SUSHILA NARASIMHAN

Sushila Narsimhan, Professor of Japanese Studies, began her career in 1964 in Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, and later moved to the Department of East Asian Studies where she taught until her retirement in October 2007. Thereafter, from 2008  to 2015, she taught as Guest Faculty in the same department. She is recipient of the Japan Foundation Fellowship in 1987-1988 for doctoral dissertation, and in 2001 for post-doctoral research and, on both the occasions, was affiliated with the University of Tokyo, Japan. In 2002, she got UGC field trip grant for her post-doctoral research in Stanford University, California, USA. Her specialization is Japan’s Meiji period and 19th century Sino-Japanese relations. Her major publications include: Nineteenth Century Japanese Perceptions of China: Influence of Fukuzawa Yukichi (New Delhi: 1999) and several research papers. She has edited/co-edited eleven books on India and East Asia, India-Korea relations, and India-Japan relations. Her latest edited book is: India-Japan Narratives: Lesser known historical and cultural interactions (New Delhi:2021). Her academic interests also include the study of plants that changed the course of human history and world civilization. The focus is on plants that are native to India, e.g., spices like pepper, cotton, indigo, jute, and how these plants from India became catalysts of some of the greatest adventures in human history – exploration of sea routes and new lands, extending Europe’s commercial traffic to Asia triggering aggressive mercantilism, Industrial Revolution in Britain, quest for raw materials, acquisition of India’s resourceful regions, commercialization of crops, rise of plantation industries, and subjugation of the native population. She is also a self-taught artist. Her floral paintings (80) in watercolours, mainly Botanical art works, compiled in form of an illustrated book with brief descriptions under the title Voice of the Heart, is in the press.