RESEARCH

CSH

India’s Nuclear Nationalism: the Politics and Symbolic of Nuclear Power in a Post-Colonial State (February 2006-August 2007)

This research programme aims to look at the nuclearization of India from a different perspective than that generally adopted by International Relations Scholars. Rather than assessing the strategic motivations for India’s military and civilian uses of nuclear energy, it is looking at the political and symbolical uses of nuclear power in India since the 1970s. Indeed the development of India’s civilian and military nuclear programmes, from the 1950s onwards, was not so much the outcome of a grand strategic design, but rather the result of a nationalist project building upon the symbolic attributes of modern science.

The research programme will thus start by assessing the relations between science and nationalism in post-colonial India. Drawing inspiration from the works of preeminent scholars of Indian (post)colonial science, such as Deepak Kumar and Gyan Prakash, it will look at nuclear nationalism as a form of scientific fetishism, where the scientific achievements of the state are perceived as a form of fulfillment of the nation’s destiny.

Moving on to the formation of India’s “strategic enclave” (Itty Abraham), this study will aim to assess the role of nuclear scientists in the construction of a new national identity relying upon modern technologies. This research programme will also attempt to decrypt the “nukespeak” of India’s strategic and political elites and to cover Indian anti-nuclear social movements. The “mirroring effect” of this nuclear nationalism in Pakistan will also be analysed, as well as the reception of the new political and strategic discourse by India’s diplomatic partners.

Contact: Dr. Laurent Gayer, laurent.gayer@csh-delhi.com

Greater Mekong Region Project

Greater Mekong Project (GMR) – comprising of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – has been viewed both as buffer and bridge between important regions of China, East, South and Southeast Asia. Especially, winds of globalization and expansion of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) from six to 10 member-states has really brought this region into the limelight. This period has also seen this region showing new dynamism resulting in higher growth rates, social upliftment, and greater participation in regional and global affairs.

Bangkok-based French Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) is undertaking a major project on examining both the internal dynamics and external linkages of GMR. This has been part of their effort to undertake a multi-participatory project, involving several French and other institutions. In this context, New Delhi’s CSH will be contributing a research paper on India’s engagement with GMR.

As far as India is concerned, its engagement with GMR has been part of its ‘Look East’ policy from the early 1990s. India had formally launched its ‘Ganga-Mekong Swarnabhoomi Project’ from the Laotian capital of Vientiane in November 2000. This project specifically focuses on enhancing cooperation in the sectors of transport and infrastructure as well as strengthening India’s role in GMR’s technological and human resource management. From the larger perspective though this has been part of reviving India’s historical linkages with Southeast Asia and it also promises to contribute to India’s efforts in meeting its future challenges in crucial sectors like energy and sea-lanes of communication.

Contact: Dr. Swaran Singh, swaran.singh@csh-delhi.com

The experience of upward social mobility

This study is part of a comparative research on social mobility in France, in the United States and in India. Its main objective is to collect data on how people experience social success in India. The study mainly consists of interviews of persons from low social background (from lower as well as from upper caste) who achieved relatively high status positions in the fields of Civil Service (mainly IAS and IFS), in the private sector (IIM and IIT diplomas – or equivalent), and in Academics (Professors and researchers in Humanities).

Close attention will be paid to the tension between the origin group and the new group produced by social mobility. The tension between the origin group and the new group involves two essential dimensions: a sociological dimension (the difference between two styles of life, between two habitus, between two worlds constructed on different referents, between two languages, etc.) and a moral and affective dimension (the feeling of “betraying” the origin group). How do they deal with the gap that exists between their group of origin and their new group? Do they get the impression that they are betraying their group of origin? Does success compel them to break the bonds they had with persons who were important for them? Does their social background impact the way they look at society?

Asking such questions will thus make it possible to highlight the links between the type of discourse on success and the kind of career (for example, are the discourses of people who experienced success similar in the case of civil servants, professors and professionals?).

This project is part of an institutional collaboration between the Institute of Political Studies of Paris (IEP Paris) and the CSH.

Contact: Jules Naudet, julesnaudet@hotmail.com

Regional Economic Performance in India. A Comparison of investment policies in Tamil Nadu and Bihar

The research project is part of a PhD thesis at the South Asia Institute (SAI) of the University of Heidelberg, Germany. The study aims at identifying the political and institutional determinants of regional economic performance in India, by focusing on investment and IT-policies in Bihar and Tamil Nadu. The difference in the ability of the two states to attract private investment is crucial to understanding their economic performance. The study will look at the political interactions and institutional factors determining investment flows in these two states with a special emphasis on IT policies which, in the case of Tamil Nadu, have been a driving force towards economic development.

The study will be based on an actor-centered theoretical framework which also takes into account the political profile of Bihar and Tamil Nadu as well as institutional features and the underlying economic structures of the two states. Field work will be carried out in Tamil Nadu and Bihar through qualitative interviews.

