Vaishnava Studies in Oxford

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THE OXFORD CENTRE FOR VAISHNAVA AND HINDU STUDIES

 

 

Newsletter No. 3 Winter 2001

 

 

HINDU YOUTH FESTIVAL 2001

 

The Hindu Youth Festival 2001, which was originally planned to promote

awareness of the OCVHS among young Hindus in Britain, turned into a ten-day

festival and mela attracting 70,000 people. It was a great success.

 

With the support of the Hindu religious community and business leaders, the

youth were facilitated to explore issues of Hindu identity in Britain today,

as well as social, moral and political issues, and to become conscious of

the need to plan their own future.

 

The organisers of the youth events came from all backgrounds and represented

every denomination and major Hindu youth group in the country. Historically

it was the first time that these groups had ever worked together, and this

is where the greatest achievement of the Festival lies.

 

The young people, who in the next ten or fifteen years will be the leaders

of their communities around the country, worked together as one unit,

setting aside sectarian identities, confronting their personal agendas and

developing trusting and affectionate relationships.

 

They succeeded in providing nine evenings of interactive debate, discussion,

dialogue, plays, lectures, multi-media presentations and lots of fun. The

dynamic of relationships built up during these events was testing both to

courage and sincerity but has provided an important foundation for future

growth within the community.

 

The OCVHS was able to facilitate this because of its non-sectarian,

non-political yet scholarly ethos, and we were very pleased with the

positive results. The youth themselves are very enthusiastic to take the

initiative forward and build on it for the future. Meetings are currently

being held about and will continue over the coming months.

 

The festival received welcome support from those within and outside the

Hindu Community. In a letter to the youth the Prince of Wales emphasised

that: ‘This event will help strengthen the multi-cultural and multi-faith

society in which we live. By endeavouring to explore and define your own

tradition within British culture, you are also helping our country to define

its own identity'.

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair added: ‘This event provides British Hindus with an

important opportunity to explore their culture and their faith. It will

also give the participants an opportunity to discuss what it means to be a

young Hindu in Britain today.’Messages of support were also received from

the Archbishop of Canterbury, Atmasvarupa Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami,

Tejomayananda Swami, Muniji, HE Nareshwar Dayal, the Indian High

Commissioner, Lord Dholakia, OBE and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London.

 

The Festival attracted an impressive amount of media coverage. It was

covered by BBC and ITV television broadcasts as well as local and national

radio, including live broadcasts for BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC World

Service. Stories and pictures also appeared in the London Times, the

Guardian, Times of India, India Abroad and all the British Asian media.

 

We would like to thank the young organisers and the 250 volunteers for their

dedication and commitment. The OCVHS would particularly like to thank Mr.

Arjan Vekaria for his inspirational and practical role in developing the

Festival, Mr. Gopalbhai Popat for his wise counsel and experience, Kirit and

Meena Pathak for their patronage of the event, Sri Rameshbhai Oza for the

wonderful Bhagavat Katha he delivered over a period of nine days,

Shrastri-ji and his priests for the Mahavisnu Yajna. A special thanks goes

to Sivarama Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami and Atmasvarupa Swami (Swaminaryana

Temple) for their inspiration and courage of leadership.

 

 

BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING AND DINNER

 

The bi-annual Board of Governors meeting was held in June. During the

meeting Mrs Neerja Sethi, was welcomed onto the Board of Governors. Neerja

and her husband Bharat Desai run Syntel Inc., a very successful computer

company in the USA.

 

The meeting was followed by a dinner held in the beautiful surroundings of

the library room at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which was

attended by forty people, including representatives from the Indian High

Commission, prominent Indian business people, senior academics from Oxford,

Cambridge London and Leeds, and OCVHS students.

 

During the dinner, Prof. Richard Gombrich presented OCVHS student Isvara

Krishna Das with a cheque for £801, which represents the first scholarship

to be awarded by the OCVHS. This scholarship will be a regular boon for

gifted students and will be called the Krishna Foundation Scholarship, at

its sponsor’s request.

 

 

PROJECTS UPDATE:

 

OCVHS Library

 

Michael Austin, completing a Master’s degree at Harvard University, did an

internship in Oxford this summer. He divided his time between the Bodleian

Library and the OCVHS Library. Michael was able to index and organise the

Centre’s library collection, and we are very grateful for all his hard work.

 

Digital Shikshapatri Project

 

We are delighted to report that following the joint application submitted by

the OCVHS and the Bodleian Library, the Government’s New Opportunities Fund

has awarded a grant of £105,000 towards the digitalisation of the Bodleian

Library’s Shiksapatri manuscript.

 

Work will now go ahead to develop this manuscript into a computerised

learning resource which will eventually be available over the internet

twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

 

This project will be of great value to all the members of the Swaminarayan

community in Britain and internationally, and for scholars and researchers

wishing to become more acquainted with this important text.

 

The Hindu Youth Survey

 

This Hindu Youth Survey is the first survey of its kind ever attempted,

developed with the Hindu Youth Festival programme and it was headed up by

Romila Vaish and Savita Banot. Both worked very hard to produce a sixteen

page questionnaire with the help of OCVHS Academic Advisory Board members

Prof. Kim Knott, Dr. Malory Nye and Dr. Eleanor Nesbitt.

