The Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) is one of the research centres of the French Foreign Ministry that is under the joint tutelage of the latter and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the prestigious French national research agency whose research evaluation corresponds to the highest standards of international academics. Collaboration with the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), in the social sciences and on ecological and environmental studies, enables a considerable geographical and disciplinary coverage of important issues in Indian social sciences.
The CSH has, over the last few years, continuously increased the volume and quality of its research output in four major areas: the dynamics of political and social evolutions in India; international relations and conflict in the Asian context; urban dynamics; and economic transition and sustainable development.
Among the areas outlined above, as Director of the research centre, I have proposed to the Strategic Orientation Committee of the French Foreign Ministry and also to the National Foundation of Political Sciences in Paris, which is one of our main research partners, the development of a major research programme covering the broad area of 'India's energy needs, sustainable development models and strategic conflicts'. Given the current and projected evolution of India's economic growth rates, India's energy mix, both from the supply and demand point of view, needs to be analyzed carefully from the combined viewpoint of economics and strategic studies, keeping in mind its competition with China and other emerging countries, its relationship with all major energy suppliers (nuclear, oil, natural gas) and its own energy production potential (including renewable energy). Large-scale research analysis of this type can strengthen cooperation between French, Indian and European research institutions, firms and government agencies, and it is the objective of the CSH to serve as a prominent research platform for this type of endeavour. This project could be an important addition to existing Indo-European research in this area.
The CSH is coordinating several major comparative studies with important emerging countries such as China, South Africa and Brazil, among others. We have numerous research collaborations with several institutions of excellence in India. A transversal focus on well-defined research projects across disciplinary boundaries, with substantial methodological reflection and debate, is central to our approach to analytical social science.
Contact:Dr. Basudeb Chaudhuri
basudeb.chaudhuri@csh-delhi.com
Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi
FOCUS
Seminar on emerging issues in social sciences: a Franco-Indian perspective
This seminar – consisting of a series of dialogues between French and Indian scholars – aims to take stock of, and to publicize, recent evolutions in the theory and methodology of French and Indian social sciences (including political science, international relations, geography and socio-economics).
Each session consists of two presentations (of 30 minutes each) followed by a general discussion. The first presentation, by a CSH team member or by a French visiting fellow, focuses on the state of a given question in France, through an exposition of major authors, texts, concepts and objects involved; the idea is not to be exhaustive, but to favour a deliberately and explicitly subjective perspective. The second presentation, by a senior Indian scholar, possibly a CSH associate, highlights the Indian perspective on the same question, with a focus on his or her particular approach.
The first session of the seminar was organized at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on 10th October, 2007. It was devoted to the present state of international relations in France and in India. Dr. Laurent Gayer, senior research fellow at the CSH and co-organizer of the seminar, presented the new French sociology of international relations (Bertrand Badie, Marie-Claude Smouts, Béatrice Pouligny). His Indian counterpart in the session, Dr. Siddharth Mallaravapu, assistant professor at JNU, devoted his presentation to the significance of location in determining the manner in which the discipline of international relations is schooled in India.
The second session of the seminar took place on 21st November, 2007, at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and was devoted to the political sociology of 'unlikely' mobilizations. Dr. Aditya Nigam, research fellow at CSDS, talked on “Dalit Political Mobilization: The 'Opportunism' of Minority Cultures”. Dr. Didier Chabanet, associate research fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, talked on “Transcending Marginalization: The Mobilization of the Unemployed in Europe”.
Forthcoming sessions of the seminar will include a dialogue on the ongoing debates around (post-) colonial studies (with Dr. Romain Bertrand, Centre d'Études et de Recherches Internationales [CERI], and an Indian historian yet to be named), and on the sociology of political mobilizations (with Prof. Olivier Fillieule, University of Lausanne, and an Indian scholar specializing in social movements).
Contact: Dr. Laurent Gayer laurent.gayer@csh-delhi.com;
Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, tawalama@ehess.fr
FOCUS (contd...)
A new server for the IFP
The French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) has acquired a new server built on the latest specifications and with a considerable amount of storage. Besides taking care of the IFP's website and its mail and ftp services, this server now allows:
- storing of important digital databases (Historical Atlas of South India, CD-ROMs on Indian cultural knowledge and heritage, interactive database on the towns of India, digitized manuscripts, photo archives, catalogue of the IFP's library, etc) and open-source software designed by the IFP (weed identification and computer-aided mapping [WEB Mapping], for example);
- use of sophisticated software, notably mapping software (Web Mapping) and for modeling complex systems.
A “digital database” is under construction.
