The Indian Neighbourhood Reader (INR) is an academic initiative by the National Institute of Advanced Studies as a part of their research activities on area studies. The INR's focus will go beyond politics and security; it aims to comprehensively monitor and analyze developments in the entire Indian neighbourhood. The INR has a larger geographic scope; given the historic, ethnic, political and economic linkages, the INR looks at the neighbourhood beyond the SAARC geographic prism. The focus will include parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, along with maritime developments in the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.
The goal of the Indian Neighbourhood Reader is to examine various areas including internal politics, economy, social developments, demography, and external relations. Given the emphasis on science and technology, and maritime at the Institute, the INR would like to have these two areas as special verticals in the Indian neighbourhood studies.
The Indian Neighbourhood Reader is committed to realizing the noble vision of NIAS' founders by empowering budding scholars to delve into the study of the Indian neighbourhood. The Institute plans to collaborate with its MoU partners in Bangalore, Chennai, and Pondicherry to identify and train promising scholars in the field of neighbourhood studies. This process will begin at an early stage, during their graduation itself, and will consist of workshops and internships. As a natural corollary of the above, the Institute plans to build a network of institutions and scholars working on the neighbourhood. The INR would also aim to bring the Indian scholars working on the neighbourhood together every year in an annual conclave in Bangalore. Subsequently, the INR would build linkages with institutions and individual scholars across the neighbourhood and create a larger network.
In terms of outputs, the INR kicks off with a Daily Brief on the neighborhood, and will progressively broaden its research on the neighbourhood. In the short term with a Neighbourhood Weekly, but eventually, the INR will publish commentaries, reports, and databases on contemporary issues with a historical context.
In terms of outcome, the larger objective of the INR is to make NIAS a centre of neighbourhood research, prepare databases, build capacity amongst young scholars, and create a network across the region.
