International Conference on“Asian Values and Human Future”
This international seminar, “World Culture Development Forum”on“Asian Values and Human Future”has been two years in the making. Bringing together seminal thinkers from 20 universities and 8 other institutions from 11 countries of the world to deliberate on various facets of this timely theme has been the achievement of team that gave it all they had. This Book Abstracts is a testimonial to the divergence of outcomes when“Asian Values”and“Human Future”are put through the viewing glasses of scholars and thinkers from right round the world.
The idea of holding this conference emerged from the recent debates that have been continuously reminding us that all our cultures are under pressure from modern and postmodern trends, more so in the developed countries. But in our part of the world, this trend is shaking today the very foundations of ancient Asian civilizations.
Great social movements that have freed the human spirit and lifted people out of dead-ends have required heroic effort by those who have imagined a better world and done something about it. This sort of imagination is once again central to fashioning and securing the moorings of our civilizational and cultural riches. A profound reflection on Asian values that have stood the test of time could be instrumental in fashioning such a world.
Traditions are invaluable. But change is inevitable. The path to a better future may not always be through a throw-back to the ways of old. The imperative today is for creative and critical thinking to break new grounds and take humanity forward. Though traditionalists often tend to grow over-defensive and their sense of insecurity leads them to take rigid stands, what is required instead is to integrate the old and the new. This Conference aims at making a fresh synthesis of ideals, values, ethical norms, and philosophical principles drawn from different Asian cultures to address this emerging situation.
An acceptance of human embeddedness in multiple cultural experiences forms the basis of this re-examination. The willingness to contemplate a different self/other and to draw from the cultural assets and ethical principles of a variety of communities is the guiding principle of this debate.
This debate is necessitated by a globalized economic agenda that has been pulling younger people from their homes, their families, their religious beliefs, their cultural roots, their community identities, their familiar terrain, and throwing them into the rough seas of uncertainties. They are adrift with but little sense of security and even less of belongingness. With the weakening of family and community bonds, they are often unable to develop a clear vision of the future or depend on their convictions. Everything is under threat.
Increasingly, the trends are clear-trends that undermine our moral fibre, social bonds, sense of common belonging and commitment to shared values and ideals leading to corruption, unabashed egotism and closed-minded sectarian thinking. As individuals and communities grow uprooted and materialistic, people become self-centred and lose sight of the sources of their moral vitality:family, religion, local traditions and cultural roots. They fail to draw energy and motivation from the organic and life-giving dimensions of culture and lose the ability to see the sublime in the simple dimensions of their tradition. It is in such situations of helplessness that people, especially the youth, develop attitudes that are aggressive and contentious, and grow stubborn and unbending. They do not realize how, while they fight their way forward against real and imagined enemies, they are developing a counter culture that cannot sustain them in the long run.
Asian thinkers down the centuries have been the promoters of the unifying vision of reality behind every civilization. This conference is an attempt to take a long, hard look at present day realities in the light of Asian values that have stood the test of time, possibly offering a fresh vision for the future of humanity.
It gives me great pleasure in acknowledging here the admirable job put in by the two Secretaries to the Conference: Prof. Joy Thomas from Assam Don Bosco University and Dr. Li Jialian from Hubei University. Their dedication has been outstanding. Let me acknowledge also the tenacity and commitment of the members of the Organizing Committee from our University: Dr. Basil Koikara, Dr. Paul Pudussery, Dr. Dominic Meyieho, Dr. Francis Fernandez, Dr. Riju Sharma, Dr. Peter Paul Hauhnar, Ms. Juhi Baruah, Ms. Nabamita Das, Mr. James Thafamkima, Fr. CM Paul, Fr. Joseph Nellanatt, Dr. Prasanta Kumar Choudhury, Mr Bikramjit Goswami, Ms Hemashree Bordoloi, Ms Gitu Das, Mr Utpal Gogoi and Ms Irina Barua.
Dr. Stephen Mavely
Vice Chancellor, Assam Don Bosco University