Banning Foreign Scholars in India.

[S Krishna]

> From Gail coelho's forwarded article from the EPW:

> >It bagan in the 1970s when T N Kaul was ambassador to the US. There was a
>sharp decline in the grant of visas to American scholars to visit India
>Coinciding as it did with the US resumption of links with China, it led to
>a significant diminution of interest in India.>>

Oh really! where exactly did the EPW guys get this from? What the dear souls
fail to understand is that America has invested a lot of money in trying to
understand countries which are inimical to it as opposed to "friendly"
countries. Note that they invested tons of money on Russian studies thru out
the cold war but this seems to have vanished post 1991. Likewise thru the
70s, they didn't care much about Iran
(when the Shah was around) but promptly jumped in after Khomeini came to
power.

Last year, Prof Ashutosh Varshney( Dept of Govt, Harvard U) was refused
tenure because of a lack of interest in Indian Studies. At that time, I
remember reading that there had been a steady lack of interest in Indian
studies since the second world war..not sure of where this 70s figure comes
from..


> >I had then remarked in this column: "Presumably a judge of the US Supreme
>Court visiting India will not be allowed to deliver a talk explaining the
>Bakke case, on positive discrimination in favour of the Blacks and its
>aftermath because it might have a bearing on the 'politically sensitive'
>issue of reservations.>>

You've got to be kidding...If they get Clarence Thomas to tell them why you
shouldn't have affirmative action, half a dozen parties that
I know will want the Bharat Ratna to be given to him...



Krishna

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