Poverty & SA Studies

[Sfauthor at aol.com]

Dominik wrote:

A marker that foreign governments are not overly impressed by the Indian
economic performance is the fact that departments of South Asian studies
around the world seem to be under pressure to contract, and staff are
being shed due to lack of government interest in SA languages and
cultures.  By contrast, departments of Middle Eastern, Japanese, and
Korean studies are expanding rapidly.




My take is that, at least in the United States, Russian studies expanded
because the USSR was perceived as a military threat, Japanese studies
expanded because Japan was perceived as an economic threat, Chinese studies
studies expanded because China was perceived as an economic opportunity, and
Indian studies remained stagnant because India was not perceived as much of
anything.

With luck, liberalization will work and India will be perceived as an
economic opportunity and not as a military or economic threat. And then
perhaps South Asian studies will benefit.