Medicine as a Prism: Outlines of an International Research Programme at the IFP
Started in 2004 after a two-year period of exploratory research, the international programme “Societies and Medicines in South Asia” has today reached a satisfying tempo. A network of over 40 researchers and PhD candidates, belonging to major European, American and Asian (mostly Indian) universities and research institutions, has established itself as a regional authoritative research unit on the social production of South Asian medicine. The general objective is to understand how contemporary therapeutic spaces are constructed, identified and legitimated. While the various therapeutic practices of the region are the obvious chosen port of entry, it is in fact entire sections of the concerned societies that are studied here. For, medicines, and more generally the means by which people avail to prevent, relieve or heal suffering and disease are formed, transformed and reformed in the field of health and beyond. The use of the “medical” as a prism makes a thorough exploration of the social world possible, an exploration that becomes all the more relevant through the comparative approach offered by this programme.
The programme explores themes such as the networks of power surrounding health, therapeutic innovations, the trans-nationalization of “traditional” medicines and the government politics pertaining to health and the body. They delineate a number of fundamental questions concerning the political dimensions of health and issues of medical and social identities, which constitute the very framework of the programme. Besides these transversal themes that concern all projects, vertical axis of research is also retained. They pertain to the institutionalisation of therapeutic practices and the study of governance, the commoditization of indigeneous medicines, and their biomedicalization, especially in the case of clinical trials and the quest for efficacy. Researches examine the social rationale at play in the transformation of folk medicines and religious therapies, scholarly indigenous medicines (Ayurveda, Siddha, and Tibetan medicine), or again homeopathy.
The strength of the programme lies in its organisation as a network, of which each individual researcher can benefit. Not only methods and approaches are shared and compared across the various disciplines involved (anthropology, sociology, geography, political sciences, philosophy, modern history and human ecology), but also ethnographic data and theoretical analysis are the object of formal or informal group discussions, so as to finally enhance the heuristic dimension of each individual work. Outputs are, therefore, the results of constituted teams acting synergistically. Dozens of ranked publications and several individual and edited books have been produced so far, and hope to contribute in a substantial manner to the concerned field of study. In addition to that, international gatherings have been organised yearly at the IFP. They broached themes of interested for current academic research, such as the merging of social science research and policies implementation (2004), new trends in medical practice and the development of descriptive models to understand healing today (2005), and the politics of medical institutionalization (2006). Moreover, the very fact to be organized as a network has dramatically increased success in obtaining external funds and grants to pursue research.
While there is, undoubtedly, still a lot to undertake to improve the efficiency of the programme before its end in 2008, “Societies and Medicines in South Asia” exemplifies the necessity for modern research to leave aside individual, isolated works, and to embrace collective and collaborative enterprises.
Contact: Dr. Laurent Pordié,laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org
For more details :
http://www.ifpindia.org/Societies-and-Medicines-in-South-Asia.html
FOCUS
CSH
Urban policies, territories and social exclusion: a comparison between India and Brazil
The CSH Urban dynamics programme is contributing to a new international and interdisciplinary project focusing on urban policies and social exclusion with a comparative perspective between India and Brazil.
This project addresses some of the challenges faced by both Indian and Brazilian mega-cities, namely a severe housing problem, the spectacular growth of slums or favelas, spatial disjunction, rapid and socially contrasted peri-urbanisation and threats to the ecology. Public policies try to solve these problems through housing, rehabilitation or conservation programmes. Our hypothesis is that the evolution of these policies, in terms of their ideological background as well as their implementation, induces comparable social changes in the urban space, which raises similar questions. For instance, is social exclusion increasing? Are new conflicts emerging between spaces (centre/periphery) and between sectors (housing/'natural' resources)?
Two topics constitute the core of the project: i) poor urban areas in contexts of social exclusion, urban splintering and globalization; ii) urban and peri-urban environment and their inter-relationships with poverty. These issues will be addressed through case studies in Mumbai, Delhi, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, and by examining two sets of policies: public policies regarding urban poverty in relation to the “treatment” of slums; and policies linking access to housing, poverty and conservation of the peri-urban forest. Three approaches, namely territorial, socio-political and legal, will be combined.
Analysing the issues at stake from these different angles and comparing the policies adopted in mega-cities of India and Brazil will allow us to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of exclusion and to better appraise the validity of the actions undertaken, and more generally to promote reflection on the urban policies, programmes and instruments employed.
This joint project involves a team of about 15 Indian, French and Brazilian researchers from various institutions, including, apart from the CSH, the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (EHESS/CNRS, Paris), the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research (Mumbai) and the University of Sao Paolo. The project will be funded for a three-year period by the French National Agency for Research (ANR).
Contact:
Dr. Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky (INALCO & CEIAS, Paris), marieyat@hotmail.com;
Dr. Frédéric Landy (University of Paris X & CEIAS, Paris), frederic.landy@wanadoo.fr
&
Dr. Véronique Dupont (CSH), veronique.dupont@csh-delhi.com
FOCUS (contd...)
