The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Indology research centre in U.S. feeling the heat of cut in aid

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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Indology research centre in U.S. feeling the heat of cut in aid

M. Dinesh Varma

It has moved Centre, Plan panel for grant of Rs. 7 million

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

Pradeep Mehendiratta.

CHENNAI: A premier Indology research centre that has helped to digitise the national archives, restored heritage sites and photo-documented shrine architecture across India is at the crossroads.

The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), since it was founded in 1961 by a group of American Indologists, has largely subsisted on grants from U.S. universities and foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller, Mellon and Carnegie, besides the occasional release of funds from the Government of India.

Now, the AIIS is heading towards a funding vacuum, with American institutions substantially scaling down their financial support. From 2010-11, U.S. funding will be slashed to an annual grant of Rs. 5 million.

“The institution will require at least double that amount to carry out a mandate that goes far beyond that of a centre for Indology scholarship,” says Pradeep Mehendiratta, AIIS vice-president in India.

Though the core activity in the early days had been to promote scholarship on India in U.S. universities through fellowships and highly customised Indian language tutorials, the AIIS has subsequently taken up highly specialised and sensitive tasks. For instance, it has assisted various State Governments in the restoration of heritage sites and helped the Archaeological Survey of India salvage archives ravaged by time and negligence.

It is now recognised by the Government of India as an institute of higher learning, and the department of science and technology as a scientific research centre.

Apart from the Indology scholarship initiatives that have produced 4,000 fellowships and 2,000 didactic publications, the AIIS has assumed larger roles in heritage preservation by photo-documenting nearly 4,000 ancient temples, 3,000 monuments and 300 museum objects in Southeast Asia.

The AIIS has also set up two centres of excellence—the Center for South Asian Art and Archaeology and the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology.

The assets of these centres include a 14-volume encyclopaedia on temple architecture, an ethnographic atlas of music in Western Rajasthan and 18,000 hours of recordings and video documentation of Indian folk, classical and modern music.

The AIIS has submitted memoranda to the Centre and the Planning Commission seeking an annual grant of Rs. 7 million for the next five years, by when it hopes to devise a self-sustenance plan.

“We are aware of the need for coming up with a self-sustainment plan. But until such time, the institution will require aid from the Government to partly fill the funding void,” says Mr. Mehendiratta.

The AIIS is banking on a positive response from the Government, especially in the context of growing warmth in the Indo-U.S. relations.

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