Contact: Dr. Frédéric Borne borne@ifpindia.org;
RESEARCH
CSH
Regional forces driving growth in India: economic reforms, industrial restructuring and political regimes
India's uneven growth process, across sectors and across national territory, is the point of departure of this new research project. The southern and western states and the metropolitan regions have been the most dynamic, concentrating the bulk of total new investments. Between 1991 and 2001, six states (out of 28) captured 86% of the total number of approved FDI projects. This research project undertakes to explain these inter-regional variations by identifying the main forces shaping the new economic geography of India. In particular it will focus on the response of state governments to economic reforms, both in rhetoric and action, and on their growth strategies, which tend to rely increasingly on the differentiation of space. Three main themes will be explored: the capacity of local and regional institutions to favour a dialogue between economic and political elites; the modalities of the definition and implementation of state-level economic policies, including specific sectoral policies; and the social compromises that such policies require. The effects of state-level policies on economic performance and spatial dynamics will be analyzed through case studies in selected states, chosen to represent distinct types, identified on the basis of secondary data analysis. The Central Government's recent SEZ policy provides a compelling entry point for analyzing comparatively state-level policy responses, including initiatives to address the social repercussions of these often large-scale projects. In each case, regional dynamics can be expected to reflect institutionalized relationships between social groups and also emerging forms of social compromise, arising out of civic activism.
Contact: Dr. Loraine Kennedy, kennedy@ehess.fr
Workshop on Urban Governance and Participation in Indian and South African Cities – Perspectives for a Comparative Research Programme at the French Institute in South Africa (IFAS), Johannesburg, 26th-28th November, 2007.
Cyril Robin, junior research fellow at the CSH, and Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, head of the CSH's political dynamics division, participated in this workshop, which is the outcome of a one-year international programme funded by French Research Institutes abroad (2006-2007) on Democratic Transformations in Emerging Countries. The coordinators of the South African and Indian projects (Dr. Claire Bénit-Gbaffou and Dr. Tawa Lama-Rewal, respectively) worked on very similar topics – namely, the place of participation in governance. They found stimulating similarities and differences between the two countries. The dialogue was initiated when Dr. Bénit-Gbaffou was invited by the CSH in Delhi for the Indian project's final workshop in July 2007; it continued at the Indian-South African workshop; and the next step will be the concluding seminar of the Democratic Transformations programme, scheduled in February 2008, in which Dr. Ilina Sen and Dr. Marie-Hélène Zérah will represent the CSH team.
The workshop underscored the value of using a comparison to answer a common central question: why are the urban poor, who constitute the majority of city-dwellers, not managing to get their voice heard, their needs and concerns addressed, in what are much-celebrated democratic or democratizing polities? The workshop prepared the ground for a three-year joint project that will rely on two national research projects (in South Africa and in India) built in a comparative perspective. The Indian project will be coordinated at the CSH by Dr. Tawa Lama-Rewal and Dr. Zérah.
Contact: Dr. Stéphanie Tawa Lama-Rewal, tawalama@ehess.fr; Dr. Marie-Hélène Zérah, zerah@ird.fr
IFP
Impact of microfinance on rural employment: a new interdisciplinary and international research project
The project, Rural microfinance and employment. Do processes matter?, presented by Dr. Isabelle Guérin (French Research Institute for Development [IRD]/IFP) and others, has been selected by the French National Agency for Research (programme: Les Suds, Aujourd'hui). It deals with the impact of microfinance on rural employment. It is based, notably, on a combination of econometric and anthropological approaches. By means of a comparison between Indian, Mexican and Malagasy fields, it will allow the continued application of the innovative methods tested in South India (Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics project hosted at the IFP). The project will also help strengthen the integration of the Indo-French team in an international network.
Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin, isabelle.guerin@ifpindia.org
IFP publishes a DVD on water management in India
Ways of managing water have evolved during the past decades in India. A source of prosperity, this much-coveted resource can also produce setbacks and bitter experiences. An IFP team has made a trilingual (French, English, Tamil) documentary film on users' perception of lack of water in two villages in Tamil Nadu. Water appears to be a pointer to the ecological, social, economic, cultural and political stakes of a society in the midst of genuine upheaval. The actors concerned throw light on the origin of the problem and the solutions to be sought. This documentary will be of interest to researchers, school and university professors and, indeed, all development agents wishing to address issues related to water management. It has proved a remarkable tool in raising awareness about current social problems in India.
