The Questions One of the existential problems that people, religious or non-religious, face is the experience of suffering. The source of suffering could be a natural catastrophe like an earth quake, a tsunami, a heat wave. It can be physical like various types of illnesses or being victims of natural or human caused accidents. It...Read More

A starting question could be whether I should speak of “Religions and Social Movements” or “Religions as Social Movements”. Religions can be seen as social movements. On the other hand, social movements can simply be social with religions playing a part it, sometimes an important one. So I plan to speak here of “Religions and...Read More

When the Constitution of India was being drafted, there were suggestions that the term ‘secular’ be included in the preamble. Both Nehru and Ambedkar did not take the suggestion seriously, because they felt that India was a religious country and the term ‘secular’ would not quite fit in. The term ‘secular’ is seen as the...Read More

The Second World Parliament of Religions (Chicago,1993) published a Declaration of a Global Ethic, which had four basic affirmations: 1. Commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life 2. Commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order 3. Commitment to a culture of tolerance and a life of truthfulness 4....Read More

Nearly twenty years ago, I wrote a paper on “Liberation: An Inter-religious Project” for a book Leave the Temple: Indian Paths to Human Liberation (1992), edited by Dr. Felix Wilfred and originally published in German (1988). Both the situation and our perspectives have been changing over the last twenty years. The multi-religious situation, both in...Read More

In Hinduism (and India) power and partnership in Hindu society (and religion) is heavily structured and determined by the caste system. The Muslim and the British empires protected and used the system for their own ends for a millennium. India has a functioning democratic political system for the last 64 years. But the caste system...Read More

Pope Francis is fast emerging as a model of dialogue both in word and deed. One of his early gestures was a letter to the Italian daily La Republica. A former Editor, Eugenio Scalfari, had written two articles commenting on the Pope’s encyclical Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), prepared by Benedict the XVI and...Read More