Contact: Sandra Ruehm, sandra.ruehm@gmail.com

IFP

Quantitative ecology takes root at the IFP

Recognized in India for the past three decades for its inventory works and mapping of the Western Ghats forests, the ecology department of the IFP set itself, in 2003, the goal of an international promotion of its experience (expertise) through a resolutely modern approach, based on quantitative modeling and new information technologies. This programme has recently taken a step in terms of recognition and visibility with:

• The viva of authorization to lead research of Pierre Couteron, head of the ecology department of the IFP and coordinator of this research in quantitative ecology since 2004, which materializes the collaboration with the academic pole of Montpellier (through the joint research unit AMAP) and will enable Pierre Couteron to supervise two doctorates residing at the IFP during the period 2006-2008;
• The viva of the doctoral thesis of François Munoz (post doctorate at the IFP on a “Lavoisier’ grant), dealing with the methodological problems incurred by the inference of the dynamics of plant species on the basis of their spatial distribution;
• The concrete manifestation of the collaboration with the Sino-French laboratory of informatics, automatics and applied mathematics of Beijing (LIAMA), through the internship of a Chinese student (master of Engineering, Beijing), geared towards the development of a computer software oriented on the analysis of biodiversity.

Contact: Dr. Pierre Couteron, pierre.couteron@ifpindia.org

The IFP and CIRAD strengthen their ties

The IFP and the CIRAD have just signed a framework agreement defining collaboration domains in the field of integrated rural development, of sustainable agriculture and of environment: biodiversity and ecosystems, integrated management of forest ecosystems, modeling and theory of complex systems applied to forestry and environmental research, capacity building in taxonomy, microfinance and sustainable development.

This framework agreement was followed up by a specific agreement defining a common research project on the management of biodiversity in the forest landscapes of the Western Ghats. In order to implement it (starting up in August 2006), the CIRAD will appoint for the first time a researcher at the IFP.

Contact: Dr. Claude Garcia, claude.garcia@cirad.fr

The IFP heading a project on “Democracy and access to healthcare”

The Monitoring Committee of the activities of the French Research Institutes in India (IFP and CSH) which was held in Pondicherry in March 2006 rightly insisted on the necessity for these research institutes to step to a new phase of “full integration”, which would be demonstrated through the co-writing and co-direction of Indo-French projects. These recommendations immediately met with a response from the IFP.

The project Institutionalising Indian Medicines: Challenges to Governance and Sustainable Development (IIM) submitted by Laurent Pordié, Head of the social sciences department of the IFP and N. Lalitha, researcher at the Gujarat Institute for Development Research (GIDR) has been chosen in the framework of the transversal programme of the French Research Institutes Abroad (IFRE) Democratic mutations in emerging countries: comparison between Latin America, Africa, Asia. 1990 - 2005.

The IIM project, hosted and coordinated by the IFP, unites Indian and European researchers. It represents an additional panel to the regional programme Societies and Medicines in South Asia. The set-up of this programme and the nature of its content-which satisfy an Indian request-are perfectly in line with a logic of Indo-French cooperation and underline the full integration of the IFP in the landscape of social sciences and health in India.

Contact: Dr. Laurent Pordié, laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org

EVENTS

(For more information on events, please consult our respective websites)

LECTURES/SEMINARS: ROUND TABLES/ WORKSHOPS

CSH

Monthly seminar held at the CSH on The Dynamics of Contemporary Islam in South Asia, which is part of the international programme “Restructuring of Contemporary Islam and Economic Dynamics in Asia, from the Caucasus to China” (see Pattrika no. 20) and is coordinated by Dr Laurent Gayer (CSH), started with three presentations:

• Initial session by Laurent Gayer, presenting the aims of the programme and its theoretical groundings on 4th May.
• Presentation by Sarah Mehta (Fullbright scholar, India / Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi) on the uses of state services by Indian Muslim women, particularly in the field of health and education on 9th June.
• Presentation by Mollica Dastider (Fellow, Nehru Memorial on Events, Perceptions, Emotions: A Profile of Political Islam in Bangladesh on 10th August.

Contact: Dr. Laurent Gayer, laurent.gayer@cshdelhi.com

Workshop on The transformations of the peri-urban area of Indian Metropolises: the cases of Bangalore and Delhi, organised by CSH in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at the G.I.S. Lab, School of Social Sciences-JNU on 19th May. In the frame of their joint research programme “Exploring the Metropolitan Area of Delhi: A Spatial Exploratory Data Analysis of the Metropolitan Process”, this workshop covered various issues ranging from the territorialisation processes (Géraldine Savin, University of Provence) to the question of spatial mobility (Joseph Chauvin, University of Provence) in the peri-urban area of Bangalore. The impact of Delhi on the neighbouring villages with regards to the social indicators (Bertrand Lefebvre, CSH) was also questioned. In addition, this workshop was also the opportunity to discuss the first results of the Geographic Information System on the National Capital Region of Delhi which is jointly developed by CSH and CSRD.

