[Reader-list] [Announcements] Call for papers from Indic studies Project CSDS

[Mitoo Das]

Call for Papers

For an International Seminar on

Hindu Organizations in Education, Health and Development Work

3-4 March 2010 • Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India

We invite papers for a seminar on the varied Hindu organizations 
involved in education and development work, both in India and the 
diaspora (primarily in the context of the project’s three major country 
foci: India, the US and the UK). This includes guru shishya parampara, 
akhaadas and sampradyas; organizations set up in the late 19th and early 
20th century for social and religious reform in response to colonial 
attacks on Hinduism and to resist conversions; institutions set up 
during the freedom movement, as well as after Independence, as part of 
nation building endeavors by leading freedom fighters; schools and 
hostels set up by caste groups to promote "modern" education among their 
respective caste brethren; institutions built by sect leaders for 
development work and to provide education and health care; organizations 
working among scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, mainly to combat 
Christian missionary activity and counter the influence of NGO's 
supported by western funding agencies; institutions set up to promote 
Hindu culture through Yoga, Ayurveda and other Indic knowledge systems.

The present seminar is the sixth in a two-year network project series 
exploring the “Public Representation of a Religion called Hinduism,” 
funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK: 
http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/hinduism/. Among the areas of special 
interest are case studies involving specific interventions in the 
education and development sectors by Hindu organizations, and how these 
interventions are helping to shape social relations, both in India and 
the Diaspora (and across the divide between these two):

Ø Do these institutions exemplify and offer a uniquely Hindu religious 
worldview? What are the theological, core beliefs of the founders of 
these institutions?

Ø How do these institutions relate to the theological aims of the parent 
body and function in practice over its history?

Ø How do the religious beliefs, traditions and structures of these 
groups or sects relate to the educational and developmental work that 
they undertake? Is their outreach limited to Hindus or to particular 
sects? How is the institution different from secular educational and 
social work institutions?

Ø How is Hinduism represented in different types of teaching material 
used by religious as well as secular educational organizations?

Ø To what extent are the services delivered perceived as religious in 
nature? What patterns emerge out of the mix of religious beliefs and 
educational and development activities?

Ø Why have some initiatives grown rapidly, others merely survived, while 
others are in decline, or no longer exist?

Ø What is the social, political and economic impact of these religious 
groups on the sections of the population they seek to reach, especially 
among the poorest and least educated social groups and regions of India?

Ø How does the transnational profile of some organisations affect the 
ways in which services are delivered?

Last date for submissions: November 15, 2009

Please send a 300-400 word paper proposal to Madhu Kishwar, Director, 
Indic Studies Project, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054 
(madhukishwar at csds.in) Updates on acceptances and a preliminary 
conference schedule will be provided by mid January. The network is in a 
position to offer some financial assistance to potential paper 
presenters in order to enable them to attend this meeting. Please 
contact John Zavos at john.zavos at manchester.ac.uk to discuss possibilities.

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