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Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 5
Central University of Punjab (CUP), under Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching, has organised a five-day national workshop on ‘Explorations in Domains of Indian Sociology’.
The workshop is being held by the Department of Sociology, under the guidance of Vice Chancellor Prof RK Kohli.
The objective of the workshop is to enhance teaching potential of the young faculty members. Faculty members from various other institutions of Bathinda and the nearby areas also attended the programme.
The keynote speakers included eminent personalities in the field of sociology from across the country, who shared their perspective on the topic “Indigenisation of Sociology: Methodological Prospects and Challenges”.
On February 4, the programme started with a brief introduction of TLC’s objectives and methodology by TLC coordinator Vinod Arya. During the first half, an interactive session by Aditya Ranjan Kapoor was conducted on the topic ‘Teaching Social Sciences in Peripheries’. Post lunch, inaugural lectures were delivered by Padma Bhushan recipient Prof TK Oommen and Prof Nandu Ram, first Ambedkar Chair Professor at Centre for Study of Social Systems at JNU.
Prof Oommen liked the TLC’s idea of focusing on regional understandings by different disciplines to make teaching and learning more relevant. He gave the example of Chicago school of thought (USA), which studied the region and its people with various perspectives and established itself as a distinct school of thought.
He also discussed the possibilities and challenges related to indigenisation of social sciences with the help of appropriate examples from Indian and western societies. He significantly problematised the concept of indigenisation and its possible uses and abuses in teaching and learning process.
Prof Nandu Ram emphasised the importance of inclusion of scientific knowledge being produced by the people located at the margins and peripheries of different societies.
Prof Nandu Ram, the propounder of “Perspective from Below”, also highlighted the problems and probabilities, which such knowledgeable persons from lower strata of different societies face and possess. Post inaugural lectures, Prof Ramakrishna Wusirika, Dean of School of Global Relation, and Narinder K Bassi, a renowned social worker working with UN AIDS programme, felicitated both the speakers.
On February 5, a panel discussion was organised with Prof Pushpesh Kumar and Ahonaa Roy on the theme ‘Exploring the unexplored in Indian societies’. In the second half, Tariq Khan from Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, delivered a lecture on ‘Interface between Language, Science and Society’. Faculty of various departments, participants and research scholars appreciated the workshop.