If Associate Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture Ali S. Asani decides to leave the University at the end of this year, Harvard may have serious difficulties continuing its program in Indo-Muslim culture and many South Asian language programs, faculty and students said yesterday.

Asani, a popular associate professor in the Sanskrit and Indian Studies Department, teaches seven languages and is largely regarded as the backbone of Harvard's program in Indian studies.

But Asani is currently being considered for a tenured position at Columbia University and said yesterday that he will accept the post if it is offerred to him. The short list for the position has recently been narrowed down to Asani and one other candidate, he said.

Asani said that his contract with Harvard expires at the end of next year and it is unlikely that it will be renewed.

In the past, a non-University grant for teaching in South Asian languages and Indo-Muslim culture has paid for Asani's and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Professor Annemaire Schimmel's salaries.

But that grant money will be drying up next year, and Harvard has demonstrated little commitment to continuing the program without outside help, Asani said.

"The University has to make a commitment to fund these programs from their own resources," he said. "Otherwise, it looks like the whole thing will just disappear."

The gap that Asani's departure would create will be almost impossible to fill, many students said yesterday.

Asani teaches a popular Core course, "The Religion and Culture of Islam," and offers instruction in Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Sindhi, and Urdu--the third most common language in the world. In addition, Asani teaches Swahili, the only sub-Saharan African language offered at Harvard.

"If Asani goes, there will be nothing left in Indian studies," said Mona Karim '93, adding that Asani not only teaches courses on South Asian languages but also a variety of courses on Indo-Muslim culture.

Several students currently enrolled in Urdu said yesterday that they are concerned they may not be able to continue their study of the language. "If Asani leaves, the program goes," said Muneer I. Ahmad '93.

Adding to the problem, students said, is the imminent departure this year or next of Schimmel, who teaches upper-level Urdu language courses. be difficult to continue these courses if the University does not begin funding the programs with its own money.

The basic problem, Witzel said, remains: "the administration has not started a procedure to make [Asani] a full professor."

Both faculty and students said yesterday they are concerned over the University's seeming lack of commitment to its South Asian studies program.

"There are rising numbers in the South Asian population [at Harvard]," Witzel said. "Part of our concern is that these students want to study their roots and may not be able to."

Karim said she wants to continue taking Urdu as an elective next year. "I'm very interested in the language," she said. "It's the language of my ancestors.