De/Increase in USA's India interest, 1970's??

[Hans Henrich Hock]

Class enrollments in courses on South Asia have indeed increased on 
many campuses, including here at the University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign.  However, the "clientele" has changed dramatically 
at many of these institutions (perhaps all?).  In the 60s and 70s 
students tended to be European-American and interested in research on 
South Asia.  Now the bulk of the students consists of South 
Asian-Americans (mainly Indians) who want to know more about their 
roots.  If the government is involved in this, then only indirectly, 
by removing certain restrictions on immigration and thus making 
possible a vastly increased influx of South Asians to the US.

Hans Henrich Hock


> >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"
>
>    The above exchange occurred on Indology today.  Since my first “serious”
>(?) interest in India began in 1967-70 (following university-based
>anti-Vietnam non-violent action projects based on MLKing following Gandhi
>following Thoreau....), my first Fulbright there in 1971-72, I have to wonder
>what “significant diminution of interest in India” refers to, vis a vis
>Americans.  Surely historians cannot forget all those American Seekers (and
>such-like hippies from "the West") who followed the Beatles who followed
>Allen Ginsberg to India in the late 60’ and 70’s, and the explosion of
>interest in Gurus, Rishis, Yoga and Transcendental meditation in the US
>througout the 70s.  I thought this was a forum of historians, even though
>Indologists!!!
>
>    Well, to tell the truth-- and why not?-- I know the EPW remark refers to
>other professional historians/Indologists, and the issue has been joined
>around the amount of US government support of “professional interest.”
>Still, I would be very surprised if indeed the numbers of (US and other
>"Western") students involved in studying India and classes offered (I gave a
>couple myself!) decreased around the ‘70s.  In fact, my impression is that
>they increased!  Who can get the accurate stats, please!?
>
>  ATB    John Oliver Perry  (Emeritus Prof, English, Tufts, Boston, USA)


Hans Henrich Hock, Director
Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
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