India Chairs being set up at prominent Canadian varsities

These Chairs, to be occupied by academics from India, are being created under the auspices of partnership agreements between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Canadian institutions

TORONTO: A series of India Chairs are being established in Canada as part of an outreach effort to prominent Canadian universities.

India’s consul-general in Vancouver Manish (right) with Simon Fraser University’s president and vice-chancellor Dr Joy Johnson at the signing of an MoU setting up an India Chair at the institution. (India in Vancouver/Twitter)

These Chairs, to be occupied by academics from India, are being created under the auspices of partnership agreements between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Canadian institutions.

The first of the memoranda of understanding in this regard was signed on Monday with the Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Surrey, British Columbia. India’s consul-general in Vancouver Manish represented ICCR with SFU’s president and vice-chancellor Dr Joy Johnson signing on behalf of the university.

Another such agreement is scheduled to be signed with the University of Calgary in the province of Alberta later this month, while similar initiatives are being finalised with multiple other universities.

The academics chosen for these Chairs will be short-term appointees, visiting from India for a period of three to six months. The agreements overall will span a period of five years.

India Chairs have existed in Canada, including the one presently at Carleton University in Ottawa. In fact, such a chair existed at SFU till 2020 but this is the first time a concerted effort is being made to create a network across Canada.

According to the ICCR website, the purpose of such Chairs, “apart from familiarising students about India its history and cultural polity” is also to “become a nucleus around which Indian studies and Indian languages” can “develop in academic institutions abroad”.

Indian faculties deputed to these Chairs “not only teach courses on various aspects of India” but “through other academic activities” including seminars, publications, delivering public lectures “generate scholarly interactions with the academics of that country as well as students and assist in disseminating information on India and in creating a better appreciation of various India related issues”.