Two public lectures by Visiting Professor Archana Upadhyay from India

Visiting Professor Archana Upadhyay from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, have two public lectures in September in the University of Tartu.

Wednesday, 21 September, 18:15-19:45, University Main Building (Ülikooli 18) room 228

Religion and Politics in Contemporary India

Among contemporary India’s internal assets what particularly stands out are its pluralistic and secular traditions. Indians find themselves in a political set up that tolerates dissent and substantial heterogeneity of political ideas besides persistently striving to make room for different religious and no-religious belief systems to flourish. However, practicing pluralism in its true spirit and defending it from organised attacks is not without challenges. There are constitutional and political means in place to deal with the challenges of maintaining political order in a diverse multi-ethnic and multi-religious social set of the country. However, the political issues and political practices that involve the question of religion and politics in India have a focus and meaning that is different from the issues and practices that dominate Western societies and polities.

Wednesday, 28 September, 18:15-19:45, University Main Building (Ülikooli 18) room 228

Understanding Insecurities: The South Asian Experience

The South Asia region comprising of eight states of different sizes and capabilities is marked by high levels of insecurity at the inter-state, intra-state, and human level. These insecurities have manifested as both traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Transnational terrorism fuelled by militant religious ideologies and Nuclear issues particularly stand out in the context of our understanding of South Asian insecurities. The problems in the region are primarily driven by two critical variables: the presence of weak states and weak cooperative interstate norms. A comprehensive regional security framework is a pressing requirement to adequately deal with security challenges confronting the region. However, given the trust deficit among the countries of the region, it is not an easy task.

Archana Upadhyay is a Professor in the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi ( India).  Her research interests include International Relations with special focus on South Asian and Eurasian issues, Political Violence, Insurgency and Terrorism. She has authored the book ‘ India’s fragile Borderlands: The Dynamics of Terrorism in North East India’ ( I.B. Tauris).  Her other publications include ‘ Multi- party System in the Russian Federation: Problems and Prospects’ and a co-authored monograph on Human Rights.

Host Iinstitution: Centre for Oriental Studies (Ülikooli 18-226)

Both lectures are part of the Oriental Studies Seminar (orientalistika seminar), FLKU.10.018, see more https://sisu.ut.ee/orientalistika/avaleht

Attendance free.

Contact and information
Märt Läänemets
Head of the Centre for Oriental Studies
e-mail: mart.laanemets@ut.ee
phone: +372 737 5589
mobile phone: +372 551 8847