- Centre for African Studies
Area Studies Building
Behind Marathi Bhasha Bhavan
University of Mumbai
Vidyanagari, Santacruz (E)
Mumbai: 400 098.
Renu Modi
University of Mumbai, Centre For African Studies, Faculty Member
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March, 2020. Since then, the virus has had unprecedented impact not just on human lives, but the global economy as a whole. As per data from the Africa... more
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March, 2020. Since then, the virus has had unprecedented impact not just on human lives, but the global economy as a whole. As per data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent currently has one of the lowest cases compared to other regions of the world – with 594,841 active cases, 297,480 recoveries and 13,238 deaths reported across all 54 countries (as of July 12, 2020). The hardest hit countries on the continent are South Africa (a highly diversified economy interconnected with the world), Egypt, Nigeria (both densely populated countries) and Ghana. Some African countries have low infection rates of less than 300 (The Gambia, Lesotho and Burundi); while others have recorded zero deaths (Seychelles, Eritrea and Uganda). What is notable is that Africa has not been as severely hit by COVID-19 as countries in Europe or the USA. This could be because of its young population and possibly the impact of vaccinations such as the BCG-a subject that is under review
(Modi, R., 30 June, 2020).
(Modi, R., 30 June, 2020).
The India-Africa Conclave and other such platforms of interaction have played a pivotal role in engaging Africa with India’s growth story. Various Indian investments in agriculture and infrastructure, totalling over $20 billion, are soon... more
The India-Africa Conclave and other such platforms of interaction have played a pivotal role in engaging Africa with India’s growth story. Various Indian investments in agriculture and infrastructure, totalling over $20 billion, are soon to boost Africa's economies.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Sporadic but virulent racial attacks on African nationals in public spaces contradict the ongoing metanarratives of ascendant India–Africa political and economic relations. This article affirms that the Indian people at large and the... more
Sporadic but virulent racial attacks on African nationals in public spaces contradict the ongoing metanarratives of ascendant India–Africa political and economic relations. This article affirms that the Indian people at large and the Government of India have remained steadfast in
their condemnation of such xenophobic attacks. Increased people-to-people interactions through the arts, education, state media, and shared cultural festivals will promote greater intercultural understanding and buttress the long-standing Afrasian connections.
their condemnation of such xenophobic attacks. Increased people-to-people interactions through the arts, education, state media, and shared cultural festivals will promote greater intercultural understanding and buttress the long-standing Afrasian connections.
The killing of a young Congolese man, Masonda Ketanda Oliver, and four separate attacks on seven Africans near Chattarpur in south Delhi at the end of May, have blown the lid off the simmering pot of resentment against the treatment of... more
The killing of a young Congolese man, Masonda Ketanda Oliver, and four separate attacks on seven Africans near Chattarpur in south Delhi at the end of May, have blown the lid off the simmering pot of resentment against the treatment of African immigrants in India.
The irony is that the same people who insist that violence against Africans is “ordinary crime” – the police, locals and government officials – are quick to use individual criminal acts by African migrants to typecast the whole community.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The world is in an era of great transformations. Globalization, transnational capitalism, September 11, the 2008 global financial crises, and the emergence of the ‘second world’ in general and the BRICS in particular are characterized by... more
The world is in an era of great transformations. Globalization, transnational capitalism, September 11, the 2008 global financial crises, and the emergence of the ‘second world’ in general and the BRICS in particular are characterized by a diffusion of power away from the traditional North Western powers and towards the global South. Such great transformations have reshaped the terrain and parameters of social, economic and political relations both at the national and the global levels and have exerted pressure on the exiting international order in terms of both opportunities and constraints. This new era also urges the need for re-conceptualizing the changing world order especially with regard to one of the core conceptual categories and analytical apparatus in the studies of IR and IPE - hegemony. The world will witness a new era of interdependent hegemony, in which both the existing ‘First World’ and the emerging ‘Second World’ are intertwined in a constant process of shaping and reshaping the international order in the nexus of national interest, regional orientation, common economic and political agenda, political alliance and potential conflicts. This collection juxtaposes, from different perspectives and approaches, the discussion on the political economy of the emerging world order with a focus on the rising powers.
Contents: Introduction: understanding the hegemony and the dialectics of the emerging world order, Li Xing; Theorizing the rise of the Second World and the changing international system, Steen F. Christensen and Raul Bernal-Meza; Constructing and conceptualizing ‘interdependent hegemony’ in an era of the rise of the BRICS and beyond, Li Xing and Oscar G. Agustin; BRICS and bilaterals: synergies and contestations, Renu Modi; From boulders to ashlars - BRICS of a new world order: hierarchies of power and degrees of freedom in the emerging world system of the 21st century, Leonid L. Fituni; G20 and C2: Sino-US relations as an institutional cooperation game?, Lin Hongyu and Li Xing; China in Africa: cool cash or a new world order?, Søren Villadsen; A ’new silk road’ between China and the Arab world: a problem for the US or the EU?, Wolfgang Zank; ‘Chineseness’ as socialization: China and the ASEAN in East Asian regionalism, Zhang Jiuan and Li Xing; Conclusion: the BRICS and beyond: new global order, reorder and/or disorder? Insights from ’global governance’, Timothy M. Shaw; Index.