Contact: Bertrand Lefebvre, bertrand.lefebvre@csh-delhi.com

International Conference: The fifth edition of the Journées d’Economie Publique Louis-André Gérard-Varet has taken place in Marseille on 16th-17th June. This international yearly conference aims at encouraging the production and diffusion of high quality research in public economics, with a special emphasis towards results that clearly contribute to shed light on various aspects of the ‘real world’ public decision making. In this sense, this conference is in the spirit of the project of developing the Institut d’Economie Publique (IDEP) to which the French economist Louis- André Gérard-Varet devoted the last years of his life. This conference has been scientifically coordinated since its very beginning by Nicolas Gravel (CSH Delhi and IDEP-GREQAM). The fifth edition of the conference has welcomed the presentation of about 40 years, with keynote lectures given by Tim Besley (London School of Economics) and David Martimort (University of Toulouse). All themes of public economics such as taxation, fiscal federalism, political economy, local public economics, macroeconomic regulation and normative foundations of public intervention have been covered. Some of the papers presented, and the two keynote lectures, will be published in a future issue of the journal Economie Publique-Public Economics.

Contact: Prof. Nicolas Gravel, nicolas.gravel@csh-delhi.com

Monthly Seminar held at the CSH on Forms, objects and stakes of political mobilizations in contemporary India, which is part of the collective project on “India’s democratic renewal in question” (see Pattrika no. 21) and is coordinated by Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama- Rewal, started with three presentations:

• Presentation of the project by Dr Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal on 17th January.
• “Political mobilizations – Democratic Mutations”, a partial genealogy of political mobilization theories, by Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal on 5thJuly.
• “Emerging Links between urban management, collective action and (re) mobilization of the middle class in Mumbai – Framing hypothesis and preliminary findings”, by Marie-Hélène Zérah (Institute of Research for Development & CSH on 26th July.

Contact: Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, tawalama@ehess.fr

IFP

International Conference on Streams of Language: Dialects in Tamil from early to modern times, as reflected in writing and speech. The aim of this Conference was to examine the place of dialects in history and contemporary Tamil culture in a comparative perspective, with respect to other south Indian languages and the European experience. Bringing in different methodologies from philology, linguistics, literature and cultural history, the Conference aimed to bring together perspectives that will enable us to explore and develop tools, to comprehend and situate diversity in the production and circulation of language. Some of the areas that the Conference aimed to cover were:

1. The state of dialect studies in South India;
2. Dialects in historical sources;
3. Dialects in living practices, techniques;
4. Dialects in literary production, folklore and media;
5. Dialects as vehicle for construction of identities, regional and social;
6. Dialects, standardization and language policy.

This conference took place at the IFP on 23rd- 25th August.

Contact: M. Kannan, kannan_m@ifpindia.org
For more details, see IFP website: http://www.ifpindia.org/-Dialects-in-Tamil-.html

Lecture on The institutionalization of Tibetan medicine in Indian exile by Stephen Kloos, anthropologist, University of California at San Francisco and Berkeley, held at the IFP on 30th May. How do Tibetans live their lives in exile, and what does Tibetan medicine have to do with it? These simple questions lie at the root of this research project, which aims at investigating the ways in which politics, ethics, and citizenship are manifested in the institutionalisation of Tibetan medicine. Preliminary findings suggest that Tibetan medicine is a central domain in which not only ethics but also politics and citizenship are produced and negotiated in exile. The ways in which this happens resemble emerging forms of governance and corporate strategies in an increasingly globalized world, where contemporary democracies are forced to redefine and rethink themselves ands their relations with others.

The purpose of this project is thus to provide a multisided ethnography of the Tibetan diaspora through the lens of the institutionalization of Tibetan medicine. This includes especially a history of its most powerful institution, the Dharamsala-based Men-Tsee- Khang (College of Medicine and Astrology), and an inquiry into its role in the life, politics, and identity management of the Tibetan refugee community. On a more theoretical level, an argument is proposed for an understanding of politics that is not opposed to but integral to ethical conduct. The research is ongoing since 2005 and will culminate in 18 months of in-depth ethnographic and archival research in Dharamsala and other Tibetan settlements in India in 2007/8.

Contact: Stephan Kloos, skloos@berkeley.edu

Lecture on Food as a metaphor for the past and the future: a comparison between farmers and hunter-gatherers in the Palni Hills region in Tamil Nadu by Dr Christer Norstrom, department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden, held at the IFP on 20th June.

This research takes as a starting point the way food, food consumption and food production is perceived among farmers and hunter-gatherers in the area of the Palini Hills. With this focus, the idea is to illuminate broader societal processes of political-economic nature, including ideas and strategies for creating food security in a world which goes through a process of thorough global agro-food restructuring.

