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Workshop on ‘Secularism, Communal Violence & Role of
Religion in Peace Building’ - 16th to 20th
November 2010, Kolhapur
‘Centre for study of society and
Secularism’ in collaboration with ‘Centre of Gandhian
 Studies’
organized a five day workshop on ‘Secularism, communal
violence & role of religion in peace building’ at
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Maharashtra. There were 47
participants from various backgrounds such as Political
Science, History, Sociology, Law, Business
Administration, Natural Sciences etc. Both students and
faculty from various departments of the university and
nearby colleges attended the workshop.
Day 1
Dr. Bharati Patil, Coordinator, Centre of
Gandhian Studies welcomed the participants, resource
persons and Chief guests to the programme. The workshop
was inaugurated by Prof. N.J Pawar, Vice Chancellor,
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Key not address was given
by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on ‘Communalism and Communal
Violence’. Veteran
 freedom
fighter and Gandhian Shri Datta Shinde garlanded
portrait of Mahatma Gandhi which is followed by the
lighting of traditional lamp. Mrs Madhuri Khot gave the
vote of thanks for inaugural session.
The Inauguration was followed by session
by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on ‘Theories of Peace and
Conflict Resolution’. Relationship between Justice and
peace was the major focus throughout the lecture. The
session ended with question answer session. After the
session the participants were divided in to four groups
named Peace, Kasturba, Mahathma and Ahimsa, for day to
day evaluation and reporting. Representative from each
group briefed the previous day’s lectures, on every day
morning.
Prof. Yashwant Sumant delivered three
lectures on topics such as ‘Religious thought in the 19th
Century’, ‘Religious thought in the 20th
Century’ and ‘Religion and Communal Harmony’. Each talk
followed by 15 minute question answer time and 10 minute
break. Various reform movements, school of thoughts
associated with religion during 19th and 20th
century, historical context of its origin, and its
influence in the Indian society till date, what role
religion can play in maintaining communal harmony were
the major areas discussed in these lectures. First day
sessions came to an end by 6.30 pm in the evening.
Day 2
Pre-noon session of the second day
included two lectures by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on the
topics ‘Medieval History’ and ‘Cause of Partition’. The
sessions were interactive
 where
participants raised questions in-between and they were
also expected to answer the questions raised by the
resource person. Thus it was helpful to find out many of
the myths related with ‘medieval history’ and
‘partition’, and to clarify the same.
Post noon programme started with the
session by Prof. F. H. Bennur on ‘Religious thought of
Muslim Leadership’ in which he examined the various
schools of thoughts in Islam and its leadership. The
interactive session ended up with clarification of
doubts by the participants.
The next session was by Prof. Sadanand
More on ‘Bhakti tradition & composite culture’. The
resource person examined the contributions of Bhakti
traditions to the Indian society and the composite
culture.
Day 3
The third day of the workshop was started
with the session of Prof. Sadanand More on ‘Composite
culture’, which was the continuation of his previous
day’s talk. The second and third talk, before and after
lunch was by Shri Kishore Bedikal on ‘Development of
Secularism in the West’ and ‘Secularism in the Indian
context’. A detailed historical and theoretical analysis
of the concept secularism and examining the
implementation of this concept in Indian as well as
west, were the major highlights of his talk. The last
session of the day was by Prof F. H. Bennur on the topic
‘Politics of Religion’, which discussed the danger of
mixing religion with politics, with examples in the
Indian context.
Day 4
The programme started with the talk by,
Prof. J. R. Dabhole on ‘Communal harmony’. He examined
the various views and ways to achieve communal harmony
in a pluralistic society like India. He critically
examined participants understanding on what is and what
should be communal harmony. This was followed by the
session on ‘Communal
 violence
in the post independence’ by Prof. F. H. Bennur, which
explored the various social political and economical
roots behind communal violence.
Afternoon sessions started with the talk
by Dr. Bharati Patil on ‘Women: victims of communal
violence’. She explored the plight of women across the
world during violence, with ample data. Also examined
the socio cultural reason for the victimhood of women
and put forward her views for remedy.
This followed by the screening of film
‘Road to Sangam’ directed by Amit Rai, released on 2009.
The film is about one man’s struggle to keep his values
in difficult times. Gandhiji, Muslim life in today’s
India, clashes between progressive and fundamentalist
views, all come in this movie.
Day 5
The first session of the last day was on
‘Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of composite nationalism’ by
Dr. Bharati Patil. She discussed the various dimension
of Gandhian Philosophy, his concepts on communal harmony
etc.
The second and third session, before and
after lunch were exclusively for the participants. The
participants gathered in four different groups which
were formed earlier that is ‘Peace’ (Shantata), ‘Kasturba’,
‘Mahathma’ and ‘Ahimsa’. Each group was expected to
discuss and review the lectures in the session from day
one and the film screened on the previous day. Also they
had to discuss the possible future plan for the
participants. The discussion went on up to lunch.
Afternoon representative from each group presented the
output of group discussion. In general all the four
group suggested to form a peace forum by the
participants in order to act in future. Few enthusiastic
participants also shared their view regarding what one
can do in time of communal conflicts. There were
suggestions too to improve this kind of workshops in
future, other than what is mentioned in the feedback
forms collected.
Finally came the valedictory session
presided by Dr. Bharti Patil, representing Centre of
Gandhian Studies. Shri Datta Shinde was the Chief Guest
in the programme. Mr Riyas V M represented Centre for
Study of Society and Secularism. Mr Dhanaji Khatkar gave
the vote of thanks, in which he mentioned the
commendable service by the student and staff volunteers
throughout the programme. | 
