Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi NCR (SNIoE). We are delighted to present the 10^th edition of our Newsletter for September and October 2024. This and previous Newsletters are also available on our website.

ANNOUNCEMENT

We are happy to announce the call for applications for four Non-Resident Fellowships to support advanced research on the wider Himalayan region, with a focus on the following themes – borders and identities, economy, environment, and regional geopolitics. Those with a PhD degree, preferably those with relevant work experience are eligible to apply. Fellows will be paid a consolidated stipend of Rs. 50,000/- per month for a period of 12 months. Details about the application process including required documents and expected research output can be found on the centre’s website. The last date to receive fully completed applications is 21 November 2024.

EVENT

CHS was the university partner for the 2^nd Global Conference on New Sinology organized by the Organisation for Research on China and Asia, in Delhi on 27-28 September. At the conference, our Director, Dr. Jabin T. Jacob, spoke on the role of Buddhism in China’s statecraft in South Asia, while our Associate Fellow, Dr. Devendra Kumar made a presentation on the methods adopted by the Communist Party of China to enforce Xi Jinping Thought throughout the country. Our Distinguished Fellow, Mr. Claude Arpi was part of a special dialogue on Tibet in China’s Trans-Himalayan Aspirations on the first day of the conference.

IN THE MEDIA

The announcement of a new patrolling agreement between India and China leading to disengagement between their militaries in eastern Ladakh was the major development in this period. Our faculty also weighed in with their views. In a piece for The Indian Express, CHS Director, Dr. Jabin T. Jacob highlighted issues of transparency with the new agreement, as well as questions of accountability on the Indian side arguing that without these the country would remain unprepared for the next border crisis with China. In another piece for Deccan Herald, he argued that notwithstanding the patrolling agreement on the Line of Actual Control, all-round normalization of India-China bilateral relations still had a long way to go. Dr. Jacob also appeared on two podcasts – by Frontline Magazine, and The Hindu – where he also spoke on the mistrust and power differential between both the countries, and the need for Indian policymakers to break their operating silos on China. He was also quoted in a news report by BBC Hindi.

Our Distinguished Fellow, Mr. Claude Arpi, in his piece for Firstpost, opined that complete disengagement was a difficult and complicated proposition as China’s commitment on the ground needed to watched closely. CHS Fellow, Dr. Anand P. Krishnan appeared on India Today’s News Today programme, where he also mentioned the economic angle of Chinese investments that may have quickened the pace of negotiations.

Mr. Arpi penned three other pieces for Firstpost – in the first, analyzing an article in Global Times that was critical of India’s External Affairs Minister, he argued that China needed to put its own house in order first. In another, he used the recently held Assembly elections for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to revisit the raids by Pakistan in the region immediately after India’s independence, and the role of the United Nations. In the last piece, he argued that while the Chinese Party-state may project itself as a superior system compared to the West, the space for ethnic minorities in the country had declined markedly over time. He also wrote for Deccan Chronicle on how vastly different governance systems on either side of the Line of Actual Control also shaped actions of the forces on ground.

Our Fellow, Dr. Anand P. Krishnan authored a piece for The Indian Express on the increased detention of Indian solar panels by US Customs due to components from Xinjiang. He emphasized the need for India Inc. to be clued in on Chinese domestic politics, and involve more home-grown research. In another piece for The Hindu, he analyzed the longevity of Chinese smartphone companies in India, and how they aligned with India’s manufacturing ambitions. CHS Associate Fellow, Dr. Devendra Kumar contributed a piece for Deccan Herald that discussed how China was exporting its model and value systems to countries in the Global South through training programmes, police-law enforcement consultancies and judicial-military cooperation.

FACULTY UPDATE

CHS Director, Dr. Jabin T. Jacob was a Visiting Senior Fellow over the mid-semester break at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In his time there, he delivered a lecture on ‘Coping with China’s Rise: India’s Strategy and Policy Options’, on 2 October. He gave another lecture on ‘China in South Asia: Approach and Implications’, at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore on 1 October. He spoke on ‘Chinese Elite Politics and the Nature of the CCP’, as a resource person at Takshashila Institution’s Network for Advanced Study of China Fellowship Workshop in Bengaluru on 21 September. On 23 October, he also spoke on ‘China in South Asia: The Party’s Interests, Narratives and Toolkit’, at Sinologue – the seminar series of the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Dr. Jacob was part of the Indian delegation to the 19^th Russia-India-China (RIC) Trilateral Academic Conference in Moscow, Russia from 9-10 October.

Mr. Claude Arpi, CHS Distinguished Fellow, was a speaker at the Symposium on India-Tibet Relations and Its Future Discourse, jointly organized by the Central Tibet Administration, Centre for National Security Studies, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, USAID and National Democratic Institute. He was a panelist in the session on ‘Relevance of Tibet to India: Past, Present and Future’, at the programme, Spirit of Tibet: Celebrating Culture and Compassion, organized by Central Tibet Administration, in association with USAID, Forum for Non-Violent Alternatives and The Tibet Fund from 3-5 September. Prof. Kaveri Gill, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the CHS, moderated a session on Tibetan Buddhism and Science at the same programme. Later in October, Mr. Arpi also made a presentation on ‘The Tibet Factor in India China Relations’, at the Army War College, Mhow.

CHS Fellow Dr. Anand P. Krishnan made a presentation on his ongoing research on how Chinese smartphone companies were navigating the increased Indianization measures of the central government, at the Wednesday Seminar series organized by Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi.

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