In this respect, two cases were presented and compared. The first case was the Paliyans of the Palni Hills, and their combination of hunting and gathering and work in plantations, in an environment where traditional forest foods are still available and where the idea of food consumption is rather a question of political nature rather than food security. The second case was the caste villages around the Kadavakuruchi hillock, a dry-land area in the foothills of the Palni Hills. This area is heavily degraded and suffers from a very low groundwater table as well as low rainfall and regular droughts, putting severe limitation on agriculture, forcing almost a third of the farmers to migrate for temporary labour in other areas. Here food security is a survival issue, especially for the small farmers and landless villagers. In spite of these problems the villagers were very reluctant to return to traditional food crops for subsistence, although this is recommended by some NGOs, to at least secure a minimum of food for consumption. They still prefer cash crop cultivation and temporary migration and a reliance on cash for buying food even if it creates a heavy dependence on the market.

The research will, through comparison, highlight the relation between cultural perspectives of food, sociopolitical processes and the environment.

Contact: Dr. Christer Norstrom, christer.norstrom@socant.su.se

Lecture on the Usage of low-resolution satellite data for fire studies, by Nicolas de Caluwe, trainee from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium with the support of Agathe Garendeau, International Civil Volunteer, held at the IFP on 6th July. The topic was on the preliminary study about the possibility of using images of NOAA-AVHRR atmospheric satellites for detecting forest fires and delineate burnt areas in the forests of the Western Ghats.

A methodology was set up to try and detect forest fires and to delineate burnt areas. This methodology was based on NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. The study area, located in the South of the Palghat gap, was the one used by the ecology department of the IFP for the “landscape” project (Forest Landscape Analysis and Management Plan for Kerala). 13 NOAAAVHRR images were used, dating from the months of March and April of the years 2002 to 2005. This methodology was based on the modification of pixel values in three channels: albedo, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and surface temperature.

Albedo of burnt area should show a decrease of value compared to former vegetation; NDVI should have a lesser value of reflectance because of the decrease of the reflectance in the near infrared spectrum. Surface temperature of active fire should have an increase of value because of the heat. Some problems appear for detecting burnt areas.

Results that were found with this methodology were not conclusive because of the big heterogeneity of the study area and the surroundings, and also because of the resolution of NOAA-AVHRR images compared to the size of fire in these forests.

Contact: Nicolas de Caluw, ndecaluw@ulb.ac.be

Lecture on Multivariable analysis of floristic data on the Ghats by Karine Belna, Agronomist, Institut National d’Agronomie de Paris-Grignon, France at the IFP on 13th July.

It is acknowledged that bioclimate has a strong effect on the floristic composition of the forests of the Western Ghats, though its interaction with human disturbances still needs to be precised. Furthermore, “intrinsic” dynamical features of individual species can also influence floristic composition. Techniques of multivariate analysis were used, which explicitly integrate the effect of environmental variables (two-table methods), to investigate the complex, interacting influences on floristic composition of bioclimate, disturbance and species dynamics, on the basis of a large dataset from Karnataka (FFEM study by B.R. Ramesh and collaborators). The most significant and new results of the analyses will be presented.

Contact: Karine Belna, karine_belna@yahoo.fr

Training on GIS for the Basix NGO members. A nice map rather than a sheet of numbers? This is the option chosen by the NGO Basix with whom the Microfinance team of the IFP works, for its geo-referenced data. The IFP-Basix cooperation led to a short two-day training on GIS by the Laboratory of Applied Informatics and Geomatics to a team of 11 people from Basix. It was more specifically aimed at evaluating the representation tool aspect, and to master the methodological chain which goes from the collect of data (GPS; Census of India, data files) to their simple cartographic representation.

The main elements of the training were:

1. Introduction to GIS;
2. Usage of topographic maps simultaneously with other maps;
3. Cartographic representation;
4. Usage of different databases (Census of India, specific database);
5. How to present a map; and
6. Usage of GPS systems

Contact: Muthusankar, muthusankar@ifpindia.org

Training on the Historical Atlas of South India. In the framework of the Historical Atlas of South India project, the IFP organised a three-day training course from 5th April to 7th April, for the Indian universities involved in the project. It was a theoretical and practical introduction to GIS (Geographic Information System), and a training for entering archaeological, historical and spatial data. The emphasis was set on the import of data within a GIS (ArcInfo / ArcView) from a spreadsheet (Excel) and from a GPS (Garmin), and also on the checking and visualization of data with the GIS. This training was directed towards the personnel of the partnering universities of this project: Tamil University of Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Mahatma Gandhi University of Kottayam (Kerala), Mangalore University (Karnataka) and Central University of Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh).