EFEO
New initiatives in Saiva Studies
At the time of the EFEO's foundation in 1900, its hear tland was in South East Asia and its members saw themselves as interpreters of the “sinicised” and “indianised” cultures of that region. The great monuments there that were once Shaiva and Vaishnava temples, and more particularly their Sanskrit inscriptions, inevitably led members of the EFEO to turn to the West, to India, to find texts and practices in living Indian temples that could help reconstruct something of the religious history of the long period of powerful Indian cultural influence. Much of the literature that was most relevant to such reconstruction, however, has not been published or been the focus of study, either by foreign scholars or by Indian ones, except those within the particular religious communities to which the texts belonged. At the beginning of the 20th century, this corpus, the corpus of Hindu tantric literature was thus virtually unknown and unknowable through printed sources.
Starting in 1911, the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies began gradually to unveil to scholars a number of Shaiva tantric works that had been translated in Kashmir, particularly philosophical works composed in the Kashmir valley in between the 8th and 13th centuries. But the works of the tantric current that appears in this period to have dominated the Shaiva religion across most of the Indian subcontinent and beyond, namely the Shaiva Siddhanta, remained relatively neglected.
When, therefore, Jean Filliozat, secured a foothold for French research about India with the founding of the French Institute of Pondicherry in 1955, he was in an ideal situation for setting about the study of a forgotten chapter of religious history. For in recent centuries, the Tamil-speaking South is the only area of the subcontinent where a large body of literature of the Shaiva Siddhanta has continued being copied and so transmitted to the present day.
Jean Filliozat launched two ambitious initiatives that served this end: the constitution of photographic archives concentrating on South Indian temples, and the building of a collection of manuscripts of Shaiva religious literature from the surrounding countryside, now recognised by UNESCO as a “Memory of the World” collection.
The first months of 2007 will witness three further developments in this long line of study: 1) the online launch, with the help of the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute, of the integrated catalogue and imagerecord of the paper manuscripts of the IFP's collection; 2) an international workshop organised in the first fortnight of January 2007 in the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO on what may be the earliest text of the Shaiva Siddhanta to survive, the Nisvasatattvasamhita, transmitted in a beautiful ninth-century manuscript of the National Archives of Kathmandu, Kathmandu and filmed by the Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project; 3) the publication of a volume of essays in memory of Hélène Brunner, a pioneer in the field of Shaiva studies, whose influential work was for the most part conducted and published in Pondicherry.
Contact: Dr. Dominic Goodall (EFEO), dominicgoodall@efeo-pondicherry.org
RESEARCH
CSH
Contemporary forms and stakes of (sub) political mobilizations in urban India
Indian mega-cities are a major site of political innovation today, subsequently to the implementation of the decentralization policy, but also because they are used as show-windows by state governments who are eager to demonstrate their practice of the “good governance” prescribed by the World Bank. In this context, the new forms of local, political and sub-political mobilizations which have been multiplying in several Indian mega-cities in the previous decade, seem to answer the call for a greater participation of citizens into the management of local affairs. Stéphanie Tawa Lama Lama-Rewal has started conducting an anthropological study of these emerging mobilizations in the capital city of India, Delhi, with two objectives in mind: one, to contribute to the understanding of the nature of civil society in India, and of the local bases of a democracy that is often called “procedural”; and two, to test, through an empirical study, the notion of participatory democracy.
Contact: Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, tawalama@ehess.fr
Appraising the redistributive properties of the Indian fiscal equalization transfers
Equalization transfers from central to sub-national level are a very common policy instrument around the world, especially in federal countries. The primary motivation for these schemes is, typically, to equalize citizens' access to public services across jurisdictions by correcting the unequal distribution of fiscal capacity across states. For instance, the Indian constitution recognizes that the assignment of tax powers and expenditure functions would create imbalances between expenditure 'needs' and abilities to raise revenue and, thus, the requirement for equalization payments.
The purpose of this research project is to develop a methodology for appraising the equalizations transfers that are performed in the Indian federation, along the line of some previous work done for the Canadian federation. The fact that India is a well-structured federation as well as a developing country makes it a very interesting case study for this purpose. A large part of the economic literature has shown the crucial importance of public goods such as education and health in the growth and economic development. The allocation of these goods across Indian citizens and states, that are affected by the equalization transfers from the central to the local governments, can, therefore, be very significant for a sustainable economic development.
Contact: Benoît Tarroux, benoit.tarroux@csh-delhi.com
Living on the Edge: A Study of a Muslim Community in Delhi, the Quraish Biradree
While scholarly engagement with Islam and Muslims has increased worldwide, the interest of social scientists largely remains focused on ideological issues (communalism vs. secularism, for instance), without acknowledging the internal diversity of Muslim “societies” and “communities” and their patterns of formation. Anthropological and sociological works still remain marginal within Islamic studies. The present research aims at filling this gap, through a qualitative research on the Muslim butchers of Delhi.
Focusing on the Quresh biradree, the study broadly looks at:
- Caste and Ashraafisation among Muslims in India;
- why certain occupational groups among Muslims have remained at the margins of society;
- convergence or divergence of interest with the Muslims at large;
- reasons and patterns of inflow and outflow from the traditional occupation intra community linkages and their mechanisms;
- impact of mechanization on the occupation and those involved in the profession.
