ICCR setting up Sanskrit chair in Cambodia, and cultural centres in SE Asia and elsewhere

[Stella Sandahl]

SCHOLARS BEWARE OF  ICCR!!
It is all well and good that the ICCR is setting up more centres for  
Indian studies. But some clarifications are needed. First, the Indian  
scholars chosen by ICCR seem to be expected to follow the Government  
of India party line. I base this on a recent incident at the  
University of Toronto. An ICCR visiting scholar was chairing a talk  
about Kashmir by a Kashmiri journalist from Srinagar in early April.  
Since this kind of seminar is open to the public, several Kashmiri  
pandits, i.e. de facto Hindutva supporters attended and began to  
shout down the speaker. The chair calmly tried to tell them that this  
was an academic, not political  event, but to no avail. The  
discussion had to be cut short due to these interruptions.  
Furthermore, the chair received a strongly worded rebuke from the  
Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Delhi, accusing her of taking  
sides against India, which was certainly not the case. The chair of  
the Asian Centre at UofT protested, but to my knowledge the ministry  
issued no apology neither to the chair, nor the speaker, nor the UofT.
Furthermore, the visiting ICCR scholar taught one course at our  
university during the winter term. The course was duly remunerated in  
accordance with Canadian labour laws. However, the ICCR demanded -  
and obtained!  - that all this legal remuneration from UofT be  
returned to them. Only then did they pay  out the foreign allowance  
to the scholar. In other words, the University of Toronto subsidized  
ICCR to a tune of some $8000 + a paid for rental apartment (rather  
expensive in Toronto). The ICCR merely shelled out only a few hundred  
dollars + transport to the visiting scholar. The whole affair made  
India look cheap and mean. So much for the rising and shining India!

Stella Sandahl
Department of East Asian Studies
University of Toronto




On 12-Aug-11, at 5:08 AM, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> Time of India: 'The East has been deeply influenced by India'
>
> The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has opened a  
> centre in the South Korean capital Seoul and set up a chair of  
> Sanskrit at the Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University in  
> Cambodia. These initiatives are part of the Indian government's  
> 'Look East' policy. ICCR president Karan Singh talked with Shobhan  
> Saxena about India's growing soft power and need for more  
> engagement with countries in our extended neighbourhood.



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