South Asia Global Forum

Established in 2016, the University of Victoria’s South Asia Global Forum promotes academic research, teaching and public engagement with South Asia and multi-faceted South Asian diasporic populations as a link to globally situated questions and conversations.

The forum sponsors a regular lecture series, an annual mini-conference and occasional events of academic interest, such as book launches, film screenings and roundtable discussions about issues of pressing contemporary concern. Additionally, the forum serves as an informational clearinghouse for faculty, students and UVic community members interested in South Asia and related topics in Victoria, BC.

Associated faculty include scholars who centre South Asia and/or South Asian diasporas within their research questions and agendas. Spread across the many units of the university, the forum features faculty who specialize in art history and visual culture, business, gender studies, history, law, and political science. 

The forum encourages wide-ranging approaches to the region and its peoples through comparative engagement with themes that connect South Asia with ongoing studies of globalization, such as postcolonial democracy, indigeneity, migration and border politics, sustainability, labour movements, student protests, land rights and resource extraction, cultural flows in and out of South Asia, religion and nationalism, literary activism, cinema, legal pluralism and transnational regulation, trade and economic issues in the region, art and the public sphere, and the contested terrain of history in public culture.

Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute

The University of Victoria is a member of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, which provides students and faculty with funding opportunities for various academic activities related to bridging India and Canada. All interested applications should contact Neilesh Bose.

Visiting Shastri Scholars

Tiasa Basu Roy

• Academic program, home institution:
  MPhil in History, University of Calcutta, India
• Duration of visit at UVic: 
  June to August 2019

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Tiasa's dissertation deals with the Christianisation of the Saoras of Ganjam district (Orissa, India): Contributions of the Canadian Baptist Mission 1870-1970. The main focus of this project is to trace the history of conversion movement among the tribal group (First Nation people, a term used by the Candian missionaries) 'Saoras' who reside in the frontier zones of the Ganjam district. With the advent of the Canadian Baptist missionaries like John Glendinning, Dr West, Amos Sutton and others in the region, Christianity takes a ground in the heathen land, bringing a new life to these people. This research will also try to show the various methods used by the missionaries to evangelise, the response of the Saoras and their neighbouring communities like the Panos, Paidis and Bissoyis, and most importantly, the conflicts and contradictions among the non-converts and mainly the Hindu Mahasabha who try to push away the missionaries from India, socially ostracize the Christian converts fearing a growing majority of the Christian community.

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