Contact: Prof. Yellava Subbarayalu, ysray@ifpindia.org

EFEO

International Workshop on Tamil Commentaries, held at the EFEO Pondicherry from 26th-28th July entitled Between Preservation and Recreation: Tamil Traditions of Commentary in Pursuit of the Cankam Era. A dozen scholars from widely different backgrounds – philology, linguistics, history, art history and anthropology – participated. The workshop was held to honour an outstanding scholar who has been working for more than 30 years at the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO and who has taught many of today’s scholars of Classical Tamil texts, Pandit T.V. Gopal Iyer. May his 81 years of learning be followed by many more. (http://www.efeo.fr/recherche/indologie8.shtml)

Contact: Dr Eva Wilden, eva@efeopondicherry.org

Classical Tamil Summer Seminar: This event this year replaced the fourth Classical Tamil Winter School (CTWS) and was organized by Dr Eva Wilden at Pondicherry from 31st July-25th August. This year the focus was on classical war poetry (Puram). For the first two weeks there were reading sessions of the Purananuru with Pandit T.V. Gopal Iyer. His selection of poems included not only martial poems and praise of kings, but emphasized also the more philosophical and didactic elements to be found in that anthology. The second half of the course was primarily devoted to sections from Tiruvilaiyatarpuranam, a collection of narratives about the pastimes of Shiva in Maturai, perhaps of the 17th century. Grammar discussions were held with Eva Wilden, and Thomas Lehmann (Heidelberg). Other classes were given by G. Vijayavenugopal (epigraphical literature), Varada Desikan (Vaishnava texts), T.S. Gangadharan (epics). Participation was, as usual, international (students and researchers this year came from France, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Italy and the USA). (http://www.efeo.fr/ctws/)

Contact: Dr Eva Wilden, eva@efeo-ondicherry.org

Presentation of Kasikavrtti Project: On 17th July, a presentation was given in Pune of the European IT@ASIA programme ‘Archaeology of Asian Text’. This presentation was organised by Prof. Saroja Bhate, academic supervisor of the project in India, François Patte (EFEO –Pune), representative of INRIA in India for this project. Dr. S.L.P. Anajaneya Sarma represented the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO. This project aims at producing a software to help the construction of critical edition of Sanskrit texts in two ways: 1) comparisons of manuscript texts to build a critical apparatus; 2) use of phylogenetic trees in order to find families in a given corpus of manuscripts. Among those Among those who spoke were: Marc Csernel, INRIA, on the comparison software, Marc Le Pouliquen, Ens Bretagne, on phylogenetic trees, and the Pune team of Sanskritists working on the manuscripts of the kashikavritti (text chosen to test the software) in order to produce a critical edition of this text: Anuja and Tanuja Ajotikar, Sasmita Kulkarni, Mukta Keskar, Bharati Balte, Prachi Sohani and Asawari Gokhale.

Contact: François Patte, francois.patte@efeo.net

Workshop on Conceptions of Liberation: Prof. Manidravida Sastri, from the Sanskrit College in Chennai, conducted a two-day workshop in the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO at the end of July about rival conceptions of “liberation” as presented in the Paramoksanirasakarikavrtti (10th century).

Contact: Dr. Dominic Goodall, dominicgoodall@efeo-pondicherry.org

Workshop on Sanskritic Theory of Language. Prof. V. Ramakrishna Bhatt, Kalay University, Kerala, was invited to conduct a five-day workshop in the Pondcherry Centre of the EFEO in the second week of August on the theory of language in the Sabdanirnaya.

Contact: Dr. Dominic Goodall, dominicgoodall@efeo-pondicherry.org

PUBLICATIONS

CSH

The European Union in World Politics

Rajendra K. Jain, Hartmut Elsenhans & Amarjit S Narang (eds.)
Radiant Publishers, New Delhi, 2006, 324p, Rs 750

The book examines the role of the European Union as an influential actor in world politics. The 17 essays in this volume evaluate EU enlargement and the Common Foreign and Security Policy. They assess the European Union’s trade policy and role in multilateral trade negotiations, international crises and conflict resolution. The study discusses the impact of the Iraq war (2003) on transatlantic relations. This study critically evaluates the role of France, Germany and Britain in the process of European integration and assesses the challenges of institutional reform. This volume will be of interest to policy makers as well as those engaged in the fields of economics, international relations and area studies.

India, the European Union and the WTO

Rajendra K. Jain, Hartmut Elsenhans (eds.)
Radiant Publishers, New Delhi, 2006, 316p, Rs 750

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has emerged as the most significant multilateral institution regulating international trade. The 13 essays in this volume by Indian and European policy analysts, policy-makers and academics critically examine the role of the European Union and India in international trade negotiations against the background of liberalization, globalisation and regionalism. The book evaluates the impact of the WTO on developing countries. It examines the convergence and divergence between India and the European Union towards critical multilateral trade issues, including agriculture, services, and labour standards.This study will be of interest to policy makers and those engaged in the fields of economics, political science, and international relations.

