PANAJI
Folklore researcher and environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar said there are numerous and inspiring examples of communal harmony in Goa.
Delivering his keynote address at a recently organised ‘Sadbhav Sammelan’, a two-day International Interfaith conference, held in Pilar, he also praised the Society of Pilar for taking keen interest in encouraging communal harmony.
He called upon the participants of the conference to guard and pass down this great heritage to the coming generation.
In his welcome address, Fr Elvis Fernandes, convenor of Sadbhav, an endeavour to foster Inter-Religious dialogue, harmony, solidarity and fellowship, said “Goa is blessed with Inter-religious harmony and stands out as a beacon to the rest of India.”
Nearly 90 people consisting of students, educators, peace activists and faith leaders took part in the conference to promote the idea of peaceful coexistence and harmonious living.
Along with participants from Goa and a few other states, two international participants, Geniale Awoussa from Togo and Regina Lomarda from the Philippines took part in the conference.
On the first day of the conference, research papers were presented by Prof. Kishu Daswani (Government Law College, Mumbai), Asst. Prof Shefali Kale (St Xavier’s College, Mapusa), Jude Fernandes (Nirmala Institute of Education, Panjim), Asst. Prof. Roman Rodrigues (Rosary College of Arts and Commerce, Navelim), Dr Francis Carvalho (Pilar Theological College), Manjiri Vaidya (Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College, Mumbai), Fr Anand Mathew (Vishwa Jyoti Communications, Varanasi) and Michelle Colaco (Carmel College, Nuvem). The paper presentations were chaired by Dr Agnelo Pinheiro and Tallulah D’Silva.
These papers shared perspectives on religion and interfaith harmony and enabled a fruitful discussion among the participants.
The day ended with the screening of a short Konkani film ‘Jaticho Khell’ by students of Government College, Sanquelim, and a national award-winning Hindi play ‘Amaanat’, performed by Prerna Kala Manch, Varanasi, based on a short story ‘Mandir-Masjid’ written by Munshi Premchand.
Day two saw a more hands-on affair with two parallel workshops on ‘Mapping Diversity in India’ by Irfan Engineer (Centre for Study of Society and Secularism) and ‘Poetry: A Creative and Meditative Exercise’ by Dr Omkar Bhatkar.
Added to this, three guest lectures on the theme, ‘Gandhi and Religion’, ‘Dialogue: Religion and Beyond’ and ‘The Search for God through the works of Florence Nightingale’ were delivered by Dr Subodh Kerkar, Dr Ivon Almeida and Dr Omkar Bhatkar respectively.
The conference came to a close with a melange of poems, skits, music, songs and a Hindi play inspiring the participants to imbibe the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the whole world is one family).
The conference was organised by ‘Sadbhav’ in collaboration with Fr Agnel College of Arts and Commerce (Pilar), Nirmala Institute of Education (Panaji), Carmel College of Arts, Science & Commerce for Women (Nuvem), Rosary College of Commerce and Arts (Navelim) and St Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts (Mumbai).