This study will draw on interviews and organizational literature largely from old Delhi and Ghazipur. Ethnographic methods of data collection like participant observation will also be used wherever possible.
Contact: Dr. Zarin Ahmad, zarin@csh-delhi.com
IFP
The IFP, partner of a project exploring the links between biodiversity and local productions
In the field of natural resources management, the twin demand for conservation and development gives rise to the implementation of instruments to promote the local knowhow, in order to reinforce the ties between local communities and the biodiversity that is associated to them. In Southern countries, the most tested instruments are presently, the Geographical Indications (GI), eco-certification, park brands and labels of fair trade.
However, it remains to see if these tools can play a role in the management and conservation of the cultural and biological diversity associated with localised productions.
In order to answer this question, the BIODIVALLOC project ('Biodiversité et Instruments de Valorisation des Productions Localisées') offers a multi-disciplinary approach (anthropology, geography, economics, ethnobiology, ecology and law studies) on six distinct fields: the Brazilian Amazon, Niger, the western African coastal region, South Africa, Ethiopia and India).
India in particular, is seen as a pioneer country in this field, having equipped itself with a sui generis protection system. Conflicts around key productions such as basmati rice and Darjeeling tea have indeed helped to arouse a national awareness. The project will in particular pay heed to the links between GI and biodiversity in the coffee-based agroforestry systems of the Western Ghats.
In this area, the project brings together Indian research institutions (College of Forestry, Ponnampet; National Law School, Bangalore University and University of Sciences and Technology, Cochin) and French (CIRAD and IFP). The funding is granted by the French National Agency for Research (ANR). The works started in the spring of 2006 and will be spread over a three-year period.
Contact: Dr Claude Garcia, claude.garcia@ifpindia.org
OSCAR, an open source software that recognizes weeds
During the past few years, the IFP has resolutely engaged itself in projects aiming to introduce the new information technologies in the field of biodiversity. This investment, based on international projects in South and South-East Asia is starting to reap fruits: the open source software “Open Source Simple Computer for Agriculture in Rural Areas” (OSCAR) has jut been published in its Internet version.
This software was created in the framework of the Asia IT&C programme of the European Commission, by the IFP (leader), the CIRAD (UMR AMAP), the Rice & Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic plains (Delhi, India) and the University of Wageningen (Netherlands). It enables the identification of the rice and weed species of the Indo-Gangetic plains (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) through an attractive graphical interface and accessible to nonspecialists, with, as aim, to improve the practices of monitoring weeds (“Precision agriculture”).
This software was presented last April in Delhi, in the presence of Indian authorities, of the Ambassadors of the European Union and of the Netherlands in India and of the press. A Public demonstration in the presence of the Minister of Education of the State of Pondicherry was given at the IFP on 7th September 2006
Contact: Dr. Pierre Grard, pierre.grard@cirad.fr & D. Balasubramanian, balu.d@ifpindia.org
EVENTS
(For more information on events, please consult our respective websites)
LECTURES/SEMINARS/ROUND TABLES/ WORKSHOPS
CSH
International Conference on The multidimensions of urban poverty in India, co-organised by the CSH & the Indira Gandhi Institute of Research for Development (IGIDR) on 6th-7th October at the IGIDR in Mumbai. The objective was to obtain a better understanding of urban poverty in India in a context of a well-known poverty-trend controversy that has surrounded the period since the liberalization process. While there has been a consensus on the fact that liberalization had led to a reduction of income poverty, the picture is not so clear if one considers other non-pecuniary dimensions (such as health, education, crime and access to infrastructure). Moreover, there is still a vigorous debate about the impact of the liberalization experience on the level of relative income inequalities. Around 30 economists and social scientists presented papers on the following topics: socio-economic and demographic processes, employment, health, schooling, provision of infrastructure and public goods, housing and credit markets. Papers can be downloaded at: http://www.igidr.ac.in/whatsnew/csh/final-program-igidr-csh.htm.
Contact: Dr. Marie-Hélène Zerah, zerah@ird.fr
Monthly seminar on Forms, objects and stakes of political mobilizations in contemporary India, held at the CSH as part of the collective project on “India's democratic renewal in question”, coordinated by Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal. The seminar continued with three presentations:
- Backwards Political Mobilization in Bihar. Attempting a Definition, by Cyril Robin (CSH) on 27th September.
- Reassessing the Transition Paradigm/ a South Asian Perspective, by Lionel Baixas (CSH), 10th November.
- Challenges to Indian Federalism: Politics of Identity and Self-Determination, by Sanjay K. Panday (CSH), 29th November.
- Legislative governance in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, by Pradeep K. Sharma, 20th December.
