Senior Correspondent.TOD.Harirampur
A two-day international seminar examining the place of India’s Knowledge Systems (IKS) within the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 concluded at Dewan Abdul Gani College in Harirampur, bringing together scholars, educators and researchers from India and abroad to deliberate on the intellectual possibilities of Sanskrit as a conduit to the country’s civilizational knowledge traditions.
Organized by the Department of Sanskrit, the conference, held on October 7 and 8 in a blended online-and-offline format, was convened under the theme “The Holistic Blueprint: Sanskrit as the Gateway to IKS in NEP 2020.” The discussions sought to interrogate the epistemological significance of Sanskrit and its potential role in transmitting, interpreting and revitalizing India’s extensive corpus of traditional knowledge within the contemporary educational framework.
Union Minister of State for Education Dr. Sukanta Majumdar had been scheduled to attend the programme as the chief guest but was unable to do so owing to unavoidable circumstances. In his absence, Professor (Dr.) Pranab Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor of Dakshin Dinajpur University, occupied the chief guest’s chair.
A notable feature of the opening day was the formal release of an ISSN-bearing Abstract Proceedings, providing a scholarly record of the research presented during the conference. Across the two days, 152 delegates participated, while more than 70 research papers were presented, reflecting the breadth of academic engagement surrounding IKS and Sanskrit studies.The gathering was also attended by the revered Swami Satyadharmananda Maharaj, secretary of the Balurghat Ramakrishna Mission, as an honoured guest.
The seminar was conducted under the stewardship of Dr. Md. Abdul Wahab, Principal, Dewan Abdul Gani College, and Sri. Debabrata Majumder, Hon’ble President, Governing Body, Dewan Abdul Gani College, whose institutional leadership and guidance provided the framework for the academic deliberations. The keynote address was delivered by Professor (Dr.) Chandan Bhattacharya, Head of the Department of Sanskrit at the University of Gour Banga.
Among the invited speakers were Professor (Dr.) Niranjan Jena of Visva-Bharati University; Professor (Dr.) Prashanta Kumar Mahala of Raiganj University; Dr. Jeffrey D. Long of Elizabethtown College in the United States; Dr. Parthasarathi Sheel, Assistant Professor at Tripura University; and Dr. Vivek Karmakar, Assistant Professor at Scottish Church College.The programme was coordinated through the concerted efforts of Dr. Kuntal Ganguly, convenor; Chahir Ali Mian, IQAC coordinator; and Jayanta Sheel, organising secretary. Their collective stewardship ensured the seamless orchestration of the two-day academic conclave.
The seminar culminated with an extensive exchange of ideas among scholars and teachers from India and overseas, followed by the national anthem, bringing to a close an international academic forum that placed Sanskrit—and the intellectual inheritance encoded within it—at the heart of a contemporary conversation on education, heritage and knowledge.
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