India, Europe and the Changing Dimensions of Security

Rajendra K. Jain & Hartmut Elsenhans (eds.)
Radiant Publishers, New Delhi, 2006, 309p, Rs 750

Containing 16 essays by Indian and European Security experts, policy analysts and academics, this book assesses the impact of the changing dimensions of security since the end of the Cold War on defence and security policies of India and Europe and the political-military ramifications of the events of 11th September 2001. The volume covers a broad range of contemporary security issues including European Security and Defence Policy, non-proliferation, humanitarian intervention, conflict resolution, reform of the United Nations, and the causes and consequences of terrorism. The study critically evaluates the recent trends in the policy of the European Union towards South Asia and Afghanistan. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, international relations, defence and security studies.

Against the Current (Vol. III). Electricity Act and Technical Choices for the Power Sector in India

Prem K. Kalra & Joël Ruet (eds.)
Manohar-CSH, New Delhi, 2006, 219p, Rs 500

The State Electricity Boards (SEB) presents a huge potential for daily change in the lives of a billion-strong Indian population. Often described as nearly impossible to reform, SEBs offer huge untapped potential for higher technological efficiency, that in turn could mean reliable electricity for day-to-day life, reduced bills for the users and the public exchequer, higher environmental sustainability. For this potential to appear clearly in the public debate, the so-called ‘technicalities’ of the power sector should no longer be the monopoly of a few specialists and technocrats. And indeed, India’s history of economic regulation has entered into a new era when, in the power sector, the model of ‘independent regulation’ for utilities got enacted through the Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act, 1998, then followed by the new Electricity Act 2003. The regulatory commissions gained a saying in virtually all technical matters within the utilities. The biggest chasse gardée of the SEBs engineers had not resisted. This volume comes as third in a series on the power sector reforms in India. The series attempts at understanding (i) the organizational tasks, (ii) the tariffs aspects, (iii) the role of the private, (iv) the role of technology in the complex, variegated, state-specific Indian scenario. A clear and sound public debate on tariffs, service, advantages, and limits of privatization in the Indian scenario can only come from an informed assessment of current margins in technological enhancement of SEBs and on the relevance of the Act in framing such a new Indian power system. This volume wishes to contribute to this debate.

Local Democracy in India: Interpreting Decentralization

Girish Kumar
Sage Publications , New Delhi, 2006, 326p, Rs 450 (paperback); Rs 750 (hardback)

Despite the considerable literature on the subject and the innumerable experiments at making it work, decentralization remains an enigma today. The basic objective of this large-scale study is to reconstruct the contemporary history of decentralization in India with a view to understanding its impact on democratization. This is done with reference to the experiences of four states – Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh – which represent three generations of panchayats. The author assesses the contribution of these local institutions in expanding the social base of democracy and in deepening the process of democratization at the local level. Using interviews and discussions with all the actors in the field of decentralization, the author presents a comparative and detailed account of panchayat-centric democratic decentralization in these states. In doing so, the original objectives of the policymakers have been interrogated, and an assessment made of the intentions as compared to the ground reality. The author covers a host of important issues including whether: panchayats empower people and strengthen democracy at the local level; the policy of reservation has created space for the weaker sections, including women; the people are satisfied with the performance of panchayats. Understanding decentralization in the context of the existing political system as also recognizing the needs of the people, this volume will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of politics, history and sociology, as well as to social activists and journalists.

IFP

Des Intouchables aux Dalit: les errements d’un movement d’émancipation dans l’Inde contemporaine

Djallal G. Heuzé, IFP/Aux Lieux D’Etre, 2006, 143p
Language: French, 20 Euros

In India, the term Dalit is claimed by those who were earlier called untouchables. They have created a movement of emancipation that reveals worrying tensions on its margins. The campaign of a journal that, in 1981, took on the title of Dalit Voice, bears testimony to this fact. Agitating against the caste system and for statutory equality, this journal, which is influential among the small elite originating from the lower castes, constitutes a remarkable example of the drift in the discourse of the oppressed towards a hatred of the Other and a fantasy of domination. By shedding light on this little-known face of contemporary India, this book makes a fundamental contribution to the understanding of the communal question in the subcontinent.

Keywords: Dalit, militant, social emancipation, communal questions.

IFP/EFEO

Paniniyavyakaranodaharanakosah. The Paninian grammar through its examples. Vol. 1. Udaharanasamaharah. The book of examples: 40,000 entries for a text

F. Grimal, V. Venkataraja Sarma, V. Srivatsankacharya, S, Lakshminarasimham, IFP/EFEO/ Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Tirupati, 2006, xi, 1022p. (Book)
Language: Sanskrit, English (Distributed by the RSV, Tirupati/ Diffusé par le RSV, Tirupati)

The Paniniyavyakaranodaharanakosah is an instrument for grasping in a concrete way both the functioning and the field of application if the complex grammatical system of the Astadhyayi of Panini along with the varttika-s of katyayana. To this end, the approximately 40,000 examples provided by the Mahabhasya, the kasikavrtti, the Bhasavrtti and the Siddhantakaumudi, have been collected and made the subject of articles whose content corresponds to this dual objective. The work is, thus, in the form of articles whose content corresponds to this dual objective. This work is, thus, in the form of a dictionary whose entries are those examples which are accessed either directly or through Astadhyayi’s sutra-s or by Indian grammatical terminology. In presenting this entire work, it seemed most appropriate to follow the presentation of Paninian grammar made by the Siddhantakaumudi. Consequently, each of the volumes of the dictionary, from the second on, corresponds to a prakarana of that commentary.