Contact: Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, tawalama@ehess.fr
Monthly seminar on Dynamics of Contemporary Islam in South Asia held at the CSH as part of the international programme “Restructuring of Contemporary Islam and Economic Development in Asia, from the Caucasus to China”, coordinated by Dr. Laurent Gayer. For the fourth session held on 4th October, Dr Samadia Sadouni (Centre for the Study of Sub-Saharan Africa, Bordeaux, France and French Institute for the Study of South Africa, IFAS, Johannesburg) presented her research on “Transnationalism and new modes of Islamic preaching in South Africa and India: the example of international preachers Ahmed Deedat and Zakir Naik”. Ahmed Deedat, a South-African of Indian descent, initiated in the mid-1950s a mode of reislamization which rests on religious polemics (munazara). Under the influence of his mentor, Zakir Naik, who is based in Mumbai, appropriated this original style of munazara in the 1990s by adapting it to the specific context of India and to the international environment of globalization. The originality of Deedat and Naik's trajectories, which present several analogies with that of American televangelists, lies in their extensive use of modern transnational media as a tool for the reislamization of their audience, which contributes to the individualization of religious practices and affiliations among their followers.
Contact: Dr. Laurent Gayer, laurent.gayer@csh-delhi.com
International Conference on Emerging health challenges and the response of Indian healthcare jointly organised by the CSH and the department of Geography of the Delhi School of Economics, took place on 4th-5th December at DSE. The Conference offered a sustained examination of the trends at work in the Indian healthcare system and their impact in the making of its future. With 16 papers coming from various fields (political science, geography, anthropology, public health) and from various parts of India and the world (Europe, USA), this was an opportunity to share results, experiences and methods among scholars and the audience. A report summarizing the debates and the main outcomes of the conference will be submitted to the Health Planning Commission of India for the preparation of the 11th Plan. The diversity and the quality of the papers will allow the making of two collective publications, submitted to inter national academic reviews, looking at the internationalisation and the latest political reforms of the Indian healthcare.
Contact: Bertrand Lefebvre, bertrand.lefebvre@csh-delhi.com
Presentation and Discussion of the Publication Cultural Dynamics and Strategies of the Indian Elite by Samuel Berthet, co-organised by the French Information Resource Centre (FIRC, New Delhi) and the CSH, at the FIRC library on 16th December. The discussion centred on the following: Raymond Schwab and Roger Pol-Droit have attempted to emphasize the role of Indian and Eastern philosophies in French thought. If after World War II, more or less accurate references about India regularly appeared in the French Arts, by the mid-20th century India was on the decline in the French cultural landscape. The Oriental Renaissance (that had started with the development of direct relations between Europe and India, by the end of the medieval period) supported a major intellectual shift by the turn of the 19th century to become gradually a cultural artifact. Did France and French culture have a special role to play in the context of the making of modern India and modern Indian identity? The Indian elite were keen to believe it, as well as few French scholars. But was colonial France able to accept this role? A dialogue of civilizations was called for. Could it resist political commitment?
Contact: Dr. Samuel Berthet, samuel.berthet@csh-delhi.com
For more information on the book, please see the Publications section of our newsletter
IFP
Workshop on Predicting species’ potential distributions from incomplete spatial data held at the IFP from 31st August to 1st September. Rarely are available data sufficient to permit the delineation of geographical/ecological distribution of a species all over an area of interest. Thus models are used to interpolate, or extrapolate beyond the locations where species' presence is known, by relating the latter to spatialized environmental. Very often, at a broad scale, available information consists of 'presence-only' data, for which there is only recorded observations of the species with no exhaustive and/or reliable information on where the species is not found. Since this type of data, originating from atlases, herbarium records or sparse plot sampling is widespread and par ticularly challenging, it deserves emphasis regarding the applicability of available algorithms and softwares. The idea of this workshop organised on a two-day span, was to have one par t devoted to lectures/debates and one part letting time to compare different methods/softwares with respect to a small number of reference datasets.
Contact: Dr. Pierre Couteron, pierre.couteron@ifpindia.org
For more details, http://www.ifpindia.org/-Seminars-.html
National Seminar on Understanding and Identifying Indebtedness and Over-indebtedness, co-organised by the IFP, the IRD and the CIRAD and held at the IFP on 4th-5th October. The objective was to study the impact of microfinance on the indebtedness of small farmers and agricultural labourers in India. This seminar allowed for an exchange of information and experiences between researchers, and agents (executives from NGOs, microfinance institutions, the Indian Bank, and representatives) who tackle the issue of indebtedness, from very different viewpoints (accounting, economic, social). Pioneering results with regards to the current views on microfinance, were presented. The team “Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics” of the IFP also presented the results of this seminar on 26th October, at a conference in Delhi (“Microfinance and Debt Swap for Poor”) organised by an association of microfinance institutions (International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions, INAFI) in the presence of State banks, the Reserve Bank of India and the NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).
Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin, isabelle.guerin@ifpindia.org
Dr. Marc Roesch, marc.roesch@ifpindia.org
For more details, http://www.ifpindia.org/-Seminars-.html
Workshop on Herbaceous taxa in south India: Ecology, Distribution and Applications in palaeovegetaion studies, held at the IFP from 30th November-1st December. The workshop, in continuation with the IFP's holistic approach to reconstructing past vegetation history and to provide a synthesis on the present day ecology and distribution of Herbaceous Taxa, was aimed at pooling the different participants' knowledge and expertise, to address the following points, through a joint publication:
- What are the key herbaceous pollen taxa (conventionally designated, NAP: Non-Arboraceous Pollen), commonly found in surface and core sediments?