Contact: Nathanaël Coste, nathanael_coste@yahoo.fr; Nicolas Ploumpidis, kavados@gmail.com;
Dr. Olivia Aubriot, olivia.aubriot@ifpindia.org; Dr. Anupama. K., anupama.k@ifpindia.org; Y. Gunnell, gunnell@paris7.jussieu.fr
Reference publications on the biodiversity of the Western Ghats
A book recently published by the IFP's Department of Ecology, Forest landscapes of the Southern Western Ghats, India: biodiversity, human ecology and management strategies, has been praised by specialists in biodiversity conservation and in the press. A daily newspaper, The Hindu , brought out an extensive report. The Department of Ecology has, meanwhile, taken the initiative to bring together the best researchers and specialists on the subject of the Western Ghats forests, with a view to editing a volume containing an extended synthesis ( The Western Ghats of India, a biodiversity hotspot ). The aim is to take stock of the knowledge gained about the physical environment, flora and fauna and their interaction with human societies as well as the conservation stakes.
Contact: Dr. Jean-Pierre Muller, ifpdir@ifpindia.org
EVENTS
(For more information on events, please consult our respective websites)
LECTURES/SEMINARS/ROUND TABLES/ WORKSHOPS
CSH
Two seminars by Carine Sébi, doctoral student in economics, related to her research on Common Pool Resources (CPR) Using Experimental Economics. One presentation was held at the CSH on 26th November, 2007, and the other at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), New Delhi, on 7th December, 2007. Drawing on results from a paper (co-written with S. Ambec, A. Garapin and L. Muller), Sébi discussed using laboratory experiments to test theoretical predictions concerning CPR management. Constructing artificial economic situations in a laboratory and running experiments using behavioural controls can lead to robust conclusions. Sébi and her co-authors compared the short-term impact of three regulatory instruments to reduce aggregate extraction when agents have heterogeneous costs. The experiment, which measures individual and social welfare, was composed of four treatments: open access (benchmark), and the instruments were a fee/subsidy scheme, non-transferable quota and transferable quota. Sébi is exploring plans for collaboration with researchers at the ISI, with the objective of running a CPR field experiment in India.
Contact: Carine Sébi, carine.sebi@csh-delhi.com
Monthly seminar held at the CSH on 27th August, 2007, on “Changing perceptions in Hindi movies” as part of the research project, The evolution of national identities through a comparative analysis of Japanese and Indian popular cultures. The presentation by Romain Chappuis, Ph.D student and former Scientific Secretary of the CSH, was discussed by Prof. Patricia Uberoi. It focused on two aspects of cultural globalization: its consequences and how it affects the definition of self in India and Japan. Emphasis was laid on the way self-perception has changed in India with the emergence of new values and aspirations concerning the role that Indians want their country to play at the international level, as reflected in a few recent popular Hindi movies. Other themes studied were the perception of the West, the rise of the middle class and its increasing control over the definition of Indianness, India's turn towards Asia and its consequences on identity, and the role of non-resident Indians (NRIs).
Contact: Romain Chappuis, romchapp@yahoo.fr
IFP
For more details on these events, please consult our website, at the following address:
http://www.ifpindia.org/-Seminars-Events-.html
International seminar on Water: spatial dynamics, competitive claims and governance at the University of Pondicherry on 30th November and 1st December, 2007. Growing shortage in water supply and changing methods of access, storage and distribution of the resource generate conflicts over use of water, despite the technical progress made. The ecological, social, economic, cultural and political stakes arising from water management in South India were examined during the seminar organized by the IFP, in partnership with the University of Pondicherry and the Madras Institute of Development Studies (Chennai). Emphasis was laid on the spatial dimension of these stakes. The Government of Puducherry (Pondicherry) and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris) provided financial support to the seminar. A DVD, Bittersweet waters, was officially launched on the occasion, in the presence of the Puducherry Minister for Agriculture and the Consul General of France in Pondicherry and Chennai.
Contact: Dr. Olivia Aubriot, olivia.aubriot@ifpindia.org
International seminar on The export of homeopathy from Europe to Asia: the case of South India held at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, on 28th November, 2007. Homeopathy is not only one of the oldest “alternative medicines”, it is also the most used given its high acceptability in the medical profession. The reasons for its success – and its ability to go beyond time and oceans – make it a privileged object of study in comparative anthropology. In India, homeopathy has undergone various adjustments and transformations from as early as in the 19th century. The social dynamics of homeopathy in this country is a little known area that was explored during a workshop co-organized by the University of Louvain-La-Neuve and the IFP. The event marked the end of a project undertaken over the past two years by the two institutions thanks to the support of the Agence française de la Francophonie.