 

A host of young volunteers enabled the team to achieve 500 completed survey

questionnaires and fifteen hours of group interviews. The team also

received two hundred requests from respondents to take part in future

research.

 

This material now needs to be input and analysed in such a way that it is of

use to the Hindu community, including religious and community leaders and

the youth themselves. Analysis will be used to formulate future plans that

are appropriate to the needs, interests and concerns of the present

generation.

 

Some of the responses received were noteworthy, showing that Hindu youth in

the UK claim not to understand the rituals and practices of their tradition

— neither the reason behind them, nor the content. However, they do make

clear that they are interested to learn about these. Language seems to be

one of the major barriers in their religious education. They also point to

lack of qualified teachers, where in many cases elders neither seem to know

how nor have the time to communicate the significance of these practices.

 

The majority of youth clearly do want more events such as the Hindu Youth

Festival, and they liked the fact that the youth were able organise the

festival themselves.

 

Education has been pointed out as a major need in the community. The Oxford

Centre wants to help facilitate gifted Hindu students in the study of their

own tradition so that they may become learned, articulate and broad-minded

representatives of their culture. Efforts to feed the intellectual, cultural

and spiritual needs of the community now will ensure the preservation and

continuity of the culture for the future. The OCVHS, through its association

with Oxford is taking the lead in this higher-level education need.

 

ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES

 

Lectures for Michaelmas Term: October-December 2001

 

Dr. M. Narasimhachary from the University of Madras, on his second visit to

Oxford, is giving a series of eight weekly lectures on Vedic religion. The

first four weeks focus on the teachings of the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva

Vedas, whilst the latter four are looking at Ramanuja’s interpretation of

the Bhagavad-gita.

 

In addition, Dr. Guy Beck (Santosh Das), a specialist in Indian religious

music from the University of Tulane, USA, is giving a series of eight

lectures titled ‘Hinduism and Music: Past and Present’. Topics include Hindu

religious chant, devotional songs and ancient Indian music.

 

Students

 

The OCVHS welcomed two new students this term. Rati Manjari Devi Dasi from

South Africa and Tripurari Das from the USA both began Master of Studies in

World Religions at Oxford University in October. Tripurari is a recipient

of the Clarendon Award, a scholarship award which has been made to him by

the Theology Faculty of Oxford University.

 

Radika Raman Das, one of our three D. Phil students, has obtained a full

scholarship from the Theology Faculty. Krishna Ksetra Das, another D.Phil

student, received a grant from the University’s Max Mueller Memorial Fund

for the six-month research project he is currently undertaking in India.

 

That three of the Centre’s students have received major awards from Oxford

University not only represents a tremendous achievement for the individuals

themselves but is a testament to the Centre’s continued recognition as a

respected academic institution.

 

OCVHS Fellowships

 

The OCVHS granted its first fellowships in June of this year. Senior

Associate Fellowships have been awarded to former academic directors Prof.

Thomas Hopkins and Prof. Joseph O’Connell. Fellowships were awarded to Dr

Sanjukta Gupta, Peggy Morgan and Dr. Gillian Evison. All of these

fellowships were awarded in recognition of the tremendous amount of work

done by the above scholars on behalf of the Centre since its inception in

1997.

 

Visiting Scholars

 

Following his successful residency at the Centre last year, Prof. Joseph

O’Connell, a noted of scholar of Vaishnavism from the University of Toronto,

made a welcome return to Oxford in April. As well as delivering a series of

eight lectures on Hindu Theism, Prof. O’Connell gave three additional

lectures on Hindu Ethics and held several student tutorials. Both lecture

series attracted an appreciative audience from the University’s faculty

members, students and OCVHS personnel.

 

Prof. O’Connell’s wife, Katherine —who had also lectured at the Centre last

year — gave two further talks on Rabindranath Tagore, both of which were

well attended and generated interesting and lively discussions.

 

Graduate Student Seminars

 

A series of two-weekly student-led seminars were held at the Centre last

term. Radika Raman Das, Krishna Ksetra Das, Isvara Krishna Das and Father

Martin Ganeri presented their work for critical comment by their fellow

students and Prof. Joseph O’Connell, Prof. Richard Gombrich and Dr. Sanjukta

Gupta. It was unanimously agreed that these were a great success and a

tremendous help to the students and they will now form a regular part of the

scholary life of the Centre.

 

Open Course in Hindu Studies

 

Peggy Morgan and Shaunaka Rishi Das recently met with Juliette Day of the

Oxford University Continuing Education Department (OUCED), to develop an

adult education course in Hindu Studies.

 

As a result of this meeting, a ten-week pilot course is now being developed

for April next year, which will be open to anyone interested in learning

more about Hinduism. Each two-hour session will deal with a different theme

and classes will be held in Oxford at Ewart House in Summertown. Classes

will commence on 23 April, 2002. After this ten week course is finished it

is envisaged that a certificate course will be developed, leading to a

diploma course in the future.

 

 

 

Oxford Centre for Vaishnava & Hindu Studies

15 Magdalen Street

Oxford OX1 3AE, UK

 

Tel: +44-(0)1865-304300 Fax: +44(0)1865-304301

E-mail: info (AT) ocvhs (DOT) com

Web: www.ocvhs.com

 

Registered Charity No: 1074458

 

 

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