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Conversations on India and Pakistan

Two outspoken social activists, Asghar Ali Engineer and Vithal Rajan, will lead Conversations on Contemporary South Asia at the University of Minnesota. The event is scheduled for October 20 from noon to 4 pm at the Roy Wilkins Room (215) at the Humphrey Institute and will be held under the auspices of the Center for South Asian Studies located within the Institute for Global Studies.

"Now that the BJP-led government is in place in Delhi and the military has over in Islamabad, things are getting rather tricky," notes S P Udayakumar, a professor at the University and one of the organizers of the event. "How will these developments affect nuclear weaponization, signing the CTBT and the NPT, Indo-Pakistan talks, and the Kashmir issue do give rise to concern in our minds."

"Given the volatility of the region, it is important for us to discuss the contemporary situation in South Asia," he adds.

Asghar Ali Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Secularism and Society, Mumbai, is a human rights activist, writer, and scholar noted for his pioneering first-hand studies and reports on communal and ethnic violence.

Born in a priestly family belonging to the Bohra sect of Islam, Engineer was trained and educated as a civil engineer. He has undertaken first-hand investigations of communal riots in Ahmedabad and Bhiwandi, among other places. He has issued over 300 reports of first-hand studies of communal violence in India and in other South Asian countries. He began and led the movement for reform within his own Bohra community against the corrupt practices. <

He serves as the vice-president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties and was the founder of Ekta Samiti, an activist organization devoted to communal harmony.

Vithal Rajan, who has a doctorate from the London School of Economics, is a Canadian national who has been working for over 20 years in a voluntary capacity at the grassroots in Andhra Pradesh for integrated development of poor rural communities, and empowerment of dalits, tribals, and women.

He founded the Deccan Development Society, a well-known NGO working in Medak district among dalit women sangams. He is the chairman of Hyderabad-based Confederation of Voluntary Associations, which promotes communal harmony through community empowerment; he also chairs the Swayam Krishi Sangam, involved in developing micro-credit facilities for the poor; and he is the convener of the Friends of Dalit Collectives of Andhra Pradesh.

Rajan has worked as an executive with IDL Chemicals India, and Canadian Industries Ltd. He is the founding faculty member of the School of Peace Studies, Bradford University, UK, and the first chairman of World Studies, International School of Geneva.

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