Contact: Dr. Olivier Schmitz , lesbidous@belgacom.net
International seminar on Scholarly medicine in the Himalayas: anthropology of therapeutic knowledge and medicinal materials at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS, France) on 26th October, 2007. Research on Tibetan medicine has largely neglected ethnographic studies focused on the village level, preferring to study institutions and the effects of macro-scale policies and change processes. Little has been published till date on the social and medical practices associated with Tibetan medicine in villages in the region under Tibetan cultural influence. What place does Tibetan medicine have today in the Himalayas? What contributes to transforming it? How can analysis of these transformations shed light on changes that affect the concerned communities? In order to provide answers to these questions, the IFP, in partnership with the University of Aix-Marseille (CReCSS) and the Nomad Research Unit, organized a one-day workshop at the Centre of Social Anthropo logy of the EHESS/University of Mirail in Toulouse (France). Two “sites of observation” were chosen by speakers from France, Germany, the UK and India: medicinal materials (exchange network and commodification) and medical knowledge (transmission, transformation and circulation).
Contact: Dr. Laurent Pordié, laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org
International Seminar on Relationship between Sanskrit and Tamil: affinities and oppositions, held at the IFP from 12th to 14th September, 2007. Co-organized by the IFP and the University of Berkeley (Tamil Chair), this was a unique event in South Asia's academic history. Seasoned scholars from Tamil Nadu and from abroad came together to identify problems in order to transcend sterile binary oppositions, and to hold technical discussions on the state of the art in the history of the first millennium, recent results in epigraphy, the role of Prakrit, a more regional approach to the vision of the “Sanskrit cosmopolis” of Sheldon Pollock (USA), etc. That the conference was organized under the framework of the Institute's Contemporary Tamil Culture programme underlines, beyond its political dimension, the topic's present-day social relevance. Also emphasizing the fusion found in literature, the seminar bears testimony to the open-ended holistic approach the IFP has brought to Indology studies.
Contact: Kannan M., kannan.m@ifpindia.org
National seminar on Asian medicine today: trans-nationalization of practices and re-localization of knowledge at the EHESS (France). Asian medicine today has a cosmopolitan aspect. Shifting and being transformed via contact with new societies, its products bear imprints of diverse cultures and nations which, in turn, give them legitimacy. The situation allows debate, on one hand, on the dynamics of the international market for alternative medicines and, on the other, the relationships between certain forms of nationalisms and the trans-nationalization of medicine, and their respective impacts on health-related knowledge and practices. These themes were explored during a workshop coordinated by Dr. Laurent Pordié, head of the IFP's Social Sciences Department, during the 3rd Congress of the Asia Network-IMASIE (National Centre for Scientific Research, France; Institute of Asian Worlds) held in Paris from 26th to 28th September, 2007. The lectures, which dealt with Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medicine, were discussed by Francis Zimmermann, directeur d'études at EHESS.
Contact: Dr. Laurent Pordié, laurent.pordie@ifpindia.org
National seminar on Forms of resistance to labour bondage, at the University of Paris 6, France. Bonded labour, far from being a residue of “traditions”, is common in India, and has adapted itself to the neo-liberal policies of the past 20 years. From brute exploitation and total absence of freedom to protection and employment guarantee, the process of enslavement is a complex social and economic phenomenon which presents numerous variants in time and according to economic sectors. A workshop coordinated by Dr. Isabelle Guérin and David Picherit (IFP's Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics project) analyzed forms of resistance to bonded labour, be they individual or collective, during the 3rd Congress of the Asia Network-IMASIE (National Centre for Scientific Research, France; Institute of Asian Worlds), held in Paris from 26th to 28th September, 2007. Specialists such as Jan Breman (Amsterdam University), Djallal Heuzé (CNRS/EHESS) and Prabhu Mohapatra (Delhi University) led the workshop.
Contact: Dr. Isabelle Guérin, isabelle.guerin@ifpindia.org; David Picherit, david.picherit@ifpindia.org
Lecture on Collective action for natural resources management in Kodagu District , at the IFP on 19th October, 2007. The Karnataka Forest Department has launched community-based management schemes to address pressing issues such as reforestation, wildlife-human conflicts and biodiversity conservation. Civil society, also using the concepts of benefit-sharing and participation, has meanwhile been proposing alternatives and organizing itself to provide answers to the same questions. Thus, in Kodagu district, collective action for natural resources management assumes two distinct forms that may be described as “imposed” and “chosen” participation. The former arises from management committees created and led by the Karnataka Forest Department: Eco-Development Committees and Village Forest Committees. The latter results from discourses and actions of local leaders under the banner of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). What are the impacts of these schemes on ecosystems, people's livelihood and local governance? Analyzing these institutions is an attempt to identify the strengths and drawbacks of the two forms of collective action.
