Iranian Scholars Attend Indic Conference

[Guest guest]

Five Iranian scholars presented some of the most thoughtful papers

on issues related to culture, religion and mysticism making a

omparative study between Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, which were

highly appreciated by those present in the panel.

 

 

New Delhi, Dec 22, IRNA

India-CSDS-Indic Civilization

Madhu Purnima Kishwar, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study

of Developing Societies (CSDS) and editor of Manushi (a journal of

women and society) in an exclusive interview with IRNA spoke about

the objectives of CSDS in organizing the Second International

Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilization.

 

She said, "The intention to organize this int'l conference was to

promote an academic and scholarly interest in the Indic civilization

and heritage because we in our modern education system partly due to

our colonial past have continued to ignore our cultural and

civilizational heritage and faith system, so much so that most of us

have a very distorted idea about our sense of historical past.

 

"This also makes us very slavishly pro-west because we do not look

towards other cultures, societies and civilizations with which we

have an intrinsic connection like the entire Asian civilizations

namely, Persian civilization of Iran, China, Bali, Mesopotamia, and

Egypt as well."

These civilizations, Madhu added, are far more connected to that of

this country that is, "Indus Valley" and "Harappan" civilizations

and share many common features with each other.

 

The Indian editor continued, "Regretfully, we the inheritors of

these deeply enriched civilizations do not recognize ourselves and

our identity with them. What we have been doing till today is to

look towards west and get inspiration from strange cultures and

civilizations of unknown planets of America (with no historical

civilization) and Europe, simply, because we do not have real sense

of our heritage and history and do not intend to believe in

ourselves.

 

"So, our intention of this interaction has been to promote a kind of

intellectual interest, because, I personally believe people without

having a sense or knowledge of their ancestral past cannot build an

independent, healthy and prosperous future," she argued.

 

"Our aim is to promote study of Asia's glorious past and

understanding of what the issues are or how people co-exist and what

are the differences, to respect these differences, find out about

the commonalities and adopting them," Madhu Purnima added.

 

"In a better way, we are trying to create an atmosphere of

convergence among followers of oriental cultures, civilizations and

beliefs."

There are many participants from various countries around the world

like Iran, Afghanistan, U.S, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka,

Indonesia, and Europe who presented valuable papers.

 

The Iranian participants were amazing and their knowledge of

Hinduism, Buddhism and their comparative studies with Islam and

other Abrahamic religions, mysticism was quite enlightening, and

their participation was felt by every audience hearing them, she

said.

 

I hope in the years to come "Indic Studies Network" will acquire an

entity of its own and through this process a new institution

building process shall emerge which will promote serious and

scholarly studies of Indic heritage and encourage regular dialogue

processes among various cultures, religions and civilization, the

convener of the conference said.

 

The other aim of this network as disclosed by her, is to focus on

important issues and challenges of the contemporary world which are

cause of conflicts and problems that need to be solved.

 

Another objective of this kind of academic, scholarly and

intellectual interactions is to create awareness on the positive and

useful aspects of globalization which will help us (developing

countries) get closer to each other, believe in ourselves as

entities enriched with indebt cultures and civilizations and

collectively counter American domination in political, economic and

cultural spheres.

 

"One of the best ways to counter American unilateralism is to ignore

USA, we have to stop being obsessed with this country. The best

thing Americans deserve is to be ignored by us and this is the best

way to punish "the evil empire" America and in order to achieve this

goal, all ancient civilizations including their inheritors should

unite.

 

It is in fact, in this context that relations between India and Iran

are maintained well, strengthened and expanded in various fields of

mutual interest, simply because we belong to civilizations that have

their roots in the same soil, the Indian scholar said.

 

My appeal to all Muslims of the world is, come let's join hand and

unite by not allowing the world to become America centric, Madhu

concluded.

 

The 4 day conference was held in New Delhi on 17 December and ended

on 20 December 2005, after presentation of scholarly papers by an

impressive number academicians and intellectuals from India and

other countries around the world including Iran.

 

Five Iranian scholars presented some of the most thoughtful papers

on issues related to culture, religion and mysticism making a

omparative study between Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, which were

highly appreciated by those present in the panel.

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0512221758174942.htm