23 A, Sardar Sankar Road,
Kolkata 700 029, INDIA
e-mail addresses:
sydasien@sydasien.se
Through frequent travelling, Lars Eklund built up a strong network of researchers working on South Asia related issues at Swedish universities, and their academic collaboration partners in South Asia.
He is a journalist with strong South Asia connections, both professionally and personally – being married to an Indian/Bengali wife and involved in many cultural activies focusing on South Asia.
From 1982 till 2007 he was the editor-in-chief of SYDASIEN (South Asia – Political and Cultural Magazine), besides working as reporter cum sub-editor for daily newspapers in different parts of Sweden.
Lars was the deputy director for the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) from it was launched in January 2001 till he retired in December 2016. Read his SASNET History 2000-2016 document, published in October 2020.
Between 2014 and 2019, Lars was the treasurer for the European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS).
It should also be mentioned that Lars has travelled extensively to most parts of Asia since the early 1970s, and has visited all the eight South Asian nations on SASNET contact missions. His extramural activities include lecturing on Indian society, history, culture and religion.
Together with his wife Bubu, he organises cultural seminar programmes on the Nobel Laurate Rabindranath Tagore, and since 2012 they run a singing choir with mostly Swedish people performing Rabindranath’s songs in original Bengali language.