Contact: Marie Laval, marilaval@gmail.com; Dr. Claude Garcia, claude.garcia@ifpindia.com
Lecture on Usage of GIS and remote sensing for tank and land-use studies at the IFP on 10th September, 2007. This work, jointly led by the IFP and the Institute of Geography of the University of Provence (France), integrates all available information in a GIS spatialized and geo-referenced database, covering an area of 60 by 80 kms of the hinterland of Pondicherry, with a 1/10,000 precision level. The objective is threefold: to analyze and quantify the evolution of the water fillings of nearly 2,000 tanks through remote-sensing, using six dates from 1977 to 2004; to delimit homogenous land-usage zones, and determine how these are linked to access to surface water and groundwater; and to provide a knowledge base on landscape determinisms, to be complemented by integration in GIS of other information of a hydro-geological, social and socio-economic nature.
Contact: Dr. Pierre Oliva, pierre.oliva@univ-provence.fr; Dr. Olivia Aubriot, olivia.aubriot@ifpindia.org
EFEO
Dr. Jean Deloche, Dr. Valérie Gillet and Dr. Dominic Goodall presented the activities of the EFEO at the Alliance Française in Pondicherry on 13th December, 2007. The film, Chercheurs d'Histoire, produced in 2000 by Santa Simonpiétri and Michel Houdayer on the occasion of the centenary of the EFEO, was screened.
WELCOME
…at the CSH
Carine SEBI, doctoral student in economics at the University of Grenoble, France, joined the CSH in October 2007 for a one-year fellowship to work on common pool resource (CPR) management. (See Events)
Gilles VERNIERS, doctoral student and representative, Sciences Po-Paris, joined the CSH in November, 2007.
Uma RAMACHANDRA, Librarian-Documentalist, joined the CSH in November, 2007.
Gregoire PEIGNE, Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr, joined the CSH in September, 2007, for 3 months (as part of an agreement between the two institutions).
…at the IFP
S. PRABAVATHI, Ph.D candidate with an M.Phil degree from the University of Madras, joined the Contemporary Tamil Culture project from 1st November, 2007, to 31st October, 2008, as a trainee, to work on Tamil documentation at the library, under the supervision of Kannan. M.
Dr. Raphael PELISSIER, researcher in tropical forest ecology from the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) and assigned by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joined the IFP on 19th October, 2007, for a three-year period as head of its Ecology Department, succeeding Dr. Pierre Couteron.
Yvan PRIKHODIKO joined the IFP on 10th September, 2007, as the new Secretary General replacing Williams Michel. Holder of a higher level degree of a School of Applied Arts, Mr. Prikhodiko was earlier in charge of the technical direction of two private companies and conducted numerous expertise assignments (technical and financial) abroad (Africa and Asia), especially on behalf of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He joins the IFP after having assumed the post of Secretary General of the French Institute of Istanbul.
V. NANDINI, MBA graduate from the Alagappa University, joined the Laboratory of Applied Informatics and Geomatics from 3rd September, 2007, to 31 st March, 2008, as a software developer in order to make, adapt and test software in the framework of the Historical Atlas of South India project, under the supervision of Dr. Frederic Borne and Prof. Subbarayalu.
B. MURUGAN, computer technology diploma-holder from the Annamalai University, joined the Laboratory of Applied Informatics and Geomatics from 1st September to 31st December, 2007, as a computer technician to work on the installation, configuration and maintenance of desktops and servers, and on maintenance of network infrastructure, under the supervision of Dr. Frederic Borne.
Isabelle CLARK-DECES, professor of anthropology at Princeton University (USA) and researcher affiliated to the IFR joined the Contemporary Tamil Culture project from 24th August, 2007, to March 2008, to work on An Ethnology of Tamil Marriage Practices.
A. PANKAJAVALLI, Ph.D candidate from Pondicherry University, joined the Contemporary Tamil Culture project from 15th August to 31st December, 2007, as a trainee to work on documentation of Tamil books and journals in the library, underthe supervision of Kannan M.
…at the EFEO
Dr. Valerie GILLET, newly appointed member of the EFEO, joined the team of the Pondicherry Centre in November, 2007. She studies the iconography and epigraphy of South India, in particular those of "Pallava" and "Pandya" monuments and artefacts.
Dr. Will SWEETMAN, lecturer in the department of theology and religious studies at Otago University (New Zealand), arrived in Pondicherry in September 2007 for three months to continue his work on the protestant missionary Ziegenbalg.
Michelle FOLK, from the University of Regina (Canada) and recipient of a student research fellowship from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, is in Pondicherry since September 2007, doing research on The Social Relevance of Medieval Bhakti Women Saints for Contemporary Women. She will be affiliated to the Pondicherry Centre till July 2008.
