By Dietmar Rothermund
The SAI was founded in 1962 by the State of Baden-Württemberg (capital: Stuttgart). The "winds of change" blowing around the world had also been felt in Germany by that time and the federal government had asked the state governments to share the burden of providing development aid to the Third World. Most state governments responded by taking up specific projects abroad, but Baden-Württemberg also saw the need for a university institute which would help study the problems of the countries of the Third World in depth, taking into consideration their history and cultural traditions as well as their current affairs. In order to give a focus to this kind of study, South Asia was chosen as a specific region. This was also due to the fact that germany had a very respectable tradition in the field of Indology which was, however, devoted exclusively to classical philological studies. By matching this tradition with modern studies it was thought that it would be possible to establish a powerful knowledge base. It was not easy to live up to such high expectations, nut the SAI has achieved some remarkable results in the thirty-three years since its foundation. By now, almost all the professors who joined the SAI soon after 1962 have retired and a new generation has taken over. In the following brief review of the different departments this changing of the guard will be a matter of consideration.
Anthropology
The first incumbent of this chair, Prof. Karl Jettmar, was interested mainly in the
mountainous regions of Afghanistan and pakistan. His staff members worked on tribes of
this area and he himself spent a great deal of the final years of his appointment on
documenting the drawings and inscriptions along the Silk Road after this part of it had been
opened up by the Chinese rod construction.
His successor, Prof. Richard Burghart, an American by birth who had pursued an academic
career at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, was interested mainly in
Nepal where he had done most of his field work. He was very much interested in modern
anthropological theories and infused the spirit of british social anthropology into the
mainstream of German ethnology which was still wedded to the idea that non-literate tribes
are the proper subject of this discipline. Unfortunately Prof. Burghart died of a brain tumour
in 1993 at the age of 49 and was unable to complete his mission. His successor has not been
appointed yet, but we hope that anthropology at the SAI will continue along the lines pursued
by Prof. Burghart.
Economics
From the very beginning the SAI had two chairs in this discipline, one devoted to rural
economics and the other to development economics in general. Prof. Otto Schiller, an expert
in the field of rural cooperatives, was the first incumbent of the 'rural' chair. His successor
was Prof. Winfried von Urff, who was soon called to a chair at Munich University. The
present incumbent is Prof. Oskar Gans whose more general interests are reflected by the
renaming of the chair (international economic policy). The other chair was first occupied by
Prof. Bruno Fritsch who was soon called to a chair at the Eidgenössische Technische
Hochschule (Zurich). His successor was Prof. Bruno Knall who did most of his fieldwork
in Nepal and also published on development planning. He retired recently and was succeeded
by Prof. Clive Bell, well-known expert who had worked in the research department of the
World Bank and then taught at Vanderbilt University in the United States. He had done the
fieldwork for his PhD in India and has an abiding interest in South India.
Geography
Prof. Ulrich Schweinfurth was the first incumbent of this chair. His research background was
in physical geography, especially climatology. Under his guidance rainfall patterns in South
Asia were studied in great detail. But he also devoted his attention to the cultural geography
of South Asia. He has only recently been succeeded by Prof. Hans-Georg Bohle, a cultural
geographer, who earlier held a chair at Freiburg University. He had done his fieldwork in
South India with special emphasis on local marketing.
History
Prof. Dietmar Rothermund was appointed to this chair in 1968 and is still in charge of it. His
main field is the political and economic history of India in the 19th and 20th centuries. Two
senior staff members, Professors Hermann Kulke (ancient and medieval Indian history) and
Jürgen Lütt (modern history), greatly enriched the work of the department until
Kulke was called to a chair at Kiel University in 1987 and Ltt to a chair at Humboldt
University (Berlin) in 1993.
History of Art
There has never been a chair in this subject at the SAI. Prof. Hermann Goetz, a noted
arthistorian who had spent the major part of his life in India, established this small
department as an honourary professor when he joined the institute at an advanced age. Prof.
