Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata

Campus Location: Kolkata

Located in Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata is an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, based at Calcutta. It is devoted to Area Studies, with special reference to South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia, especially dealing with social, cultural, economic, political and administrative developments in Asia from the nineteenth century to the present. M.Phil. and Ph.D. level students of the University of Calcutta and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi are also associated with it. The institute is named after Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the nationalist leader and India's first Education Minister., The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies was set up at the joint initiative of the Government of India, Department of culture, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Government of West Bengal. Registered as a Society under the West Bengal Registration of Societies' Act of 1961, with Prof. Nurul Hasan, the then Governor of West Bengal, as the President of the Society on the 4th of January 1993. It is funded by the Department of culture, Government of India. Presently, His Excellency, Governor of West Bengal, is the President of the Society. An acre of land in Bidhannagar (Salt Lake City), Kolkata, was allotted to the Institute by the Government of West Bengal for building the Institutes campus., The Foundation Stone of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies Salt Lake campus was laid by the then Hon'ble President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal sharma, on the 12th of March I993, in the presence of the then HRD Minister Shri Arjun Singh and the then chief Minister of West Bengal Shri Jyoti Basu. The Salt Lake campus is expected to be fully operational at the end of 2009. Currently, the Institute is located in the former residence of Maulana Azab at Ashraf Mistry Lane., The Memorandum of Association envisaged the objectives of the Institute as follows:, The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian studies is a centre for research and learning with focus a on social cultural, economic and political / administrative developments in Asia from the middle of the 19th Century onwards with special emphasis on their links with India, and (b) on the life and works of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad., Till date, the emphasis had been on specialising on modern and contemporary affairs in South Asia, central Asia and West Asia, and carrying on area studies on the five Central Asia Republics of the former Soviet Union (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), Turkey, Iran Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Institute now looks forward to widening its area of study to the Northeast region of India, Southeast Asia and China;, To establish and maintain a library of books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, microfilms, still photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and other materials baying a bearing on the secular traditions of Modern India;, To establish and maintain a personalia Museum at the former residence of Maulana Azad in Calcutta. The Museum would highlight the life and works of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as a distinguished national leader and thinker;, To make available to the public in a suitable place the collections f papers and library sources for study and research., To organise, undertake, conduct, encourage and promote study and research in the field of secularism and universal brotherhood and the life and work of Maulana Azad;. Use Google Maps for turn-by-turn driving directions to the campus.