Dr. Tim CAHILL, Sanskritist from Loyola University (USA), is in Pondicherry since 1 st October, 2007, for a period of 6 to 8 months, to continue his research on Sanskrit works on rhetoric, in particular the Rasagangadhara.
Aude BERTHOMIER, student of the Ecole du Louvre, received a scholarship from the EFEO and the Fondation Jeunesse Internationale, to work in the Pondicherry Centre's photographic archives for a period of three months from 15th December, 2007.
Hugo DAVID, doctoral student at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), has returned to India to continue his studies on Indian philosophical traditions in Pondicherry and Pune, with a scholarship from the EFEO.
Dr. Anna SLACZKA, of the University of Leiden (Netherlands), is in Pondicherry on an EFEO scholarship to study unpublished early Saiva tantras that are rich in iconographical prescriptions, in particular the Devyamata or Nisvasakhyamahatantra, with Dr. Dominic Goodall.
...at the lFP and EFEO
Dr. Archana VENKATESAN, assistant professor at the University of California, Davis (USA), has been studying Tamil devotional literature with Varada Desikan in relation to her project, Embodied Memories: Performance & Ritual Culture at the Visnu Temple of AlvarTirunagari, Tirunelveli District. She is currently working in the IFP's Contemporary Tamil Culture project as an affiliated researcher from 12th October, 2007 to 11th October, 2008.
GOODBYE
…at the CSH
Romain CHAPPUIS, Scientific Secretary of the CSH and doctoral student in political science, left in December, 2007. (See Events)
Jivanta SCHOTTLI, doctoral student in political science, left the CSH in October, 2007.
…at the IFP
Williams MICHEL, Secretary General of the IFP since end-2003, left the Institute on 31 st August, 2007.
Pierre COUTERON, Head of the IFP's Ecology Department since end-2004, left the Institute on 31st August, 2007.
Marie LAVAL, student with an M.Sc degree in rural and tropical forestry from the French Institute of Forestry (FIF), participated in the Managing Biodiversity in Mountain Landscapes project from 3rd May to 25th October, 2007, as a trainee working on community forest management underthe supervision of Dr. Claude Garcia.
Geraldine SAVIN and Wichy MEAS, both students in Masters of Geography at the University of Provence (France), participated in the Social Management of Water project from 24th August to 12th September, 2007, as trainees working on the remote sensing part of the project, Tank irrigation in the Pondicherry area and Tamil Nadu, under the supervision of Dr. R Oliva (University of Provence) and Dr. Olivia Aubriot.
MILESTONES
IFP
The Director of the IFR member of the Executive Committee of the National Knowledge Commission of the Government of Pondicherry
The Director of the IFP has accepted the Chief Secretariat's request to participate, as a member, in the Executive Committee of the National Knowledge Commission of the Government of Pondicherry. This committee will be assigned the task of making proposals on procedures for implementing the Commission's recommendations with regard to education (syllabus, access to university-level education, development of infrastructure, etc). With this nomination, the Government of Pondicherry has clearly expressed its wish to reinforce cultural ties between France and Pondicherry ("French education and culture are an inseparable part of Puducherry Union Territory") and to promote the teaching of French.
Contact: Dr. Jean-Pierre Muller, ifpdir@ifpindia.org
An Oscar for an OSCAR
The Manthan Foundation, under the auspices of the World Summit Award, has honoured the IFP for its "OSCAR" (Open Source Simple Computer for Agriculture in Rural Areas) project, recognized as "India's best e-contentfor Development". The awards ceremony took place in New Delhi on 22nd September, 2007. This software, based on descriptive sheets of weeds written in the languages of the regions concerned (English, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali), helps identify weeds for rice and wheat crop systems of the Indo-Gangetic plains (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) through an attractive graphical interface accessible to non-specialists. The aim is to improve weed-monitoring practices ("precision agriculture"). The software was created within the framework of the European Commission's Asia IT&C programme, by the IFP (leader), the Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD) [UMR AMAP], the Rice & Wheat Consortium forthe Indo-Gangetic plains (Delhi, India) and the University of Wageningen (Netherlands).
Contact: Dr. Frederic Borne, borne@ifpindia.org
IFP and Alliance Française join forces…
On the occasion of “Thursdays at the Alliance” on 15th November, 2007, the Alliance Française of Pondicherry allowed the IFP to screen a documentary, Bittersweet waters, produced by the IFP and written and directed by Nathanaël Coste and Nicolas Ploumpidis. The screening, in French and English, was intended to increase public awareness of the growing shortage and unequal distribution of water resources in South India. It was preceded by a presentation of the research axis of the IFP by its Director, followed by a question hour with the IFP researchers and co-authors of the DVD. For the IFP, the event – with a full-capacity audience and praised by all the authorities present – serves as encouragement to go further with the “popularization” of its research activities concerning, among other issues, sustainable management of the environment (biodiversity, water) and preservation of India's cultural heritage.