- What are the main species included in these pollen taxa?
- What do we know about the present day distribution and Ecology of these species in south India?
- What are the key ecological herbaceous markers that can be “missed” in the pollen record?
- What are the inherent limitations in our methods and interpretation?
- To what extent can these limitations be overcome by using contemporary ecological studies on the herbaceous strata?
For more details, http://www.ifpindia.org/-Seminars-.html
International Workshop on The institutionalization of therapeutic practices in India. Social and legal perspectives, held at the IFP on 7th-8th December. In the framework of the programme “Democratic transformations in emerging countries” of the French Research Institutes Abroad (IFRE), the IFP co-organised, along with the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), an international meet on the modern history and social and legal implications of the institutionalisation of therapeutic practices in the Indian subcontinent. This meeting also had an objective, to reinforce the ties established between French, European and Indian specialists in the framework of the programme “Societies and Medicines in South Asia ” of the IFP, which Laurent Pordié started in 2003. The support of external funding to this programme and the participation of a number of reputed researchers to this event , testify that the IFP is now a key point and an important spokesperson in the field of medicines in India.
Contact: Dr. Laurent Pordié, laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org
For more details, http://www.ifpindia.org/-Seminars-.html
WELCOME
…at the CSH
Dr. Zarin AHMAD, a Research Fellow in International Relations, joined the CSH on 1st November as part of the international programme Restructuring contemporary Islam and economic dynamics in Asia (see research section).
Radhika GOVINDA, a doctoral student from the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, was affiliated to the CSH from July to October, in order to conduct her research on Women's movements in India and culture of social action.
Grégoire HENRI-ROUSSEAU, a student from the Special Military School of St. Cyr, joined the CSH for a three-month training period in the International Relations division from mid-September to mid-December.
Shelly SHARMA, joined the CSH as an Assistant in the Accounts section in October 2006.
Benoît TARROUX, a doctoral student in Economics, joined the CSH on 27th November (see research section).
…at the IFP
Dr. Gabriele ALEX, Senior Lecturer and Assistant Professor at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg, Germany, joined the Societies and Medicines in South Asia project from 25th September 2006-15th August 2007 to work on Healing practices and health explanatory models of the Narikorava (Vagri) in Tamil Nadu.
Champak BEERAVOLU REDDY, joined the Ordybio project for a “pre-doctoral” training, from 15th September 200611th November 2006, and to work on The spatial models in ecology.
Dr. Burton CLEETUS, a post-doctoral Fellow from the Jawaharlal Nehru University of New Delhi, joined the Societies and Medicines in South Asia project, for a oneyear period starting from 1st December, to work on his research project Institutionalisation of indigenous medicine in Kerala: problems and prospects.
Dr. Claude GARCIA, a researcher from CIRAD-Forêt, joined the Ecology department as an associated researcher, in charge of the BIODIVALLOC project, from 4th September 2006 for a period of three years, to work on the Management of biodiversity in the forests and agroforests of the Western Ghats and, more specifically, on the study of coffee plantation landscapes, in synergy with the related projects of the department.
Dr. Caterina GUENZI, a post-doctorate from the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (CEIAS), France, joined the Societies and Medicines in South Asia project, for a two-year period, to work on her research topic Between texts and contexts. Scholarly traditions and local practices: the case of astrology.
Dr. Anne-Cécile HOYEZ, a post-doctorate from the University of Rennes II, France, joined the Societies and Medicines in South Asia project from 9th October 2006-9th January 2007, to work on her research topic Diffusion and use of Homeopathy in South India.
Hélène LEFEBVRE, a student from the 'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Lille', France, joined the Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics project, from 11th September 2006-11th June 2007, as a trainee, to work on the Analysis of the governance in an NGO: Between public policies and commitment.
Cécile MADELAINE, a Ph.D candidate from the University of Montpellier II- Agro. M, France, joined the Ordybio project from 25th October for a three-year period, to work on the Three-dimensional modeling of the dynamics of tropical heterogeneous forest tree populations.
Marion MAIGNAN, a student from ENSAM, Higher National School of Agronomy in Montpellier, France, joined the Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics project from 1st October 2006-16th March 2007, as a trainee, to work on Indebtedness and microfinance.
Stéphane ROOS, joined the Institute from 2nd November 2006-2nd March 2007, to work part-time as a software developer in the framework of the Fire Ecology project, and to contribute towards developing tools and methods for calculation and processing of images in the Matlab environment, in C language.
…at the EFEO
Anne CLAVEL, a doctoral student of the University of Lyon has come to Pondicherry to pursue her studies of Jaina philosophy.
Daniele CUNEO, a doctoral student of 'La Sapienza' University, Rome, has come to Pondicherry for three months to study Indian aesthetic theory as presented in the Abhinavabharati, the celebrated 10th-century treatise of the Kashmirian polymath Abhinavagupta, which he has been reading with H.N. Bhat.
Marzenna CZERNIAK-DROZDZOWICZ, (Jagellonian University of Krakow) returned to the Center for one and a half months to continue her research on The Role of the Pancaratra Tradition in the contemporary religious practice of South Indian Vaishnavas and to study Vaishnava texts with Varada Desikan.
