The 21st century will be an Asian century. But it will also be an urban century with much of this urbanization taking place in Asian cities, especially in India and China. India’s rapid urban growth thus presents a call to scholars, policy-makers, planners, and civil society activists to engage with the various potentialities and challenges. In recognition of the urgency of the issue, CSAS launched a new research initiative titled The 21st Century Indian City. The inaugural conference in this initiative, Developing an Agenda for Urbanization in India, was held in New Delhi in March 2011.

The 2nd conference in this initiative, Working Towards Being Slum Free?, took place on April 27-28, 2012 in Berkeley, CA. Preceding it, on April 25, 2012 was, Urban WASH: Paradigms for Water, Sanitation & Hygiene for the 21st Century South Asian City, a graduate student symposium focusing primarily on urban water management. Both conferences were free and open to all. Please click on the links for further details.

The 3rd and final conference in this initiative, Towns, Metros, and the Indian Economy will take place on March 26-27, 2013 in Bangalore, India. For further details please click on the link.

The University of California at Berkeley is a global leader for the study of South Asia, and one of very few institutions in the United States to offer both undergraduate and graduate degree programs focusing on this vital region. Urdu and Pakistan-related studies are a critical element of South Asia studies and the Center for South Asia Studies (CSAS) is strongly committed to strengthening our engagement with both subjects in the years ahead. With this program, CSAS launches the Berkeley Urdu & Pakistan Initiatives, both campaigns to broaden and deepen Urdu and Pakistan Studies at Berkeley. Our first priorities will be: a) Financially strengthen the Urdu program, b) raise funds for graduate fellowships (and thereby train the next generation of scholars of Pakistan, c) Initiate an annual lecture series by prominent scholars working on Urdu and/or Pakistan, and d) extend our Pakistan-specific programming to engage growing academic and community interest in the study of culture, religion, and politics.   More >>

Baatcheet Around the Bay is a year-long collaborative program with the Asian Art Museum San Francisco, San Jose Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Museum, and Stanford University, designed to increase public understanding in the Bay Area about South Asian art and visual culture. Loosely based on the Japanese design-presentation model Pecha Kucha (pe-chak-cha) and short format TED talks, Baatcheet Around the Bay brings scholars, curators, students, visual and performance artists, collectors, art enthusiasts, and members of the Bay Area community together for a series of multimedia conversations over the course of one year. Each Baatcheet consists of several short (5-7 minute) presentations that can incorporate visual, audio, performative, and textual components. Each program shares the common goal of inciting dynamic, public conversations about art and visual culture of South Asia.  More >>

India is unique in history in having a sustained democracy in a poor country with a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. Today, its economic strength is also widely recognized and celebrated. The role democratic processes play in the sustenance and diffusion of this economic strength into the wider reaches of Indian society is a central question that must be engaged. In order to create an environment in which such crucial questions can be discussed and alternative solutions offered by politicians, policy makers, thought leaders, NGO activists, and scholars, the Center for South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, together with the Foundation for Democratic Reforms in India (FDRI), organized two a high-level annual seminars, the first in May 2007 and the second in September 2008,  hosted on the Berkeley campus. The primary objective of these seminars was to provide direction and reflection on key issues that may challenge the democratic institutions of India in the 21st century. The aim was to generate ideas that would not only spur greater understanding of complex issues, but could also be implemented in terms of policy.  More >>