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Our Seminars

Vedanta Education & Welfare Society has organized a number of seminars in association with Women’s College, Calcutta, at the college auditorium which was attended by the undergraduate/post graduate students of the college.

Seminar on Noble Women of the 19th Century in Bengal

Seminar dated 24th February, 2018 on the Noble Women of the 19th Century Bengal.  Sri Kushal Chowdhury,  Managing Trustee,  Lokmata Rani Rashmoni Foundation, enlightened the audience with his lecture on Rani Rashmoni and her unique role not only in building the Dakshineswar Temple which paved the way for the Ramakrishna Movement, but also for ushering in a renaissance in  Bengali society.

 

Swami Dharmapriyananda (Sajal Maharaj) presented a lucid lecture on Maa Sarada, while Prof. Arun Mukhopadhyay  spoke on Sister Nivedita.

Part 1 – Kushal Chowdhury Speech on Noble Women of the 19th Century in Bengal
Part 2 – Kushal Chowdhury Speech on Noble Women of the 19th Century in Bengal

Seminar on The Principles and Practices of Education in Contemporary Society​

Seminar dated 22nd December, 2018  on the Principles and Practices of Education in Contemporary Society. 

 

Eminent speakers were Swami Abhinnananda (Tarak Maharaj), Swami Tattaswarananda (Belur B Ed College), Amal Sarkar, Chief of News Bureau, Eei Samay,  Dharmapriyananda Maharaj (Baranagar Ramakrishna Mission) and Saugata Roy, Member of Parliament.  

Seminar on Rabindranath Tagore - Swami Vivekananda & The Asian Consciousness

Two-day National Seminar dated 27th and 28th March, 2019, sponsored by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies.  The seminar aimed to interrogate the possibility of a pan-Asian identity in the present context of globalization, regional conflicts and competitive diplomacy.  It was felt that when world-wide regional co-operations are facing integral changes, it becomes an imperative to revisit the concept of one-Asia as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore.  

 

The keynote address was delivered by Mr Niraj Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and an outstanding scholar on pan-Asianism. Mr Kumar, coming from New Delhi, delivered a lecture on “Swami Vivekananda, Tagore and Buddhism as Asia’s Lighthouse.”  He spoke about the development of Buddhism throughout Asia and he considered that this spirituality is the leit motif of the Asian identity.  A special invited lecture was delivered by Dr Mrinal Chatterjee, Professor and Regional Director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Odissa. His paper titled, “Asia: Coming Full Circle” was on the travels and modernity of Rabindranath Tagore.

 

The other speakers of the day included Dr Ishani Naskar, Professor, Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University and Dr Amartya Mukhopadhyay, retired Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Calcutta.  They pointed out the “multiplexity” of Asian identity and the complexity of Tagore’s political views as reflected in his short stories, respectively.

 

The second day of the seminar began with the presidential address delivered by Dr Mahua Das, Secretary of Vedanta Education & Welfare Society.  Her lecture gave a broad review of pan-Asianism and explored the concept of  “consciousness”  as propounded by the works and lives of Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath.  The first invited lecture of the day was delivered by Dr Sandipan Sen, Associate Professor, Department of English of Anandamohan College, who spoke on the various receptions of Tagore in the south, east and south-eastern countries of Asia. Dr Soumitra Basu, retired Professor, Department of Drama, Rabindra Bharati University. who spoke in the next session concentrated on Tagore’s visit to China and the various political ramifications of that visit.


In the post lunch session, Dr Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor, Department of Bengali, Visva Bharati, spoke on the alternate reception of the Orient during the modernist period in Europe and its implication in the present post-colonial time.  He was followed by Mr Daehun Moon, teacher of Korean Language, in Jadavpur University, who delivered a lecture on history and prospects of Indo-Korean exchanges with relation to Rabindranath Tagore.


The seminar showed that pan-Asianism can be taken up for important future works by scholars and students. It provided an opportunity for deliberation on the issues and possibilities of one Asia, in the present political and economic context.