:: Indian Council for Cultural Relations ::Cultural Centres/Chairs of Indian Studies

Maintaining Indian Cultural Centres

In order to promote awareness and appreciation of India’s composite cultural heritage abroad, the Council has established 20 Cultural Centres with two sub-centres in different parts of the world. The Centres are located at Cairo(Egypt), Berlin(Germany), Phoenix(Mauritius), Paramaribo(Suriname), Georgetown(Guyana), Jakarta and Bali(Sub-Center)(Indonesia), Moscow(Russian Federation), London(UK), Astana(Kazakhstan), Tashkent(Uzbekistan), Durban and Johannesburg(South Africa), Port of Spain(Trinidad & Tobago), Colombo(Sri Lanka), Dushanbe(Tajikistan), Suva and Lautoka(Sub-Center)(Fiji), Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia) , Tokyo(Japan), Kathmandu(Nepal) and Kabul(Afghanistan).

The activities of the Cultural Centres support the cultural needs of the local population. The Centres organize several outreach programmes including panel discussions, lectures, exhibitions of visual arts, essay competitions, performances of dance, music & theatre, screening of Indian films, publication of news bulletins, seminars on Indian topics etc. Some of the Cultural Centres also have regular teaching classes in Indian music, dance, yoga and Hindi language. The Centres also maintain Libraries and Audio-Video material. To facilitate the programmes, ICCR periodically sends print & audio-video material including books in Hindi, English, Sanskrit and Urdu and audio-video material.

Apart from organizing their own activities, these Cultural Centres also provide a supportive role to the respective Indian Missions for coordinating various cultural activities. The Centres develop and maintain contacts with the local citizens particularly students, teachers, academicians, opinion makers and cultural personalities to project a composite picture of India’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.

List of India Base Staff at Indian Cultural Centres Abroad

List of Indian Cultural Centres Abroad

Chairs of Indian Studies

The Council deputes Visiting Professors at prestigious universities abroad and maintains Chairs of Indian Studies to teach Indian languages and other related subjects. At present, the Council maintains 19 Chairs of Indian Studies and 5 Chairs of Indian Studies on semester basis. The Council is in the process of setting up a Chair of Political Science & International Relations at Osh State University and a Chair of Indian Economics at Sciences Po as per details given below:

