JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4.
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alienated not only from the Slavic ethnic groups but also from each other. 20 Dash has a wider focus and
has treated a broad range of issues like chaos resulting from internal migration in the post-Soviet Central
Asian states, disengagement of Siberia and the Far East from Russia’s clutches and an entire range of
thorny social issues in Central Asia. 21 Such writings indicate that Indian musings about Russia’s
paternalistic influence on Central Asia have not changed over generations.
Writers depicting cultural expressions like films and fiction and literary genres in Central Asia and
Siberia represented the different trend. Rashmi Doraiswamy of the Academy of Third World Studies,
Delhi has set the trend by interpreting Chingiz Aitmatov’s works and expressing the sensitivities of
Central Asian intellectuals. 22 She has also dealt with the aesthetic appeal of village prose writing in
Siberia during the Soviet period. 23 Phunchok Stobdan conveys his thoughts about civilizations acting as a
merger between India and Central Asia. 24 His ideas about Buddhist linkages in Tibet, Mongolia and
Central Asia have added a new dimension to the pre-Islamic civilizational links and the interactive space
that the Himalayan region represents. 25
The civilizational gaze
The civilizational gaze of research groups and institutions in India has increased. The Centre of
Central Asian Studies was formally set up in 1978 by the University of Kashmir to study the “Cradle of
Civilization’ stretching from China in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west and Russian steppes in the
north to Khorasan-Iran in the south. The focus of the Centre is on the fabulous cultural mosaic of the
region and its ethno-tribal-linguistic diversity which assumed primacy since 1983 within the structure of
the Area Studies Programme of the Centre. 26 The Centre’s journal The Journal of Central Asian Studies
propagates its mission by publishing articles on historical ties among the Turkic ruling dynasties of the
20 Ajay Patnaik, Nations, Minorities and states in Central Asia, Delhi: Anamika Publishers (on behalf of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Institute of Asian Studies), 2003.
21 P.L. Dash, ‘Russian depopulation and demographic insecurity’, in Anuradha Chenoy and Ajay Patnaik edited Commonwealth
of Independent States-Energy, Security and Development, New Delhi: Knowledge World, 2007; P.L. Dash, ‘Imagining a Russia minus
Siberia: issues and implications’, in Suchandana Chatterjee, Anita Sengupta and Susmita Bhattacharya edited, Asiatic Russia-
Partnerships and communities in Eurasia, New Delhi: Shipra Publishers, 2009; Dash, ‘Migration impact on Asiatic Russia’, paper
presented at seminar Aziatskaia Rossiya, Tsentral’naya Aziya I Indiya: migratsii, regiony, regionalism v istoricheskoi dinamike, Baikal,
Ulan Ude, 19-21 July 2009.
22 Rashmi Doraiswamy, The post-Soviet condition: Chingiz Aitmatov in the nineties, Delhi: Aakar Books, 2006; Rashmi Doraiswamy,
‘Borders and frontiers in Aitmatov’s works’, Himalayan and Central Asian Studies, Vol 10, Nos 2-3, April-September 2006.
23 Rashmi Doraiswamy, ‘Rasputin’s The Fire and perestroika’, in Suchandana Chatterjee, Anita Sengupta and Susmita
Bhattacharya edited, Asiatic Russia-Partnerships and communities in Eurasia, New Delhi: Shipra Publishers, 2009.
24 Phunchok Stobdan, India and Kazakhstan: Civilizational Explorations, Delhi: Heritage, 2003.
25 Phunchok Stobdan, ‘Challenges before Buddhism’, Paper presented seminar Aziatskaia Rossiya, Tsentral’naya Aziya I Indiya:
migratsii, regiony, regionalism v istoricheskoi dinamike, Baikal, Ulan Ude, 19-21 July 2009.
26 Profile of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, 2009.
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