India International Centre

Projects of research at the Centre focus on wide-ranging fields of interest from ecology to law to society and civilisation. Several projects have culminated in conferences and publications. Among these were 'The Other India' project initiated by I.J. Bahadur Singh, which has continued into the Diaspora Project of 2000-2001 under the chairmanship of Dr L.M. Singhvi, and the IIC-Asia Project under the chairmanship of Dr Karan Singh over five years (1997-2002). Dr Kapila Vatsyayan has taken over as chairperson of the IIC-Asia Project from April 2003.

IIC - Asia Project

The IIC-Asia Project programmes have been acknowledged as imaginative and innovative ways of exploring the interconnectedness between countries of this region, especially in the domains of archaeology, art history, literature, crafts films, women's issues, among others.

In 2007, the programme on 'The Culture of Indigo: Exploring the Asian Panorama-Aspects of Plant, Product and Power' was widely acclaimed for both the substance and also the methodology adopted. In 2008, the IIC-Asia Project shifted its focus from a thematic multi-disciplinary approach to investigating India's relationship with countries of Central Asia. An important seminar was organized to focus attention on 'New Discoveries about Buddhism in Western Central Asia'.

IIC-Asia Project carried forward its emphasis on Asia and Central Asia by collaborating with the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others in the programmes of the 20th Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) held from November 14-17, 2008.

The conference was inaugurated on 14 November at JNU, in which Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Chairperson, IIC- Asia Project spoke on 'Asian History: Nation State or Interconnected cultural System?'

An Illustrated report of the Annual Asian Women Film festivals (2005-08) is being produced. The report brings together papers on the theme of women and the media, and includes questionnaires sent to the film makers, as well as colorful posters and stills of the films which were screened, to put together this stimulating survey of the four documentary film festivals held at the IIC. This will be the one the three publications brought out by IIC-Asia Project as the final product of the programmes held since 2005 under its aegis.

There are two more well-researched publications. One is an edited volume entitled Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women's Writings. It is an exploration of women as expressed through the written word-poetry, fiction, drama-from countries of the Asian continent as far-flung as Mongolia to Macau, the Far East to the West, the South to the North, covering China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and others. The power of creativity of women from Asia come together within the confines of a single book. This collection opens possibilities of creative dialogues across borders through literature. The volume has been edited by Prof. Sukrita Paul Kumar and Prof. Malashri Lal of the University of Delhi. The second is based on the seminar-cum-workshop on 'Sui-Dhaga: Crossing Boundaries through Needle and Thread', held in September 2005. This book will include photographs of the colourful embroideries exhibited at the seminar- like phulkaris, chikan, kanthas, suzanis - as well as those presented during the sessions as also the embroideries from Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and others.