NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 15, 2003: A four-day conference on Religions in the Indic Civilization will begin in New Delhi, India, on December 18, 2003. The aim of the conference is to encourage secular studies of religious traditions in India: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Bahaii, Jainism, Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, including their various sects and branches. The Conference also hopes to promote the study of religions in India as a rigorous secular discipline. Organizers point out that there are many departments of Hinduism or professors of Hinduism in Western universities, but few universities in India itself have a department of Hinduism. The Conference will host six plenary sessions and more than 60 workshop sessions. Among the speakers will be Bhikhu Parekh, Member, House of Lords and Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics, Samdhong Rinpoche, Chairman of Tibetan Cabinet in Exile, Robert Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Columbia University. For details of the conference and the attendees, please visit the website at “source” or contact: Madhu Kishwar, Conference Convenor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, telephone: +91-11-2397 8851 madhuk@csdsdelhi.org.
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