This title was first released in the form of a CD-ROM in 2005.

Keywords: Sanskrit, Paninian grammar, examples, commentaries.

EFEO

Tirumankaiyalvar aruliya panuval aranul Periya Tirumoli

T.V. Gopal Iyer
Teyvaccekilar Caivacittantap Patacalai, Tanjavur / EFEO, 2006, 2 vols., 1576p; Rs 1000 Language: Tamil, (Distributed by the Teivacceekki-laar caivacittaantap paa.tacaalai, Tanjavur and EFEO (Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, Pondicherry)

The Periya Tirumoli is an anthology of Vaishnava Tamil literature that goes back to the end of the first millenium. It was composed by Tirumankai Alvar, one of the 12 Alvars, the devotee poets who were the authors of that corpus. The present edition in two volumes gives the text of the hymns, followed by the commentary of the editor, along with excerpts in Tamil from the Manipravalam commentary of Periyavaccan Pillai (13th century).

WELCOME

…at the CSH

Sébastien BOSSARD, a PhD student in History at the University of Nantes, joined the CSH from July to August. He is working on the project Indo-Chinese Relationships from 1972-1998.

Dr Rémy DELAGE, a post-doctoral scholar, joined the CSH from June to August. As part of the international programme Restructuring of Contemporary Islam, his research deals with Muslim Educational Networks and Discourses of Reform.

Jules NAUDET, a PhD student from Sciences Po, joined the CSH from August 2006 to February 2007 to work on his project A comparative analysis of upward social mobility in France, India and the United States (see research section).

Sandra RUEHM, a PhD student in Political Science from the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University, Germany, joined the Centre from August to October to work on her project Economic Performance in India. A comparison of investment policies in Tamil Nadu and Bihar (see research section).

Dr. Samadia SADOUNI, joined the CSH in July this year for a period of three months. As part of the international programme Restructuring of Contemporary Islam, her research deals with The Islam Christianity debate in the Indian transnational community – Comparison between South Africa and India.

…at the IFP

STEPHEN A, a Botanist with a Masters in Science from Madras Christian College, joined the Institute from 1st January for a period of one year to work on his research project Reconstruction of past environments of Eastern Ghats.

Alexis AVDEEF, a PhD student from EHESS-Centre of Anthropology, France, joined the CSH from 25th June- 29th August to work on his study of Nadi Astrology.

G.S.V. DATTATREYAMURTHY, researcher from Rashtriya Sanskrita Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, joined the Institute from 20th March-31st December to work on his research title Critical edition of Sukshmagama.

Marek HUDON, a researcher from the FNRS and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, joined the Institute from 7th July-20th August to conduct field research on microfinance in India.

K. ISWARIALAKSHMI, software developer from Pondicherry University, joined the CSH from 7th June 2006 to 31st May 2007 to work on the development of database applications and web-oriented software including for the OSCAR and BIOTIK projects.

Franck JABOT, engineer from Ecole Polytechnique, France, and completing an Engineering degree in ENGREF, France, joined the Institute from 3rd July-31st August to contribute to the study undertaken by the IFP on the management plan of Bio-reserves of Agasthyamalai.

Yann LE GOATER, a PhD candidate from Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales (IHEI), France, joined the Institute from 16th June-15th September to work on his research topic Recognizing traditional knowledge and promoting indigenous medicine in India.

Dr. Tim LUBIN, researcher from the Washington and Lee University, USA, and Head of the project Brahmanical Culture in Ancient India joined the Institute from 24th July-26th August, to pursue his research on Tamil inscriptions and to attend the EFEO’s Classical Tamil Summer Seminar.

Gita V.PAI, a PhD candidate and Fullbright scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, joined the Institute from 30th April-31st December to work on the Material Culture of the Nayaka Period, Thanjavur.

Bruno POTIN, a student in Forest Management (ENGREF, France) joined the Institute from 17th July- 12th August as a trainee to work on the Synthesis of the results on the growth of forest species of midaltitude in the Western Ghats of Karnataka.

FU SHILUN, a student with a Masters degree in Engineering from Beijing University, joined the Institute from 19th May -17th August as a trainee to design a toolbox for multidimensional statistics for the Scilab open-source software.

Annabel VANROOSE, a researcher from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, joined the Institute from 10th July-27th August to conduct fieldwork on her research topic related to the uneven development of the microfinance sector in India.