Contents: Introduction: understanding the hegemony and the dialectics of the emerging world order, Li Xing; Theorizing the rise of the Second World and the changing international system, Steen F. Christensen and Raul Bernal-Meza; Constructing and conceptualizing ‘interdependent hegemony’ in an era of the rise of the BRICS and beyond, Li Xing and Oscar G. Agustin; BRICS and bilaterals: synergies and contestations, Renu Modi; From boulders to ashlars - BRICS of a new world order: hierarchies of power and degrees of freedom in the emerging world system of the 21st century, Leonid L. Fituni; G20 and C2: Sino-US relations as an institutional cooperation game?, Lin Hongyu and Li Xing; China in Africa: cool cash or a new world order?, Søren Villadsen; A ’new silk road’ between China and the Arab world: a problem for the US or the EU?, Wolfgang Zank; ‘Chineseness’ as socialization: China and the ASEAN in East Asian regionalism, Zhang Jiuan and Li Xing; Conclusion: the BRICS and beyond: new global order, reorder and/or disorder? Insights from ’global governance’, Timothy M. Shaw; Index.
Research Interests:
The film highlights distinctive traditions of the Sidis (Afro-Indians) of Gujarat in north India. The annual urs celebration to consecrate the sacred stream at the shrine of the Sidi Saint, Bava Gor , the Khichdi (rice) ceremony to Mai... more
The film highlights distinctive traditions of the Sidis (Afro-Indians) of Gujarat in north India. The annual urs celebration to consecrate the sacred stream at the shrine of the Sidi Saint, Bava Gor , the Khichdi (rice) ceremony to Mai Mishra (sister of Bava Gor), the Balka ceremony (where Sidi men & women are initiated as Fakirs) and the goma dance (both as spectacle and as sacred ritual), are captured. Along with the celebration and festivities, Sidis voice their concerns as they struggle to maintain their traditions and also earn a livelihood with dignity. By Beheroze Shroff (University of California, Irvine, USA) and Renu Modi (University of Mumbai, India).
Published 35 years after Palgrave Macmillan’s landmark International Political Economy (IPE) series was first founded, this Handbook captures the state of the art of contemporary IPE. It draws on the series’ history of focussing on the... more
Published 35 years after Palgrave Macmillan’s landmark International Political Economy (IPE) series was first founded, this Handbook captures the state of the art of contemporary IPE. It draws on the series’ history of focussing on the oft-neglected study of the global South.
Providing interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars hailing from the global North and South, the Handbook illustrates the theoretical innovations and empirical richness necessary to explain today’s ever-changing world. This is a world in which the global South and North are not only being transformed by the end of bipolarity and the rise of the BRICS, but also by diverse global crises and growing cross-border challenges. It is a world where human development, governance and security are becoming ever more elusive, where, profoundly altered by the rise of new technologies, the structure of relations between nations itself is changing, becoming increasingly interconnected, both digitally and physically.
Understanding these issues is of critical importance to better understand and comprehend current and future global transformations. This Handbook is the ideal primer for all scholars, practitioners and policy makers looking to do so.
Providing interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars hailing from the global North and South, the Handbook illustrates the theoretical innovations and empirical richness necessary to explain today’s ever-changing world. This is a world in which the global South and North are not only being transformed by the end of bipolarity and the rise of the BRICS, but also by diverse global crises and growing cross-border challenges. It is a world where human development, governance and security are becoming ever more elusive, where, profoundly altered by the rise of new technologies, the structure of relations between nations itself is changing, becoming increasingly interconnected, both digitally and physically.
Understanding these issues is of critical importance to better understand and comprehend current and future global transformations. This Handbook is the ideal primer for all scholars, practitioners and policy makers looking to do so.
Research Interests:
Trade connections and cultural exchange between Africa and the rest of the global South have existed for centuries. Since the end of the Cold War, these connections have expanded and diversified dramatically, with emerging economies such... more
Trade connections and cultural exchange between Africa and the rest of the global South have existed for centuries. Since the end of the Cold War, these connections have expanded and diversified dramatically, with emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil becoming increasingly important both as sources of trade and as a destination for African migrants. But while these trends have attracted growing scholarly attention, there has so far been little appreciation of the sheer breadth and variety of this exchange, or of its deeper social impact.
This collection brings together a wide array of scholarly perspectives to explore the movement of people, commodities, and ideas between Africa and the wider global South, with rich empirical case studies ranging from Senegalese migrants in Argentina to collaborations between Bollywood and the Nigerian film industry. The contributors argue that this exchange represents a form of ‘globalization from below’ which defies many of the prevailing Western assumptions about migration and development, and which can only be understood if we consider the full range and complexity of migrant experiences.
Multidisciplinary in scope, Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America is essential reading for students and scholars across the social sciences interested in the interconnected economic and social make-up of the global South.
This collection brings together a wide array of scholarly perspectives to explore the movement of people, commodities, and ideas between Africa and the wider global South, with rich empirical case studies ranging from Senegalese migrants in Argentina to collaborations between Bollywood and the Nigerian film industry. The contributors argue that this exchange represents a form of ‘globalization from below’ which defies many of the prevailing Western assumptions about migration and development, and which can only be understood if we consider the full range and complexity of migrant experiences.
Multidisciplinary in scope, Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America is essential reading for students and scholars across the social sciences interested in the interconnected economic and social make-up of the global South.
Global Africa is a striking, original volume that disrupts dominant narratives that continue to frame our discussion of Africa, complicating conventional views of the region as a place of violence, despair, and victimhood. The volume... more
Global Africa is a striking, original volume that disrupts dominant narratives that continue to frame our discussion of Africa, complicating conventional views of the region as a place of violence, despair, and victimhood. The volume documents the significant global connections, circulations, and contributions that African people, ideas, and goods have made throughout the world, from the United States, South Asia, Latin America, Europe, and elsewhere. Through succinct and engaging pieces by scholars, policy makers, activists, and journalists, the essays provide a wholly original view of a continent at the center of global historical processes rather than on its periphery. Global Africa offers fresh, complex, and insightful visions of a continent in flux.
The views expressed in this document are from statements made at the event. Every effort has been made to represent the views of the speakers accurately. The published text of speeches and presentations may differ from delivery.