The Utkal University organised a three-day international conference from October 2 to 4 on rural development and social transformation in South Asia.
Dedicating the conference to the Mahatma Gandhi’s150th Birth Anniversary, Vice Chancellor Prof Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, in inauguration, gave a call to participants and students to study Hind Swaraj.
Scholars from Nepal, Bangladesh and the United States submitted their research papers under different sub-themes like globalisation, technology, women empowerment and marginalised communities, etc. Prof Triloki Nath Pandey and Prof Annapurna Pandey from the University of California, Prof Indira and Deepti Ranjan Sahu from the Indian Sociological Society, Prof Nilika Mehrotra from the JNU and Prof Sukant Chaudhury from the Lucknow University shared their sociological and anthropological understanding of Gandhi and how Gandhi as a man and as an idea is still relevant today.
On the valedictory day, Dr Basanta Kumar Mallik, HoD of the Department of History, Dr Mary Gabriela Bage, HoD of Department of Sociology, Dr Rabindra Garada, organising secretary of the conference, and Dr Navaneeta Rath from the Department of Sociology shared their happiness that young scholars are increasingly combining the theory and practice in their researches. They were hopeful that a regional dialogue on rural development and social transformation needs to continue in the region of South Asia.
The conference was organised by the Department of Sociology and Global Centre for Rural Studies of the university in collaboration with the Indian Sociological Society and the Indian Anthropological Association.