Contact: Dr. Olivia Aubriot, olivia.aubriot@ifpindia.org; Dr. Anupama. K., anupama.k@ifpindia.org
PUBLICATIONS
CSH
China-Pakistan Strategic Cooperation: Indian Perspectives
Edited by Swaran Singh
Manohar-CSH, New Delhi, 2007, 406 p, Rs 895
This book collates Indian perspectives on the multifaceted themes and sectors of China-Pakistan strategic cooperation. China-Pakistan ties have been a major obsession with Indian opinion and policy makers. While this obsession remains restricted to China's transfers of sensitive technologies, the essential backdrop sustaining such a unique 'axis' has not been explored with sufficient rigour. Given the secrecy shrouding these transfers of missiles and nuclear material, technologies and knowhow, occasional outbursts in the Indian media suggest that commentary remains vulnerable to political populism, emotional outrage and calculated Western media leaks. These commentaries trigger flashes of interest but no substantive follow-up debate or dedicated research for evolving India's policy options. The volume tries to fill this essential gap so as to generate serious debate on the contours and implications of China-Pakistan ties. Providing a wealth of information and analyses, the book aims at shedding populism and busting several myths that continue to burden Indian debates on China-Pakistan strategic cooperation.
Keywords: strategic cooperation, China-Pakistan axis, China-India relations, Indian debates
Aligning Development, Air Quality and Climate Policies for Multiple Dividends
Deepa Menon-Choudhary, P.R.Shukla, Jean-Charles Hourcade & Sandrine Mathy
CSH Occasional Paper 21, New Delhi, 2007, 95 p
This paper proposes that environment protection should be made complementary to the development process by aligning different policies that avoid tradeoffs and generate multiple dividends during po licy implementation. For developing countries, there is a good opportunity to align development, local air quality management and climate change policies that both reduces costs and achieves multiple dividends. Empirical evidence, including the environmental Kuznets' Curve, shows that, with economic progress, environmental concern develops due to availability of resources and public pressure. This is found more for local pollutants; preventing greenhouse gas emissions needs conscious policymaking. This approach is reflected in developing countries which address air quality problems individually. A more pro-active approach would generate no-regrets options, moving a country on a pathway that prevents local air quality deterioration and is also less carbon-intensive. Developed countries should support the move of developing countries to align policies by directing climate-related and public/private flows towards a development-oriented pathway. This would create leverage effects on domestic policy implementation and help overcome transaction costs. A win-win situation can thus emerge, which addresses developing countries' concerns of development and local air quality management along with the global concern for climate change.
Keywords: development, local air quality, climate change, policy alignment, conjoint benefits
IFP
Streams of language: dialects in Tamil
Edited by Kannan M., Hors série n° 6, 2008, xxii, 335 p
Language: Tamil, English, French. Rs 500 (18€)
This volume is the outcome of an international conference, Dialects in Tamil, held on 23rd-25th August, 2006, at the IFP. Dialects in Tamil emerge from a configuration of several elements shared by people: caste, region, landscape and the material culture which sustains them. This book is arranged in a manner that a single subject, apprehended in the light of scholarship in different fields, reveals its multiple facets. The order in which the sections are arranged relates specifically to the way the problematic of dialects in Tamil has been addressed in different contexts (by international scholars to linguists to Tamil creative writers). The formal arrangement also underlines the holistic, multidisciplinary approach favoured. The Tamil papers contain English abstracts and vice versa, so that both Tamil and English readers can benefit from the volume.
Keywords: dialects, Tamil, literature, linguistics
Bittersweet waters: irrigation practices and modern challenges in South India. Eaux douces, eaux amères : pratiques d'irrigation et défis modernes en Inde du Sud. Tannir: inippum kacappum [DVD-Video]
Written and directed by Nathanaël Coste, Nicolas Ploumpidis; co-authors K. Anupama, O. Aubriot, Y. Gunnell. Publications Hors série n° 5, 2007
Language: DVD (Trilingual): English, French, Tamil; VCD: Tamil. Rs 200 (9€)
This trilingual documentary (53 minutes) deals with issues of water management in South India which are a matter of underlying concern and anxiety in towns as well as in the countryside. With the help of testimonies provided by a broad range of stakeholders from rural India, this documentary shows how the dynamics of water management has evolved over the last few decades and how access to water has brought prosperity while also leading to bitter experiences. Water issues serve here as a lightning rod, as revealed in the portrayal of an agrarian society that is undergoing rapid and profound change and that faces crucial ecological, social, economic, cultural and political choices for the future.
