Today, as India is becoming increasingly important to Europe as an economic and strategic partner, Europeans confront a question: how should we cope with the body of centuries-old ideas that have shaped our thinking about Indian culture and society? More than ever, it is crucial to gain insight into the ways in which Europeans have understood India and how these have determined their interactions with Indians.

The COST Action CA23144 “Europe’s Representations of India: Texts, Images, and Encounters” (ESIND) is a 48-month project that aims at mapping and analysing the crystallization of modern European representations of India and identifying their impact on past and present encounters between Europeans and Indians.

ESIND is a multidisciplinary network of researchers engaging in comparative research on the accounts and images of India that emerged in many different European regions and languages, from the early modern era until today. Specifically, ESIND focuses on sources from Central, Eastern, and Southern European countries and from neighbouring regions, which remain insufficiently examined today, even though they are essential to understanding how European thinking concerning India took shape, which general limits are shared by it, and where we find crucial divergences and different accounts.

This network is building a database with a new set of public resources for research and teaching on Europe-India encounters, containing English translations of source material from more than 25 European languages and images from historical texts about India.

ESIND contributes to creating new knowledge in areas of humanities and social science research, policymaking, intercultural understanding, and education. As it sets out to train new generations of scholars exploring the relations between Europe and India, the involvement of young researchers is a priority for this network.

More information is available on the ESIND website: https://esind.eu/

Additional information: the ESIND member prof. Anita Stašulāne, Dr.Theol.
Email: anita.stasulane@du.lv

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation.

www.cost.eu