Visting Professors Deputed at Chairs of Indian Studies Abroad As on 10.2.2009

S.No.	Country	Name of Professors	Tenure & Date of Joining	University
Chairs of Hindi
1	Poland	Dr.(Smt)Ramkali Saraf Visiting Prof. of Hindi	2 years From 19.02.07 to 18.2.09 extended upto 30.06.09	Warsaw University Warsaw, Poland
2	Hungary	Dr. Pramod Kumar Sharma Visiting Prof. of Hindi	2 years From 18.01.2008 to 18.01.2010	( ELTE ) Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest Hungary
3	Bulgaria	Dr. Gobind Prasad, Visiting Professor of Hindi	2 years From 9-01-2009 to 8-01-2011	Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
4	South Korea	Vacant since 1 st September Response of Mission for replacement is awaited		Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea
5	Romania	Smt. Usha Kiran Sood has been designated as Hindi Teacher and likely to join in the mid February, 2009	2 Years	Bucharest University Bucharest, Romania
6	Turkey	Dr. Susheela Thomas Visiting Professor of Hindi	2 years From 12.11.2008 to 11.11.2010	Ankara University Ankara, Turkey
7	Belgium	Dr. V.Krishna Visiting Prof. of Hindi	2 years From 12.09.07 to 12.09.2009	State University of Ghent, Brussels, Belgium
8	China	Dr. Devendra Shukla Visiting Professor of Hindi	2years From 10.2.09 to 9.2.11	Peking University Beijing, China
9	Spain	Dr. Vijay Kumaran C.P.V. Visiting Prof. Of Hindi	2 years From 09.07.07 to 08.07.2009	University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
10	Trinidad & Tobago	Dr. Durga Prashad Singh Associate Prof. of Hindi	2 years From 28.09.07 to 27.09.09	University of West Indies, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Propagation of Hindi Abroad (Agency Work)
11	Russia	Dr. Shishir Kumar Pandey Visiting Professor of Hindi	2 years From 27.10.2008 to 26.10.2010	Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre, Embassy of India Moscow, Russia
12	Suriname	Smt Sandhya Sharma Hindi Teacher	2 years From 23.11.2008 to 22.11.2010	Indian CulturalCentre, Paramaribo, Suriname
Hindi Chair under ITEC terms Agency work (MEA)
13	Afghanistan	Dr. K.G.Kapoor Hindi Teacher	1 year 28.09.2007 to 27.09.2008 27.9.2009	Nanghar University, Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Chairs of Sanskrit
14	Thailand	Dr. Prativa Rath visiting prof. of Sanskrit	2 years From 4.6.2008 to 3.6.2010	SilpakornUniversity, Bangkok, Thailand
15	France	Dr.Satyanarayan Chakraborty Visiting Prof. of Sanskrit	2+1 years From 24.02.06 to 23.02.2009	SorbonneNouvelle University, Paris, France
Chairs of Tamil
16	Poland	Dr. A. Mariapan Visiting Prof. of Tamil	2 years From 27.09.07 to 25.09.09	Warsaw University Warsaw, Poland
Chairs of Modern Indian History Civilization & South Asian Affairs
17	Trinidad & Tobago	Dr. Ratan Lal Hangloo Visiting Prof. of Modern Indian History & South Asian Affairs	2 years From 08.09.2007 to 08.09.2009	University of West Indies, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
18	Kyrghystan	Dr. G.K. Basu Visiting Prof. of Political Science/International relations and world economy and diplomacy	2years From 15.09.2007 to 14.09.2009	Osh State University, Osh, Kyrghystan
Chairs of International Relations Diplomacy and International Law
19	Uzbekistan	Dr. Smt. Jyotsna Bakshi Visiting Associate Professor, Indian Studies	2 +1years From 28.04.2006 to 24.04.2009	University of world Economy & Diplomacy, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
20	South Africa	Gandhi Luthuli Chair for Peace Studies (Designated Dr.M.S.John, visiting Prof of Peace Studies)	2 years From 15.7.08 to 14.7.10	University of Kwazulu Natal, Durban, south Africa
Chairs of Contemporary Indian Studies
21	Mauritius	Associate Professor, Indian Studies	Under Process	Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Moka, Mauritius
Chairs on Short Term/Rotating Basis
1	U.S.A.	Dr. Ramkaran Sharma Visiting Professor of Indian literature	Short term From 21/1/09 to 15/5/09	University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
2	Mongolia	Dr. R.K. Mishra has been designated as Visiting Professor of Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies and likely to join in the end of February, 2009	Short term	National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
3	France	Dr. Errol D,Souza has been designated as visiting Prof of Ind. Economic	Short Term	Science Po, Paris France
4	Germany	Dr. Surinder Aggaarwal as Visiting Professor of Geography/ Environment	Likely to join in April 2009	University of koln cologne Germany
5	Germany	Dr.Arabinda Mishra as visiting professor of political science	Likely to join in April 2009	Freie University, Berlin
6	Germany	Dr. Kudoor Chinnappa Gowda Visiting Professor, of Indology & South Asian Studies	Short term From 11.11.2008 to 31.3.2009	Julius Maximilians University of Wuerzburg, Germany
7	Germany	Dr. Sukhwant S. Bindra Visiting Professor of Political Science,/Indology	Short term From 11.11.2008 to 31.1.2009	Johannes, Gutenburg University, Mainz, Germany
8	Germany	Dr. Gaya Charan Tripathi as Visiting Professor of Indology	Likely to join in April 2009	Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
9	Germany	Dr. Vishnu R. Sarwade Visiting Professor of Hindi	Short term From 5.11.2008 to 31.3.2009	University of Bonn , Bonn
10	South Africa	Vacant Chair of Indian Studies		Short term Chair at Witwatersrand University , Johannesburg .
11	China	Dr. Priyadarsi Mukherji Visiting Professor of Indian Studies.	From 30 . 10.2008 to 20/1/09	Short term Chairs at Shenzhen University , Guangzhou
12	Israel	Dr. Amrit Srinivasan has been designated as Visiting Professor of Indian Studies	From March 2009	Tel-Aviv University

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