Heimo Rau was also a part-time member of this department. Prof B.N. Goswamy
(Chandigarth) helped the department as a frequent visiting professor in a crucial decade of
transition. Prof. Anna Libera Dallapicolla was then in charge of the department until she left
Heidelberg for Edinburgh in 1992. Her main work in this period was on Indian painting and
on the art of Vijayanagar. Since 1992 Dr Joachim Bautze (Berlin) has taught her classes and
continued the tradition of a very small but important department.
Indology
Prof. Hermann Berger was the first incumbent of this chair. His main field of interest was
Indian linguistics, but he encouraged members of his department to launch sub-departments
of modern languages and of religion and philosophy. Prof. Lothar Lutze, who taught Hindi,
contributed a great deal to the organization of the first sub-department in which also Bengali,
Burmese, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Urdu were taught. Prof. Heinrich von Stietencron
set up the second sub-department, he was then called to a chair at Tübingen University
and was succeeded by Prof. Günter Dietz Sontheimer, who did pioneering fieldwork on the
living traditions of Hindu religion, particularly in Maharashtra. His untimely death in 1992
put an end to this work, his position will not be filled again. Prof. Berger retired in 1993,
his successor has not yet been appointed.
Modern Languages and Literatures of South Asia
This erstwhile sub-department has recently been upgraded to a full chair whose first
incumbent is Prof. Monika Böhm-Tettelbach. Her main field of interest is Hindi
literature. She has also taken over the supervision of the other language-teaching activities
mentioned above and will greatly broaden the scope of her discipline.
Law
This one-man department has been headed since the beginning by Dr Dieter Conrad, whose
special field is public and constitutional law of South Asia. He is an honourary professor of
the Indian Institute of Law, New Delhi. His publications on constitutional law have been
cited by the Supreme Court of India. His subject is not represented at any other university
in Germany.
Political Science
This chair was first held by prof Manual Sarkisyanz who was interested in political ideas
with special reference to Buddhism and Southeast Asia. His successor is Prof. Subrata Mitra
who earlier taught at the University of Hull in England and is interested in all aspects of
modern political science with regard to South Asia. He also has an interest in the theory of
rational choice.
Tropical Hygiene and Public Health
For several decades this department was an integral part of the SAI. It was first headed by
Prof. Helmut Jusatz and subsequently by Prof. Hans Jochem Diesfeld. The department has
only recently been detached from the SAI. Immunology and parasitology with reference to
tropical diseases are its major fields of research. For obvious reasons its activities could not
remain restricted to South Asia. It introduced a highly successful MSc course in Community
Health which is attended by medical doctors and medical personnel from all over the world.
The university authorities ruled that the further support for this course could only be
guaranteed by absorbing the department into the general medical faculty. However, further
cooperation with the SAI is not precluded by this arrangement.
Other activities
The SAI has had a ,major share in organizing the European Conferences on Modern South
Asian Studies. It also organized the South Asia Interdisciplinary Regional Research
Programme with two major projects in India: the Dhanbad Research Project concerning the
economy, history, and the social conditions of the Indian coalfield, and the Orissa Research
project devoted to the regional cultural traditions of an Indian state. The SAI also issues two
series of publications, one in Germany and one in India. The first series are published with
Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart (earlier with Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden), the second one
with Manohar Publications, New Delhi. Altogether about 200 books have been published so
far in these series. An annotated bibliography, which can be obtained from the SAI provides
detailed information about these publications. The scholars of the SAI also publish many
books with other publishers. The reports on the First Decade, the Second Decade and the
Third Decade of the SAO contain detailed bibliographies of all members of the institute
including those books and articles not published in the series mentioned above.
The South Asia Institute
(Südasien Institut)
University of Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 330
69120 Heidelberg
Tel: +49-6221-562900
Fax: +49-6221-564998
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