Introduction. Imaginations and Constructions of South Asia: An Enchanting Abstraction?

Abstract

Introduction The idea for this special issue of SAMAJ came up in 2010 when the Directorial Committee in charge of France’s largest research centre on South Asian studies tried to change its name from Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies) to Centre d’Études Sud-Asiatiques (Centre for South Asian Studies). Our institutions, the EHESS and the CNRS, as well as a number of colleagues, objected to the change of the name, arguing that ‘Asie du Sud’...