Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.t2.8

v2.c15.t2.8

The academic programmes, especially research programmes on Area Studies, started only after Independence in 1947, as a result of the new Indian leadership's desire to develop and nurture expertise on China. It was with this objective that the Indian School of International Studies, later renamed Indian Council of World Affairs, was established in 1948. This research programme was eventually integrated with Jawaharlal Nehru University as the School of International Studies in the 1960s. In the University of Delhi, a research programme on Buddhist Studies was started in the Department of Buddhist Studies in 1958, and in the Centre for Chinese Studies in 1964. The Centre for Chinese Studies was later renamed the Department of Chinese & Japanese Studies in which an Area Studies model was adopted by combining disciplinary expertise with specialisation on China. In the last decade it has been renamed again as Department of East Asian Studies.