UW-Madison has a long
tradition of scholarship on India dating as far back as
the 1880s, when the Department of Ancient Languages taught Sanskrit.
The tradition continued into the 20th century, when the Department
of Comparative Literature offered courses on the study of Indian
classics in translation.
In the 1950s, faculty members from several departments conducted field
research in India, developing technical assistance programs in applied
fields such as engineering, education, medicine and urban welfare. Following
these enterprises, UW-Madison established the Department of Indian Studies
in 1958. While still newly formed, the Department of Indian Studies succeeded
in acquiring one of the first U.S. Department of Education grants for area
studies, which included language teaching, library acquisitions and outreach
support, as well as graduate student fellowships for study on India.
The Department of Indian Studies was later renamed the Department of South
Asian Studies and a distinct Center for South Asia was established in 1990.
Academic study on India, and outreach to the K-12 community, businesses,
and the media on India, continue to flourish through the efforts of the
Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, which provides learning opportunities
beyond UW-Madison’s campus, and the Center for South Asia.