 |
 |
|
Please send
comments,
questions, and suggestions
about Oberlin Online news
and feature articles to
online.news@oberlin.edu.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SECULARISM IN INDIA TO BE HELD AT OBERLIN COLLEGE
APRIL 16, 2002--The dilemmas of secularism and faith in India as well as in the modern world will be explored by some 20 scholars and activists from the U.S. and abroad when they converge on the campus of Oberlin College for an international conference Friday through Sunday, April 19-21.
Contradictions in India’s ideals, policies, and practices of secularism, such as the ban on Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and the status of Kashmir, place peace and democracy in the subcontinent periodically in crisis and are in urgent need of further understanding, deliberation, and debate," says Anuradha Dingwaney Neeham, professor of English and coordinator of the conference. "We envisage this conference as an opportunity for such a retrospect, as well as an opening for productive interventions.
"Participants will address the questions--Is secularism the solution that it was envisioned for the multi-religious Indian polity? If not, is it merely an inadequate solution? Or is it instead itself the problem?"
Oberlin students Menna Demessie '02, Shruti Sasidharan '03, Dwaipayan Sen '04, Sonlai '02 and Shahana Siddiqui '04 have been assisting in the development of the three-day event, which will bring scholars and activists to Oberlin from India and England and such universities as Oxford, Princeton, Columbia and the University of California. The students are also are assembling a package of published essays for participants and will compile a collection of essays for publication from the papers presented at the event.
The conference is funded by Oberlin College and the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, an independent organization located on the Oberlin College campus and one of the oldest educational exchange institutions in the United States. Its mission is to promote understanding and communication between Asians and Americans through individual and group educational programs and community projects.
Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli
       |