JNUTA
JNUTA
JNUTA
A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.
Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.
The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.
Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.
Background of JNUTA formation
The first association of Faculty and Staff was formed in the year 1971, and it was called "JNU Staff Association'. Subsequently, a meeting of JNU faculty took place on 2nd December, 1972 at 2.30 p.m. in Lecture Hall no. 1(Old Campus), which was attended by 65 teachers. This meeting discussed the need to form an associatioof faculty members, and passed the following resolution:
"This meeting of Jawaharlal Nehru University held on the 2nd December 1972, is of the opinion that there is a need for the foundation of a democratic association of teachers of this University. This association should open to all teachers of the University without any distinction or discrimination reflecting the organic structure of the University. The association should deal with all problems connected with the academic life of the University and those having a direct bearing on it with special reference to the conditions of service, rights and duties of the teaching community."
This meeting formed two committees to take this proposal forward.
1. Constitution Drafting Committee: this committee had 11 members: 1. Parimal Kumar Dass(SIS), 2. M.S.Agwani(SIS), 3. Krishna Bhardwaj(SSS), 4. C.P.Bhambri(SSS), 5. G.P.Deshpande(SIS), 6. M.P.Pandey(SFS), 7. Jawed Ashraf(SLS), 8. Bimal Prasad (Convener) (SIS), 9. Siwatosh Mookerjee(SLS), 10. Moonis Raza (Convener) (SSS), 11. Mrs. Ramalingaswami(SSS)
2. Ad-hoc Committee: this commitee had the following members: T.K.Ommen(SSS), M.L.Sondhi(SIS), Parimal K. Das(SIS),(Convener), G.S.Singhal(SLS), R.C.Sharma(SIS), Jawed Ashraf(Convener)(SLS), A.Bhatti(SFL), and Joginder Singh(SSS). Two Joint meeting of these committees took place on 24th February and 20th March 1973. A General Body Meeting to approve the constitution took place on 21st March and the constitution was adopted in that meeting. And the first ever election to JNUTA was held on 27th April 1973. Since then, the JNUTA has always played an active role in upholding and establishing the democratic norms in academics. During the emergency, two minutes silence was observed without specifying any reason, but whose underlined meaning was to 'mourn the death of democracy'.