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CITD organises Condolence Meeting for Prof. Alokesh Barua

CITD organises Condolence Meeting for Prof. Alokesh Barua

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CITD organises Condolence Meeting for Prof. Alokesh Barua
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Professor Alokesh Barua

The entire CITD community – faculty, students, staff, and former students – is stunned with grief at the heart-breaking news of the sudden demise of our most beloved colleague and teacher Professor Alokesh Barua. He contracted the COVID-19 virus and succumbed in the midst of the surging pandemic in Delhi on Monday, April 26, 2021. Nothing can be more devastating for us than a tragedy like this, making it extremely difficult for us to come to terms with his untimely departure.

Professor Barua had a long association with JNU, dating back to the 1970s when he came to the university as a graduate student. On completion of his PhD, he joined our department as a faculty in 1979. Apart from being an outstanding scholar of trade theory, significantly contributing to teaching and research at CITD, Professor Barua is also remembered by all of us for his kind, gentle, and smiling personality and his soft and soothing presence in the Centre.

He was ever willing to give his time and advice to us – even when we dropped by his office unannounced, just as he was about to leave for home. With his calm demeanour he would share his perspective and ideas with us; and with equanimity take the reminder calls from home assuring that he would be on his way soon. He was a true champion of collaboration within our department, as evidenced by his having the highest number of joint research publications with colleagues in the Centre.

Professor Barua’s academic team spirit was matched by his enthusiasm for social events and conference dinners at the Centre that created an inclusive environment of oneness and cohesion among faculty, students, and staff of CITD. Generations of students from all batches fondly remember him not only for his clear and lucid understanding of trade theory, but also for his caring and genuine warmth.

We convey our heartfelt condolences to his wife Arati, son Imon, and other members of his family. We would like them to know that Professor Barua will always remain in our hearts and his personality and scholarship will continue to inspire all of us at CITD in years to come.

CITD invites you for a virtual Remembrance Meeting that it is organising for him on Saturday, May 8th 2021 starting at 10:30 am. The link for this meeting is

meet.google.com/dau-eptm-hin

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.