Yasmin HALES-HENAO, a doctoral student at Oxford Brookes University, came to Pondicherry to conduct a field study on The notion of space in the vernacular architecture of Pondicherry.
Niranjan KAFLE, who is working in the Nepal German Manuscript Cataloguing Project, has arrived from Kathmandu to spend three months working in the EFEO as part of the project on the Nisvasatattvasamhita, one of the earliest revealed texts of the Shaiva Siddhanta.
Robert RADDOCK and Elisabeth ANDERRSON, doctoral students of the University of California, Berkeley, have come to Pondicherry to study respectively the reception history of the Brihad-Aranyaka-Upanishad and the theme of pregnancy and childbirth narratives and ritual.
Uthaya VELUPPILLAI, a doctoral student of Paris III, has returned to Pondicherry as a scholar of the EFEO to continue her study of the religious milieu of the Shaiva temple in Cirkali.
Dr Alexis WATSON, a Junior Research Fellow in Indology at Wolfson College, Oxford, returned in November for fur ther work with Anjaneya Sarma and Dominic Goodall on their joint study of rival views on liberation as presented in the 10th-century Paramoksanirasakarikavrtti of Ramakantha.
GOODBYE
…at the CSH
Ved Narayan Singh RAWAT, librarian, left in December after working for six years at the CSH.
…at the IFP
Dr. Nicolas BARBIER, Researcher from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and post-doctoral fellow from the Oxford University Centre for the Environment (OUCE) left on 12th September.
Nicolas CAYON-GLAYERE, a student from CNEARC, France, and engineer in tropical agronomy, left on 24th October.
Vincent DEBLAUWE, a PhD candidate from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B), Belgium, left on 12th September.
Cyril FOUILLET, a PhD candidate from University Lumière, Lyon II, left on 16th November.
Ophélie HELIES, a student from CNREAC, France, left on 11th October.
Olivier LEFEBVRE, a student from CNREAC, France, and engineer in Science and Technology of Water, left on 10th October.
Dr. François MUNOZ, a Post-doctorate and engineer from both Centrale and ENGREF school, France, left on 30th September.
MILESTONES
CSH
Nina GUYON, a student at the “Ecole Polytechnique” (Paris), who has completed an internship at the CSH from April-June 2006, has been awarded by this prestigious school the prize for the best research internship in 2006. In her internship, completed under the supervision of Prof. Nicolas Gravel, Nina Guyon traveled to the rural areas of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to launch a study of the Impact, on poverty, of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) adopted by the Indian parliament in February 2005. Part of the internship was also devoted to the measurement of the social value of urban amenities in Delhi that is revealed by housing price differences.
IFP
Three authors given distinction in indology
The “Académie des Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres” has just awarded François Grimal (EFEO) the “Emile Sénart Foundation” prize, for his publication titled “Index of words of the work of Bhavabhûti” published in the “Indology Collection” (IFP/ EFEO).
The book “Dalit Literature: My Experience” edited by M. Kannan (IFP publication) has been selected and ordered by the Tamil Nadu Government, for its local libraries all over the State and has been prescribed as a supplementary text book, by the Periyar University of Salem District in Tamil Nadu for its affiliated colleges, in Tamil graduate and postgraduate courses.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Madras Sanskrit college (1906-2006), Prof. Ramanuja Tatacharya (IFP) was awarded the title of “Darsana kalanidhi” for his mastery of the six systems of Indian philosophy. The quotation makes a specific mention to his encyclopedia in the theories of the senses (“Sabdabodhamimamsa”), work which he has accomplished at the IFP (two volumes published in 2005 and 2006, in the “Indology collection”). Prof. Tatacharya also received, in Bangalore, the title of “Tarkapancanana” for his excellence in logic.
Contact: Dr. Jean-Pierre Muller, ifpdir@ifpindia.org .
IFP/EFEO
The Director of the IFP, member of the office of the CONFRASIE
The Director of the IFP has been elected as the representative for South Asia to the office of the CONFRASIE, with the unanimity of its 74 members.
The CONFRASIE (Asia-Pacific Conference of Rectors of the universities member of the “University Agency of the French-speaking world” (AUF) has among others, the objective to reinforce the regional cooperation with regards to university and research education, and the set-up of regional poles of excellency.
The IFP is a member of the CONFRASIE since March 2004 and already benefits from the support of the AUF for actions led in two of its programmes: Societies and medicines in South Asia and Social management of water.
This nomination should enable the Institute to build more ties with research institutions from South-East Asia, notably in one of its fields of excellency: computer applications to Human and Environmental sciences.
Contact: Dr. Jean-Pierre Muller, ifpdir@ifpindia.org .
