Vishwaneedam Social Theory Awardees

Vishwaneedam Social Theory Awardees Professor BK Nagla, Shermon Cruz and Dr. Suryakanta Moharana would speak. We also celebrate the birthday of Professor Fred Dallmayr. Vishwaneedam[i] Center for Asian Blossoming The Outline of A Trust Introduction and Invitation There is an epochal need for people and scholars of Asia to come together and learn together. At present very few such spaces exist where people of Asia from diverse backgrounds and countries can come together and learn together. There are not many think tanks and centers of conjoint meditations and reflections where scholars and leaders of Asia can come together and learn together. Keeping this epochal need and challenge, some seeking souls and seed workers are trying to create Vishwaneedam Center for Asian Blossoming. We have registered this as a Public Trust in Pondicherry, India, and on behalf of this Trust nurture the following projects and activities in different institutions, universities in India, Asia and around the world. Asian Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) Some Asian countries such as India have Institutes of Advanced Studies such as the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, where scholars from within the country come. These Institutes are mainly confined within India and their parallels in Institutes such as the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton, Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin and Swedish Collegium of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Uppsala, have their own emphasis. In Asian Institute of Advanced Studies, we learn from their experiences as well as strive to make it a multi-dimensional open space involving not only the participation of academic scholars but also leaders from other domains of society such as voluntary action, business, and government. In the Asian Institute of Advanced Studies, we aim at having scholars, activists, leaders of business, government, NGOs, and social movements together who are working on creative projects for a selected period—from three months to a year. At present in no Institutes of Advanced Studies, one would find such a combination of fellows who come from such diverse backgrounds. There are no Institutes of Advanced Studies at the Asian level where scholars from Asia can come together. Scholars of Asia are still bound to the Euro-American world and they meet only in the corridors of institutions and universities in this part of the world. Now it is urgent that people and scholars of Asia must meet in the soil of Asia and cultivate mutual learning and projects for a better Asia and the World. People of India and China, for example, would constitute one-third of humanity and there are very little people-to-people interaction among them. Asian Institute of Advanced Studies would be one such place where scholars from China and India as well as from Russia, Japan, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East can come together. We conceive of this Institute as a long-term project involving our sadhana and struggle. We seek to find sponsorship for the project from multiple quarters— Foundations such as South Asia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Government and intergovernmental bodies, corporate houses, and creative educational foundations. We try to find land for this and build a beautiful meditative campus where fellows can live and work. We also find support for Fellowship for Asian Blossoming for presenting fellowship to fellows. This is tied to creating fellowship for free or subsidized education for students from Asian regions in each other’s countries. Swadhyaya Sahachakra (Co-Learning Circles of Self and Mutual Studies) Swadhyaya Sahachakra (Co-Learning Circles of Self and Mutual Studies) is an initiative of studying and learning together self, culture, societies and the world. Friends associated with this are eager to walk and meditate with the new horizons of thinking and new movements of social and cultural change at work in our contemporary world. We study seekers such as Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi, Chitta Ranjan Das (a seeker and creative thinker from Odisha), and many others from around the world. We also present our own writings and reflect upon our creativity together. We also invite seekers from different fields of life to share with us their lives, visions, sadhana and struggles for creating a world of beauty, dignity and dialogues. We meet every Sunday or sometimes Wednesday Executive Co-Nurturers Professor Ananta Kumar Giri, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai (Executive Trustee) Mr. Randhir Kumar Gautam, Chief Programme officer of RAYS Global Foundation, USA 08527029931