajni Hatti Kaul, Boel Billgren and Staffan Lindberg cember 31, 2016. at the 2000 conference. Lars Eklund, Staffan Lindberg and Lisbeth Andersson in SASNETs office in central Lund • Jan Magnusson worked part-time as programme secretary during the planning process in the fall 2000, In 2003, Jan worked 50% part-time as Programme Co-ordinator for the new Masters Programme in Asian Studies during January – March. This work was funded by a special grant from Lund University, and admi- nistered by SASNET until the programme had found an institutional base. After that Jan became the Direc- tor of Studies at the Centre for East- and South Asian Studies. • Lisbeth Andersson worked part time as acting programme secretary during the first six months 2001, being main organiser of the workshop on Global networking; and collected the data for the individual regis- ter of Swedish researchers, which became available on the gateway. • Sidsel Hansson worked as Acting Director during the period April-December 2008 when Anna Lindberg was on sick leave. • Stig Toft Madsen was employed on a 25 % basis as Assistant director during December 2008 • Maria Tonini worked on a voluntary basis as an Assistant updating the web site during the September- October 2008. • Nihat Ulusoy worked as an unpaid intern during September-December 2009. Mix of academic and journalistic competences Staffan Lindberg was the natural choice to become the first Director of the network, but since realizing a na- tional web-based network required a combination of academic and journalistic competence, efforts were launched to find a suitable person to fill in this combination. The choice fell on the journalist Lars Eklund, Editor-in-chief for the SYDASIEN magazine since 1982, with a high degree of experiences from all South Asia and a vast network of Swedish and Nordic researchers and journalists. In January 2001, Lars was enrolled as a webmaster on a half-time assignment to build up the SASNET In- ternet Gateway, and to produce monthly newsletters.