The NUS Asia Research Institute (ARI) today announced the establishment of the Nalanda Endowed Professorship in India-China Studies. The Professorship aims to facilitate research and teaching on India-China relations namely, the political, economic, historical and cultural interactions between India and China with the ultimate aim to influence policy and advance social understanding in the multi-disciplinary field.
The Professorship is funded by a generous S$3 million donation from the Nalanda Library Fund Limited (NLFL) which was handed over by Former Minister Mr George Yeo as NLFL Trustee to ARI Director Professor Tim Bunnell in a ceremony attended by NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye at NUS this afternoon.
The NLFL was also set up to raise donations for the Nalanda University Library in India, to offer facilities for teaching, research, and study. Its trustees are Mr Yeo, Executive Chairman of Ho Bee Land Mr Chua Thian Poh and NUS University Professor Wang Gungwu. Singapore donors had pledged to donate as much as S$10 million towards the construction of the library that will be designed by Singapore architects. Once plans were deferred, the Trustees resolved, with the consent of all donors, that the residual figure of S$3 million be contributed to NUS towards setting up the Nalanda Endowed Professorship in India-China Studies.
Prof Tan stated, "NUS is pleased to be collaborating with the Nalanda Library Fund Limited to set up the Nalanda Endowed Professorship in India-China Studies at ARI. This is in line with our common goal of promoting an appreciation of the rich history and modern-day importance of India-China relations and developing this subject of research."
He went on to say, "By fostering study of the numerous ways that India and China have affected each other across many centuries, this Nalanda Endowed Professorship will help promote understanding between the two nations in ways that act as ballast for regional stability and prosperity today and into the future."
The Professorship will be given to outstanding scholars in the field for a term. The appointed Professor (also referred to as the Chair) will drive original research through a sustained project on India-China relations, organize archive projects to acquire, digitize and conserve original sources on historical research on India-China relations and their regional impact, guide graduate students, as well as inform the wider debate in the discipline through interactions with the academic and policymaker communities and the public in the form of workshops, public speeches and an annual conference. The international quest for the first Chair has already commenced.
Prof Bunnell added, "Trans-Asian scholarship has long been embedded within ARI's DNA, this new endowed chair in the field of India-China Studies caps and complements such a research heritage of trans-regional work. We are confident that the new chair will augment the quality scholarship offered by ARI's Asian Peace Programme on India and China by framing such contemporary geo-politics as only one of various forms of interrelationship between the two traditionally impactful Asian countries.
Mr Yeo, who is also a visiting scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS further added, "The future for peace and development in our region this century hinges a lot on good relations between China and India. I hope the professorship can, in a small way, help to bring greater understanding between these two great civilizations.". Southeast Asia is the intersection of India and China's mandalas. Here, we offer a natural forum for the holding of dialogues about their interaction with one another for centuries in various spheres and what they have brought to Southeast Asia."
