Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t72: Giridhar Dattatrey Deshingkar

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t72

Language: English

Giridhar Dattatrey Deshingkar

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Giridhar Dattatrey Deshingkar (January 8, 1932 - November 3, 2000) was an eminent China scholar and a strategic thinker of India. Born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, Giri, as he was popularly known, obtained his BA (Hons) in Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 1962. After returning to India, he briefly taught the Chinese language and ancient Chinese history at Delhi University. In 1964, he was among the few scholars selected by the Ford Foundation to specialise in Chinese studies at Yale University. He returned to Delhi University in 1968, when the Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies was started. For the next ten years, Giri Deshingkar taught the Chinese language and courses on traditional China in the

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G. D. Deshingkar

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Department of History. In 1978, he joined the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) as Senior Fellow/Professor and was its Director from 1987 to 1992.

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Giri played a key role in the development of Chinese studies in India. He was one of the founders of the China Study Group in 1969, which grew into the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) in 1990 as an autonomous programme of the CSDS. He was its Director from 1994 to 1997. He was also Founder Editor of the journal ‘China Report’ in 1964 - which started as a bimonthly, becoming a quarterly later. He was its Editor from 1996 until his death in 2000.

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Giri Deshingkar possessed exceptional scholarly skills in disciplines such as history and philosophy and had an in-depth knowledge of science and technology. He was known for his comprehensive grasp of Chinese history, the eye for minute details and the rigour of analysis. He emphasised the need to pay attention to long-term historical processes, especially civilisational trends, while studying in China. As an expert in Chinese language, he insisted that scholars doing research on China should not just depend on translations but visit the original text and do a careful reading.