News

On 1 February 2010, HE Nalin Surie, India's High Commissioner to the UK delivered the Ford Lecture. Below is the transcript.

The findings of the 2007 OCHS Shivdasani Conference, Archaeology and Text, have been published by Oxford University Press. The collection is edited by OCHS Shivdasani fellow, Himanshu Prabha Ray (JNU).

Hindu leaders have launched an action plan for long-term environmental change following a meeting with His Royal Highness The Prince Philip and His Excellency Ban-ki Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Bhumi Project (Sanskrit for ‘Mother Earth’) was launched as part of this week’s Many Heavens, One Earth summit at Windsor Castle, attended by over 200 faith leaders from nine major world religions.

Sanskrit was recently approved by the Board of the Faculty of Theology to be taught at the level of the preliminary exam (first year).

This means that Sanskrit will be taught in Theology alongside New Testament Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Pali.

Dear Friends,

We have the mists and mellow fruitfulness of autumn, the beautiful canopies of changing colour, and the crisp crunch of leaves underfoot, but the temperature is worthy of remark. An Indian summer they call it,

The conference ‘Thinking Inside the Box: the idea of a category in Indian philosophy’ was held at Somerville College, on the weekend of 10–11 October.

An international group of highly regarded speakers addressed the issue of categorisation in a number of different Indian philosophical traditions.

During the course of the conference a number of themes and issues began to emerge. One was the general problem of categorisation.

Dear Friends,

I hope you had a relaxing and peaceful summer and found somewhere with a bit of sun in which to bask.

The second OCHS Shivdasani Conference – Thinking Inside the Box: The Concept of a Category in Indian Philosophy – will be held at Somerville College, Oxford on 10–11 October.

A two-week international Workshop on Manuscriptology and Sanskritic Text Editing is being organised by Jadavpur University, Kolkata; the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Indira Gandhi National Centre for The Arts, National Mission for Manuscripts, New Delhi: and Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan.

The workshop will take place from 10–22 August 2009 at at Jadavpur University.

National Hindu leaders have pledged to work together to create long-term plans for environmental protection and education which have the potential to reach every Hindu living in the UK. Ideas considered include a Hindu benchmark for a range of products and services, endorsement for ethically sourced food, and advocating sustainable lifestyles. These plans will be developed and implemented over the next nine years – a timeframe chosen to encourage long-term planning.