Keywords: water management, irrigation, tank, groundwater, Tamil Nadu
Law, land use and the environment: Afro-Indian dialogues. Enjeux fonciers et environnementaux: dialogues afro-indiens
Edited by/sous la direction de Christoph Eberhard, Collection Sciences Sociales n° 13, 2008, xv, 549 p
Language: English, French. Rs 600 (22€)
Unprecedented pressure on the environment in the contemporary world has raised awareness of the fragility of our planet and our responsibility towards preserving it. How can this exigency be reconciled with the challenge of demographic explosion? How can it be ensured that use of natural resources for human well-being is not entirely dictated by market forces? How does one rethink the relationship between man and land and the environment? The terms 'governance' and 'sustainable development' contribute to a reshaping of the law aimed at articulating contemporary political, social, economic and environmental issues. The focus of this book is on the major stakes involved and on the ways to elaborate possible modes of thought and action by exploring the African and Indian situations by means of an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. By promoting a 'South-South' dialogue, the work also decentres global reflections that continue to be largely dominated by the 'North'.
Keywords: land law, natural resources management, intercultural dialogue, sustainable development
Sabdabodhamimamsa. An inquiry into Indian theories of verbal cognition. Part III: Subantapadarthavicaratmakah. Nominal stems and their significance.
N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya with the collaboration of F. Grimal and S. Lakshminarasimham, Collection Indologie n° 100.3; Samskrtavarsasmrtigranthamala n° 8, IFP/Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 2007, xi, 51, 456 p
Language: Sanskrit. Rs 250 (Distributed by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi)
This volume, third in the series under the project An Inquiry into Indian Theories of Verbal Cognition, is devoted to an analytical and critical study of nominal stems viz. underived, ending in the kṛt, taddhita and feminine suffixes, compound words, and indeclinables, according to the schools of Nyaya, Vyakarana, Purvamimamsa, Advaita, Visistadvaita and Dvaita. Some of the topics dealt with are the nature of the relationship between a word and its sense, and its subdivisions (abhidha, laksana, gaunivrtti); the significance of a word, whether denoting a universal (jati), an individual (vyakti), the specific configuration of an object (akrti) or a blend of all three; the different forms of primary signification through which a word conveys the conventional sense (rudhi), etymological sense (yoga), the sense which is both conventional and etymological (yoga-rudhi), as well as the conventional and etymological senses that are different from each other (yaugika-rudhi).
Keywords: Indian philosophy, sastra-s, verbal cognition
IFP/EFEO
Darasuram: architecture and iconography. [CD-ROM]
Edited by Karine Ladrech, Collection Indologie nº 108, IFP/EFEO, 2007
Language: English. Rs 350 (13€)
The temple of Airavatesvarain Darasuram, dating from the second half of the 12th century, is one of the major shrines erected by the Cola Dynasty. This CD-Rom provides near-exhaustive documentation on the architecture and iconography of the temples of Siva and of the Goddess, completing that of Françoise L'Hernault's book published by the EFEO in 1987. The rich photographic documentation spans 50 years (1956-2006), revealing the modifications of the monuments. Also included are plans and drawings from the 1987 book. Each image is accompanied by a note identifying, locating and describing it, and a search engine provides access to images corresponding to criteria defined by the user.
Keywords: Darasuram, architecture, iconography, Cola
Paniniyavyakaranodaharanakosah. La grammaire paninéenne par ses exemples. Paninian grammar through its examples. Vol. 2. Samasaprakaranam. Le livre des mots composés. The book of compound words.
F. Grimal, V. Venkataraja Sarma, S. Lakshminarasimham, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Series n° 150; Collection Indologie n° 93.2, RSV, Tirupati/EFEO/IFP, 2007, xviii, 834 p
Language: Sanskrit, French, English. Rs 600 (Distributed by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati)
This second volume of Paninian Grammar through its Examples is dedicated to compound words. Following the plan of the Siddhantakaumudi, it gives examples provided by BhattojiDiksita in his Samasaprakarana, plus a choice of other examples from the Mahabhasaya, the Kasikavrtti and the Bhasavrtti All these constitute the entries of this dictionary. Each article comprises references, the analytical formulation in Sanskrit, the French and English translations of the example, the sequence of all the operations to be successively carried out to cover the formation of the compound up to its final inflected form and, lastly, notes. Four indices are those of the sutra-s with reference to their examples, of the vartika-s, of the Paninian and traditional Indian terminology used in this Samasaprakarana, and of all the examples given in the three other commentaries and not retained.
Keywords: Sanskrit, dictionary, examples, grammar, Paninian grammar
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