South Asia Institute

Right in front of you, stands the South Asia Institute. It is an interdisciplinary center of Heidelberg University. It is a place where scholars and students from all over the world come to learn and research about South Asia. The South Asia Institute was founded in 1962 as an interdisciplinary center for research and academic teaching on South Asia. It focuses on the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The institute also takes neighboring countries, for example Afghanistan and regions such as Tibet into account. It is the only institution of its kind in Germany that manages to combine social, economic, and geographical studies together with cultural studies grounded in the region’s history as well as philological expertise. It offers a broad range of opportunities for conducting research on contemporary, modern South Asia studies. The South Asia Institute maintains contacts with major research centers in Europe, Asia, and the US. It conducts numerous projects. It regularly hosts guests and scholarship holders from South Asia. It has branch offices in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It offers a wide variety of courses at the Bachelor and the Master levels. Their curriculum includes a thorough language study, either in the classical language for science and scholarship Sanskrit or in one of the modern Indian languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Tamil. The South Asia Institute is Europe’s leading center for South Asian studies. It has an active international research network. The institute and its branches in New Delhi, Kathmandu, and Colombo provide the ideal platform for applied interdisciplinary learning and research. The Institute and its library provide an excellent place for research. The library has one of the world’s most extensive collections of literature relating to South Asia.