Newsletter Editorial p. 1 Branch Office Colombo 1 Aims and Prospects of the SAI 2 Interview: Prof. William Sax 5 Globalization Conference 5 New Book: Ways of Dying 6 Kabir Conference 7 New Book: In Favor of Govinddevji 7 Visualized Space Project 8 Prof. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema 10 International Cooperation 10 Report Conferences 11 Staff News 12 Forthcoming Events 12 Research Projects 13 Branch Offices 15 Lectures 16 New Publications 18 COLOMBO. At the end of 1998 the SAI particular focus on supporting younger Staff 22 proposed the opening of a branch office scholars Imprint 23 - To facilitate the exchange and Editorial in Sri Lanka. With the agreement of Heidelberg University and the State dissemination of research findings in the - by Axel Michaels - form of specific publications, workshops Government of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and conferences the SAI's Colombo office opened in This is the first newsletter of the South - To identify and provide expertise in April 1999. Asia Institute at the University of connection with the analysis of specific Heidelberg. Future editions will appear development-related problems in Sri Lanka annually, at the beginning of the winter The SAI has a permanent representative - To undertake empirical reseach on semester. who is assisted by a Sri Lankan colleague. pressing issues confronting Sri Lanka, with A newsletter should contain all that is The branch office is charged with the a view to generating quantitative and new, but given the pace of change these strengthening of institutional links between qualitative data days, such a report can never be truly up to the SAI and academic institutions in Sri The current research interests of the SAI in date. Lanka. It will also promote academic Sri Lanka are: There is no doubt that German academic cooperation with a view to facilitating joint • National Youth Survey life is changing in ways that are sometimes research projects, publications, and the • Youth employment stimulating, sometimes threatening, often exchange of ideas and experiences among • Urban development and regional amusing, and almost always too fast for Sri Lankan scholars and the SAI. A planning most of us - especially those who deal with Memorandum of Understanding has been • Disaster prevention traditions which claim that they never signed with the Department of Sociology • Food security and health change. at the University of Colombo defining the • Comparative study of political parties In any case, I hope that you find our following areas of collaboration: in South Asia research and publications to be more - To promote research on economic, • Governance and conflict resolution enduring than the "news" of the day, which political, social, and cultural affairs in Sri • Economic indicators for development briefly touches your desk on the way to the Lanka • Impact of Asian financial crisis on Sri wastebasket. After all, circulating news is - To promote academic exchange between Lanka just turning the wheel of samsara. the SAI and Sri Lanka universities with • Study of historiography in Sri Lanka Aims and Prospects of the South Asia Institute - by Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels - cultures a voice in the unstoppable process Germany and India work together of globalization, to review the history of a conducting fieldwork, organizing The South Asia Institute (SAI) is located region, to research and preserve rare conferences, obtaining rare literature, and at the centre of the university grounds in languages, and to keep specialized strengthening their academic networks with knowledge for future generations. each other and with other scholars of South Neuenheimer Feld. During the 37 years Asia throughout the world. of its existence, it has developed into An institute with a special profile what a board of advisors recently called Younger scholars are particularly attracted a "scientific institute unique in The SAI was founded in 1962 in a far- to the SAI because of the unique continental Europe". Teaching and sighted initiative by the government of opportunities it affords for intense research at the SAI focus on a region Baden-Württemberg. Its aim was to interdisciplinary cooperation. Many of that is important, not only because it has promote development-related basic them find employment here, because the generated a great civilization and the research relevant to the problems of the so- institute receives a significant amount of world religions of Buddhism and called third world. Germany wished to help external funding. Hinduism, but also because it is one of developing countries, but quickly realised the biggest, most populated, and most how little was known about Afghanistan, Interdisciplinary Research Partners quickly developing economic areas on Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maledives. It has been common practice for a long earth. time to do research on countries of the third The basic idea of the institute - which has world instead of doing research with them. Research on South Asia therefore concerns been directly under the control of the rector The SAI by contrast, prefers cooperative living cultures as well as old traditions. At and the senate of the university since its research, especially projects that are the SAI, we do not conduct research on founding - is to coordinate research and initiated and implemented jointly with non-european countries and cultures so teaching in several different disciplines, partner countries. Many university much as we conduct research with them, in each with its own department: teachers, politicians and economic leaders a relation of partnership. This helps us to Anthropology, Development Economics, from India, Pakistan and Nepal studied at understand and respect each others' cultures International Economics, Geography, the SAI. They received scholarships from and values. Such a procedure is only History and History of Art, Classical the German Academic Exchange Service possible when it is based upon a profound Indology (ancient languages and history of (DAAD) or the Alexander von Humboldt- knowledge of each others' languages, religion), Modern Indology (modern Stiftung. cultures, social and economic structures. languages and literatures of South Asia), and Political Science. In addition to that, the Indian government The common task of developing countries awards an annual scholarship for a six- research in so-called 'area studies' is to The institute has one of the biggest month stay in India, and in return the state communicate intercultural competence by specialized libraries in the world, with over of Baden-Württemberg established a connecting social and economic sciences 220.000 volumes and 500 specialist similar program for scholars in Heidelberg. with historically and philologically oriented journals. In January 1998, the Deutsche The Pakistani government established an cultural studies. In this way students and Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Iqbal Professorial Fellowship which gives teachers constantly remind themselves that Research Organization) recognized it as a one professor from Pakistan the they are living together with others in the special library of national importance. The opportunity to do research and teach at the house of world cultures - a house they SAI also publishes two internationally South Asia Institute. The government of didn't build alone. Such intercultural renowned series, Beiträge zur Bangladesh set up a Bangabandhu Sheikh competence will be in great demand in the Südasienforschung and South-Asian Mujibur Rahman Professorial Fellowship at next millenium when it will be essential to Studies . It currently has branch offices in the SAI. find solutions for pressing economic and India (New Delhi), Nepal (Kathmandu) and ecological problems, to give regional Sri Lanka (Colombo), where scholars from In many departments the main focus of re- search is on practical applicability which Axel Michaels) lies in its ethnoindological and their relation to political and social requires close contact and mutual dialogue orientation, i.e. the connection between developments. with local and regional authorities and philology and field work by examining representatives of state offices, as well as closely Hindu and Buddhist rituals and Economic and ecological problems broad knowledge of the economy and festivals. This requires a profound " " politics of South Asian countries. Our knowledge of the major traditions based The relation between humans and their " " scholars are also in high demand as on Sanskrit texts, but also of the minor , environment, along with processes of advisors to the German government and to local traditions, which very often were globalization with their economic and international organizations. handed down only orally. Therefore, the social consequences, are constantly gaining subject does not only concern philological importance in South Asia. The SAI has From the beginning, the SAI's language studies, but also religion and responded to this trend by increasing its interdisciplinary orientation resulted in a cultural studies. It contributes to the efforts in basic research. The Department wide range of academic of Geography of South questions, of which I will list Asia (headed by Prof. only a few. Hans-Georg Bohle) is currently working on Culture, Language and different projects History regarding questions of food security, water There is practically no other supply and waste disposal region in the world where in rural and urban regions tradition and modernity are so of India, Nepal