The Nordic Asia Podcast NIAS and its academic partners

What is at stake at the 2024 Indian national elections? And, what can we expect if the incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi wins another five years in office? From April to June 2024, close to one billion Indian voters can cast their ballot at what is set to be the largest democratic exercise in world history. India is often spoken about as the world’s largest democracy, and the current Indian government describes the country as “the mother of democracy”. But there are also indications that Indian democracy is on the decline. Global indices now place India among the top “autocratizing countries” in the world, categorising it as an electoral autocracy. And, under Modi, the space for dissent has narrowed, the freedom of the media been undermined, and religious minorities and oppositional groups in civil society targeted and repressed. In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Arild Engelsen Ruud and Francesca Jensenius about the 2024 elections and the future of Indian democracy. 
Arild Engelsen Ruud is Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Oslo
Francesca Jensenius is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based in Oslo, and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

What does the Miss Tibet beauty pageant tell us about what it means to be Tibetan in a globalized world? And what understandings of Tibetan culture does it convey? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Pema Choedon about representations of Tibet and Tibetan culture on the global stage from the vantage point of the Miss Tibet beauty pageant. While such pageants are often thought of as an example of “low-brow culture” and a site of women’s objectification by the male gaze, Choedon shows how one can also see them as arenas where cultural meanings are produced, consumed, and rejected, and where local and global, and ethnic and national cultural forms are engaged and showcased.
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.
Pema Choedon holds a PhD degree from the University of Tartu in Estonia, with a thesis on the construction of Tibet in the diaspora.

How is India tackling its persistent wage management problems? And, are new infrastructural solutions the way forward? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Pamela Das about the new infrastructures that are increasingly being put in place to help Indian cities confront the problem of waste and how to handle it. Estimate suggests that by 2025, India will generate 1.3 billion metric tonnes of municipal solid waste every year. With a recycling rate at below 20 percent, the negative consequences for the environment and for public health are clear and visible in both urban and rural contexts. In policy discussions, the solution is often deemed to be infrastructural – that if only India could get the infrastructure right, the problem of waste would disappear. But infrastructures sometimes produce new and unanticipated social consequences that compound rather than solve existing problems.
Pamela Das is an interdisciplinary researcher trained in anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology.
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

What role do China and other Asian countries play in the global amber trade? And, what can we learn about the big challenges of our time by studying amber? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Alessandro Rippa about the global flows and significance of this seemingly inconspicuous lump of fossilized tree resin, a material that is at the heart of a new research project at the University of Oslo, named “Amber Worlds”. In this project, a group of social science researchers use amber as unique lens through which to interrogate crucially important contemporary issues such as growing extractivism, globalized trade, environmental crises, and violent conflict.
Alessandro Rippa is associate professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo, and the principal investigator of the research project “Amber Worlds: A Geological Anthropology for the Anthropocene”.
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo and one of the Leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

Why did khadi become so central to India’s freedom struggle? How did it evolve into an international trademark – and what does khadi signify in India today? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Subhadeep Chowdhury about the political, cultural, and economic importance of khadi, the famous handspun and woven natural fiber cloth that we often associate with Mahatma Gandhi, but which is also an international trademark and part of the world of contemporary Indian fashion
Subhadeep Chowdhury is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, at the University of Oslo. He is currently finishing his dissertation that is provisionally titled “Made in Imperialism: An International History of Textiles and India’s Quest for Trademark Law 1877–1947.”
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based at the University of Oslo, and one of the Leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

What happens if the geoeconomic risks of great power rivalry materialise? What can be done to prevent these potential dangers from unfolding in small open economies, such as Finland and Sweden? More specifically, how can small state preparedness be enhanced to tackle the risks of foreign ownership, supply disruptions and high tech dependencies? How on earth can comic art be utilised to study these topics?
Ines Söderström is joined by researchers of the University of Turku's "Foreign acquisitions and political retaliation as threats to supply security in an era of strategic decoupling" (ForAc) project to discuss these questions.
Liisa Kauppila worked as a Senior Researcher of the ForAc project, bringing in her expertise on Futures Studies methods and China-related issues. Liisa has published very interesting articles on China’s role in the Arctic. Besides finalising her PhD at the Centre for East Asian Studies of the University of Turku, she’s currently working at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in a project focusing on climate responsibility. She is also part of project that studies geopolitics of technology standards.
Elina Sinkkonen works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Elina’s wide research expertise ranges from great power relations, China’s domestic and foreign policy, authoritarian regimes, as well as national identity and nationalism related questions. At the moment, Elina is part of two projects that look at China’s innovativeness and technological know-how from different angles.
Ines Söderström worked as a research assistant in the ForAc Project. She is now finalising her master's degree at the Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku.