Indian Expertise on China

Based on a thought provoking tweet by a colleague Dr. Rajiv Ranjan, Assistant Professor at ShanghaiUniversity and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Chinese Studies, New Delhi, I am highlighting the various scholars from India who have expertise on China.

When it comes to the people and places in India where Chinese studies is done, a few places like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) stand out due to their prominent location in New Delhi. JNU, my alma mater, has expertise in two schools - the School of Language Studies where Chinese is taught at the Undergraduate level and the School of International Studies, which hosts the Centre for East Asian Studies and offers M.Phil and Ph.D programs. I have been privileged to be taught by Professor Alka Acharya who also headed the Institute for Chinese Studies which is the pre-eminent Think Tank on Chinese studies in India. The Delhi University also has the Department of East Asian Studies which has/had several prominent scholars like Professor Patricia Uberoi and Professor Sreemati Chakrabarti. 

Scholars from JNU and DU have been closely associated with the Institute for Chinese Studies which continues to encourage female scholars who are currently Research Faculty there or been associated in the past. So it is definitely concerning that when popular discussions are done very few scholars are invited and female scholars are given the short shrift. 

While my focus has definitely been in North India, I wanted to also highlight information about research centres and think tanks in South India. One is the Institute for Contemporary Chinese Studies which is housed Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala and the IIT Madras Chinese Studies Centre where my former class mate Dr. Joe Thomas Karackattu teaches. On a side note, his research was made into a film Guli's Children which captures the journey of a Malayali family to China some 700 years ago. Also based in Chennai is the Chennai Centre for China Studies who research on a wide-range of topics. (Any suggestions to highlight other centres and think tanks is welcome and I will accordingly amend this post). 

One wonders whether it is the nature of Television debates, which have been reduced to rhetoric and machismo, that do not facilitate the engagement of female scholars or whether these debates see invitations sent to people have 'expertise' in government. But we can put it aside and if one is interested in serious scholarship on China we can definitely look at social media where they share and present their work. 

Below is a suggested list of social media presence of scholars, journalists, a lawyer and think-tanks.

Scholars

Rajiv Ranjan - @mrajivranjan

Jabin T Jacob - @jabinjacobt

Namrata Hasija - @hasijanamrata

Sana Hashmi - @sanahashmi1

Dev Lewis - @devlewis18

Journalists

Sowmiya Ashok - @sowmiyaashok

Ananth Krishnan, India Today - @ananthkrishnan

Saibal Dasgupta ToI - @saibaldasgupta

Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times - @spatranobis

Think Tank

Manoj Kewalramani, Fellow-China Studies @theChinaDude 

Takshashila Institution, Bangalore, India - @TakshashilaInst

Lawyer

Santosh Pai, Link Legal - @santoshpai_k

Culture

Krish Raghav - @krishraghav

Here is my own list of people from around the world who focus on China and are present on Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1253650177904136194

(I hope to update this post when I gather more information).