PUBLICATIONS
CSH
Cultural dynamics and Strategies of the Indian elite (1870-1947) Indo-French Relations during the Raj
Samuel Berthet
Manohar-CSH, New Delhi, 2006, 239p, Rs 575
The history of French culture in India tends to show that if for long conflicts in the colonial context have been studied in a dual perspective, they can be better understood in a polyphonic one. From the nineteenth centur y onwards, along with the opposition between the British tending to increasingly impose their dominance, and the Indian elite trying to assimilate and manufacture a modern identity of its own, France and French culture provided an alternate space for cultural negotiation. Perceived in Europe and beyond as the modern culture par excellence, the most anglicized of the Indian elite engaged themselves in a process of appropriation of French as an alternate path for cultural discourse. The direct consequence of this was the rapid progress of French Language in Indian universities by the end of the nineteenth century.
The British authorities were prompt to react and tried to contain the development of French culture within the educative institutions. The new space for culture making created by the Indo-French dialogue is now open to political interpretations, at times conflicting. The relations between Rabindranath Tagore and Sylvain Lévi is one instance of the difficulties for a colonizing power to acknowledge the modern ferment within the colonized regions of the world in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, as the volume so eloquently portrays, the dynamics of cultural and scientific exchanges were in motion between France and India, through the Indian diaspora and French intellectuals associating themselves with India and Indian reformist movements.
Peri-Urban Dynamics. Case Studies in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai
Véronique Dupont & N. Sridharan (eds.)
CSH Occasional Paper 17, New Delhi, 2006, 109p
This Occasional Paper is the third and last volume of a series on Periurban Dynamics. It focuses on selected case studies, drawing from the experiences of peripheral development in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The broader context of metropolitan growth in India, as well as the background of the urbanization pattern in the states where these cities are located, are at the outset introduced. The dynamism of the peripheral areas of Chennai has been captured by comparing the changes that have occurred over a period of time in terms of socio-spatial transfor mations in two contrasted peri-urban neighbourhoods. The outward growth of Hyderabad triggered by the development of Information Technology is examined through the case study of an urbanized village and its IT Park. The essay on Mumbai adopts a different perspective of the urban edge and conceptualizes it in the form of ecological footprints and how the city invades and expands over natural landscapes on the western coast of the metropolis. These papers highlight the varying conditions of development of the periphery, and how these affect the urban core and the periphery's spatial, economic and other linkages.
The full paper can be downloaded free of cost from the CSH website: http://csh-delhi.com/publications/ops.php
IBSAC (India, Brazil, South Africa, China): A Potential Developing Country Coalition in WTO Negotiations
Debashis Chakraborty & Dipankar Sengupta
CSH Occasional Paper 18, New Delhi, 2006, 162p
The WTO trade negotiation is currently witnessing a deadlock, owing to the divergence of opinions b e t w e e n t h e d e v elo p e d an d developing countries on future reform modalities. A number of developing country blocs like G-20, G-33, NAMA-11, G-24 are currently operational with varying degree of cooperation among the member countries. However, it has been argued that draf tin g a joint negotiating agenda suiting a large number of developing countries and the LDCs on agriculture, manufacturing and services is quite difficult, while doing the same by a smaller group of developing countries at a comparable level of development is much easier. India, Brazil, South Africa and China (IBSAC), the four leading developing countries, could form one such group. The current paper analyses the ongoing collaborations between the IBSAC countries on various issues and looks into the possibility of formation of a formal IBSAC bargaining coalition in coming future. It further considers the possibility of strengthening the bond between the IBSAC countries through formation of a Free Trade Area (FTA) or by entering into a Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). It concludes that while the IBSA collaboration seems more likely, the participation of China in this proposed initiative is expected to be limited and issue-based, depending on its perceived gains from that move.
The full paper can be downloaded free of cost from the CSH website: http://csh-delhi.com/publications/ops.php
EFEO
Kattuppookkal (vainavacamayakkatturaikalin tokuppu)
Viravilli Varadesikachariar. Pondicherry: Varadarajaperumal Koyil, 2006, 276p. Rs 30
This book contains 13 essays in Tamil on Vaisnavism. They furnish explanations of a few excerpts from the Manipravalam commentaries of ancient preceptors on the Tamil devotional hymns of the Alvars. In doing so, these essays throw light on the characters of Kamsa, Antal, on the 24 incarnations of Visnu and on Rama's message to Sita, while she languished in captivity in Lanka, through the intermediary of a swan (hamsasandesa). Lastly, the book summarises the text of one of Ramanuja's great theological works, the Sribhasya, his commentary on the Brahmasutras of Vyasa.
IFP/CSH
Inde-France (1870-1962): enjeux culturels.
Samuel Berthet, Collection Sciences Sociales n° 12, IFP / CSH, 2006, viii, 676 p., 8 p. of photos and 3 folded maps.
Language: French. 800 Rs (29 Euros)
In the early nineteenth century, the elites of the sub-continent ruled by the British started to conceive French culture as an instrumental factor in modernity-making. From 1870 onwards, the attempts of the British authorities to contain their emancipation increased the interest of the Indian elites in the French language and culture. If this effort towards emancipation from British rule took the Indian elite closer to the country of the Revolution and of the lingua franca of the cosmopolitan elite, the Third Republic led the French nation irrevocably towards the colonial path. By the time of Independence and in the following years, the perception of India and of the relations between the two countries was considerably altered by the French colonial experiment of the past decades.
