Commemorating 1000 years of Sri Ramanujacharya and Sri Abhinava Gupta, the Centre for Cultural Studies of Samvit Kendra organized a seminar on “Samajika Samarasta – The Social and Spiritual Context”, on 11th March, 2017 at Bharat Vikas Parishad hall, Kukatpally.
Dr. Murli Manohar, Professor of English from HCU, Dr. Vamsha Tilak, President of Samarasta Manch, Telangana, and Sri Satyadeva Prasad, eminent writer, spoke. 50+ academicians, researchers and other professionals participated in the seminar.
Dr Murli Manohar shared experiences and findings from his research into the traditions of Mala Dasan community. He described how this priestly SC community has been preserving the tradition initiated by Sri Ramanujacharya over the centuries, organising worship in many temples in Telangana and Andhra, and serving SCs as well as the general village population.
Sri Satya Deva Prasad analysed the reasons for the rise of SC, STs during the medieval times in India, and pointed to the plausibility of a once prosperous state of these communities. He argued that the disruptive interventions of Islam and Christianity had the effect of curtailing the prosperity of these communities and reducing them to lowly status. They also led to a proliferation of these communities in Bharat.
Dr. Vamsha Tilak pointed out that the perceived backward communities are naturally integrated with the spiritual traditions of Bharat and warned against the confusion being created in these communities by communists. He also exposed the time-serving hypocrisy of Communists who once called Dr. Ambedkar a “casteist”, and prevented his election into the Lok Sabha, and who were now trying to hijack Dr. Ambedkar’s name and views on caste in order to propagate their own destructive agenda in India.
The President of Samvit Kendra, Dr. Rahul Shastri, presided. Before the Seminar commenced, Sri Ayush Nadimpalli, presented the second annual report of Samvit Kendra for the year 2016, listing out the publications of books and papers during the year, and the seminars and study circles conducted. The Samvit Kendra invited the members of the audience to participate in the study circles being run by it in different centres.