Tamil Nadu   

“Exchange of ideas among religions is a must”

— Photo: K. Ganesan

MAKING A POINT: Ponneelan, Sahitya Akademi Award Laureate, delivering the Graham Staines Endowment Lecture in Madurai.

MADURAI: The existential part of any nation is based on a ‘three-dimensional process’ which includes economics, politics and culture as its elements.

It was only when political stakeholders were involved and try to dominate through any of these elements, culture and religion became the tool of communalism, said Ponneelan, Sahitya Akademi laureate and noted Tamil novelist here.

Mr. Ponneelan was delivering the sixth Graham Staines endowment lecture on ‘Role of Religions in Indian Society,’ organised jointly by Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) Trust and Centre for Religion and Interfaith Relations, Lady Doak College, on Wednesday.

Stating that individuals should respect people’s identities, customs and traditions, he said that frequent discussions and exchange of ideas among religions were necessary for promoting inter- faith relations.

A nation and her people who forgot the history of the land, culture and traditions would lose its value, essence and vitality.

Mr. Ponneelan said that it was the Christian missionaries who democratised the process of education reaching out to the margins of society and bringing the oppressed into the arena of literacy.

S. Selvagomathy of SOCO Trust spoke on how brotherhood, tolerance and mutual cooperation were fast disappearing among individuals. In her presidential address, Brinda Newman, Head, Department of History, quoted the historical antecedents of communal violence in the post-colonial India with minutiae.

M. Valliammal, coordinator, Centre for Religion and Interfaith Relations, Lady Doak College, welcomed the gathering. Principal Mercy Pushpalatha was present.

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