Keywords: Indology, diplomacy, nationalism, colonialism
IFP
Banquiers aux pieds nus : la microfinance.
Jean-Michel Servet. Paris: Odile Jacob, 2006, 511 p.
Language : French. 30 Euros
Unknown at the beginning at the 1990s except by a small circle of specialists, microfinance today enjoys an increasing popularity. Nevertheless, its media coverage and the hopes that the public authorities rest in it, are often founded on an erroneous vision of its impact and the services that it provides to the masses. This vision presupposes the following: That the essential need of most impoverished populations is the need for credit, since they strongly prefer to start their own small entrepreneurial activities, rather than earn wages. That the main limiting factor in the expansion of microcredit is the lack of resources for lending. That solidarity loans are the most common form of microcredit. That the main clients of microfinance institutions are women from the poorest sections of society. That microcredit institutions that are both profitable and can serve a poor or very poor clientele, can be put in place very rapidly. So many common misconceptions, except in exceptional circumstances.
Keywords: microfinance, poverty, financial exclusion
Diptagama. Tome II. Chapitres 22 à 62.
Edition critique Marie-Luce Barazer-Billoret, Bruno Dagens et Vincent Lefèvre avec la collaboration de S. Sambandha Sivacarya et la participation de Christèle Barois, Collection indologie 81.2, IFP / Mondes Iranien et Indien, 2007, 603 p.
Language : Sanskrit, French. 700 Rs (25 Euros)
Diptagama is one of the 28 canonical treatises pertaining to the Southern Saivite school known as Saivasiddhanta. It deems itself a treatise on installations. The critical edition of this hitherto unpublished text relies on manuscripts kept in the library of the French Institute of Pondicherry. The present edition will comprise 3 volumes.
The first volume released in 2004 dealt with mantras, installation of the main Linga in the temple, and even more with architecture and iconography. The present, second volume is centred on rituals, mainly for the installation of statues, but several chapters also deal with daily ceremonies, fire ritual, baths, etc.
As in the case of the first volume, the Sanskrit text is followed by a chapter-wise summary aimed at facilitating the reading of the 41 chapters published herein.
Keywords: agamas, iconography, Saivism, Sanskrit, temple, ritual
Pollen grains of South Indian trees V.1.0. A user-friendly multimedia identification software.
G. Vasanthy, P. Grard. Research assistance G. Jayapalan. Collection Ecologie no.45, IFP, 2007. [CD-ROM]
Language : English.
An electronic pollen flora including digital and scanning electron micrographs and descriptions distinguishes itself by the graphic identification system of pollen without the plethora of terms; it enables many levels of users (in South India as well as in the tropics, subtropics and subtemperate regions in India, Asia and other continents) to learn palynology by the "click of the mouse". The descriptive par t furnishes palynological terms linked to the illustrated definitions and the bibliographic link for quick reference. Pollen Typification; and Taxonomical, Ecological and Distributional notes for the selected 147 genera (Mangroves: 11, Western Ghats: 129 and others: 7) are also given.
A microtaxonomic, research tool, (adapted from IDAO by CIRAD) will aid "users" interested in climate related past vegetational changes.
Keywords: pollen flora, computer-aided identification, trees, micro-characters
IFP/EFEO
Digital Tevaram. Kaninit Tevaram.
V.M. Subramanya Aiyar, Jean-Luc Chevillard, S.A.S. Sarma. Collection Indologie n° 103, IFP / EFEO, 2007 [CD-ROM]
Language : Tamil, English.
The “Digital Tevaram” is a multi-feature CD-ROM edition of a collection of 800 Tamil hymns to Siva, possibly dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries, attributed to three authors (Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar), traditionally called the Tevaram, and constituting the initial part of the Tamil Saiva Scriptures. This electronic edition of the Tamil text, furnished with many maps, MP3 audio files and a complete English rendering by the late V.M. Subrahmanya Ayyar (1906-1981), combines the features of the two traditional book-forms of Tevaram: 1. arrangement according to musical modes (pan-s), as in panmurai editions of Tevaram, and 2. arrangement according to sites (stalam-s), as in talamurai editions. It incorporates a concordance, and can be used as a dictionary of the Tevaram.
Keywords: Tevaram, Saivism, Hymns to Siva, talamurai (hymns classified according to sites), panmurai (hymns classified according to musical modes)
Studies on fortification in India
Jean Deloche, Collection Indologie n° 104, IFP / EFEO, 2007, 267 p., including 70 p. of ill., plans
Language : English.
This book, based mainly on intense fieldwork and personal investigations carried out by the author over the past twenty years, brings together essays on some prominent defensive works which have been constructed over many centuries across the Indian subcontinent, particularly South India.
For each period a selection has been made of outstanding examples of fortification in order to analyse the building techniques, considering the evolution of military technology, particularly the development of artillery, to establish the typology of the structures and to bring into focus a reliable method for identifying and dating defensive works in India.
This study, with draws attention to the considerable skills and ingenuities of Indian fort builders, has something to engage the interest of all those concerned with India military monuments, be they engineers, archaeologists or historians.
Keywords: South India, fortifications, architecture
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