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Attaining Education for All: A Comparison between China & India
 On October 4th, Abhimanyu Singh, Director and Representative UNESCO Beijing, spoke at a seminar entitled Attaining Education for All: A Comparison between China & India, which was part of SAI's Education Seminar Series and the Harvard Asia Center's Modern Asia Seminar Series.
His focus was on Universal Primary Education and Adult Education as he took the audience through a systematic comparison between the trajectories of progress in education outcomes and reasons for difference between the two high population countries of Asia. Citing statistics with illustrative graphs, Mr. Singh showed that China had made tremendous progress over the past decade with only 'residual adult illiteracy' today whereas India's progress has been relatively slow.
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An Indian's Maiden Visit to Pakistan
An op-ed by Satchit Balsari, featured in The New York Times
I traveled to Pakistan two weeks ago as one of five Indians who were invited to meet with six Pakistani leaders from various walks of life as part of an effort by the Asia Society and the Jinnah Institute in Pakistan to continue cross-border dialogue. Meanwhile, the Indian and Pakistani governments had, once again, been engaged in their characteristic rhetoric on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
We were a motley crew of 11: artists, journalists, parliamentarians, policy advisers, doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs. As a "track 2" soft-diplomacy effort, our yearlong fellowship with the Asia Society required us to explore the conditions that kept Indo-Pakistani relations from improving, and suggest concrete measures to make amends. Four of us were visiting Pakistan for the first time.
Read More.
Dr. Balsari is a member of the Kumbh Mela Interdisciplinary project undertaken by the Harvard South Asia Institute along with five other schools at the University.
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Upcoming SAI Events
For a full list of upcoming events, visit our website. Click the images for full event information.
 Friday, October 18, 2013 from 4:00pm - 5:30pm
Amina Steinfels, Associate Professor of Religion, Mount Holyoke College
Chair: Sunil Sharma, Chair, Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, Associate Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature, Convener of Persian and Hindi-Urdu, Boston University
Despite a growing sophistication in the study of Islam, our understanding of Sufism continues to be hampered by deeply ingrained presuppositions, especially in the context of South Asian religious history. Professor Steinfels' research on a fourteenth century Sufi master, Sayyid Jalal al-din Bukhari, demonstrates the inadequacy of categories such as mysticism, law, and orthodoxy, and the relationships usually presumed between them, to describe the lives and thought of medieval Muslims. She argues that Sufism is understood best as a matter of social identification and practice, rather than religious doctrine and theory.
Cosponsored with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program
S153, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Andy McDowell, a Harvard PhD candidate in Anthropology will be giving a talk as part of the Friday Morning Seminar in Medical Anthropology.
Friday, October 11 from 10:00am - 11:50am
William James Hall Room 1550
Raunak: A South Asian Charity Dance Show!
Presented by Harvard SADC & SAA
Lowell Lecture Hall, Saturday, October 12 at
7:30; doors open at 7:00
Tickets: $10 at the Box Office and $12 at the door
Call for Papers for the 2013 Sri Lanka Graduate Conference, "The Politics of the Public"
We welcome all paper proposals, and particularly encourage papers on the following themes: aesthetics and politics including topics related to literature (Sinhala, Tamil and English), public discourse, film, theatre, and urban visuality; urban transformations including infrastructure, urban and rural development, housing and transportation; and public religious life including conflicts around spaces of worship, public representation, and ethnic minorities. The Conference will be held on December 6 and 7 at the Center for South Asia at Stanford University.
Boston Children's Museum and HISG seek volunteers for Diwali event
2013 Leatherbee Lecture - India: The Opportunities and Challenges
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 from 1:30 - 3:00pm
Spangler Auditorium, Harvard Business School campus
SAI seeks Communication Intern
Harvard students experienced in Wordpress, Adobe Suite, and various Social Media tools are invited to apply. Please send resume and cover letter to [email protected]
SAI seeks Events Photographer
SAI is looking for a Harvard student with a passion for photography! Primarily will be shooting event footage. Please send contact us at [email protected] to learn more.
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CGIS South, 1720 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA 02138
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