…at the EFEO

Dr. Csaba DEZSO (lecturer in Eötvos Lorand University, Budapest) returned to Pondicherry to work with Dominic Goodall in July and August on their edition and translation of the Kuttanimata (“The Bawd’s Counsel”) an eighthcentury verse novel set in Benares.

Dr. Jean-Luc CHEVILLARD (CNRS Paris) returned to Pondicherry to participate in the Tamil workshop organised by the Centre and to complete the joint EFEOIFP project “Digital Tevaram”, the output of which will be an electronic text, furnished with an English rendering indices, maps, sound-recordings and images, of the corpus of Shaiva devotional literature in medieval Tamil.

Dr. Will SWEETMAN, lecturer in the dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand, returned to Pondicherry for a month to participate in the CTSS and for work on his project about the Protestant missionary Ziegenbalg.

Prof. Kei KATAOKA (Kyushu University, Fukuoka) returned to the Centre in August to participate in sessions of the Shaiva Reading Group.

Hugo DAVID, student at the EPHE and scholar of the EFEO, arrived in Pondicherry in July for a stay of several months to study the Sabdanirnaya of Prakasatman and other related Sanskrit literature.

Dr. Charlotte SCHMID, (EFEO) returned to Pondicherry in July for work on the epigraphs of certain Chola temples and on the iconography of the Pallava monuments in Kanchipuram.

Dr. Vincenzo VERGIANI, (“La Sapienza” University, Rome) returned to Pondicherry in July to participate in the CTSS and for further work on the international project to prepare a critical edition of the “Benares Gloss” (Kasikavrtti) and to produce a software that will help with manuscript collation.

Dr. Pascale HAAG, (EHESS) returned to Pondicherry for reading sessions with Prof. V. Venkataraja Sarma to study Sanskrit grammatical texts, notably the Praudhamanorama, the Manoramakucamardini and the Shabdakaustubha.

Dr. Martine GESTIN, returned to Pondicherry to continue her study of the life and literature of the Muthuvars.

GOODBYE

IFP

Karine BELNA, student with a diploma in general agronomy from Institut National d’Agronomie, Paris Grignon, France left on 20th July.

Evangelin Prabha AUGUSTIN, MSC in Computer Science from Pondicherry University.

Nicolas de CALUWE, Masters in Biology from University of Brussels (ULB), left on 8th July.

K. NANDAKUMARAN, Masters degree in Computer Application, left on 30th June.

EFEO

Dr Daniel NEGERS, member of the EFEO since 2000, left Pondicherry and the EFEO at the end of August 2006 in order to take up a post in Telugu Studies at INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Studies and Civilisations), Paris.

MILESTONES

Ms. Vasanthy Georges, Research Director at the IFP, was awarded the Knighthood in the French Order of the Academic Palms

On 14th July 2006, Ms. Vasanthy Georges received this medal as a tribute to her eminent contributions to research, training, and diffusion of knowledge at the French Institute of Pondicherry. Ms. Vasanthy joined the IFP as early as 1970, which made her the first woman to be recruited among the scientific staff there and one of the first active women in her field of specialization. In the years that followed, she established, through her dynamism, her competence and her open-mindedness, a tight network of scientific collaborations, which led her to produce frequent publications that have appeared in the best international journals in her field. Her doctoral thesis, defended in 1985, is such a reference point that it has been indexed at the library of the United States’ Library of Congress, which is extremely rare for a document of this type. During her 35 years of active service, Ms Vasanthy has constantly been making use of her expertise in palynology techniques in training a great number of trainees and PhD students – French, Indian, and of other nationalities – some of whom have since become confirmed researchers. With all the energy that characterizes her, Ms. Vasanthy is currently devoting her last few months at the IFP to finalizing a monumental iconographic catalogue of pollens and trees of South India, which covers some 345 botanical species. The innovative aspect of this electronic catalogue, designed to be coupled with a computer-assisted identification system, will make it a remarkable tool of knowledge transmission and of distance learning.

INSTITUTES

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INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DEPONDICHÉRY 11 Saint Louis Street, PB 33, Pondicherry 605001 Tel: ( 91) 413 2334168 Fax: (91) 413 2339534 http://www.ifpindia.org Director Dr. Jean-Pierre MULLER, ifpdir@ifpindia.org Administration Williams MICHEL, secretary general williams.michel@ifpindia.org Anand PAKIAM, communications in-charge ifpcom@ifpindia.org Scientific Departments Dr. Pierre COUTERON, head, department of Ecology, pierre.couteron@ifpindia.org Dr. Laurent PORDIE head, department of Social Sciences laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org Other services Dr. Frédéric BORNE, head, Lab of Geomatics and Applied Informatics, borne@ifpindia.org Ms Anurupa NAIK, head, Centre for Documentary Resources, anurupa.n@ifpindia.org For information on Pattrika & Publications, please contact: Attreyee Roy Chowdhury, attreyee@csh-delhi.com Anand Pakiam, ifpcom@ifpindia.org