We invite papers for a seminar on the varied Hindu organizations involved in education and development work, both in India and the diaspora (primarily in the context of the project’s three major country foci: India, the US and the UK). This includes guru shishya parampara, akhaadas and sampradyas; organizations set up in the late 19th and early 20th century for social and religious reform in response to colonial attacks on Hinduism and to resist conversions; institutions set up during the freedom movement, as well as after Independence, as part of nation building endeavors by leading freedom fighters; schools and hostels set up by caste groups to promote "modern" education among their respective caste brethren; institutions built by sect leaders for development work and to provide education and health care; organizations working among scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, mainly to combat Christian missionary activity and counter the influence of NGO's supported by western funding agencies; institutions set up to promote Hindu culture through Yoga, Ayurveda and other Indic knowledge systems.

The present seminar is the sixth in a two-year network project series exploring the “Public Representation of a Religion called Hinduism,” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK: http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/hinduism/. Among the areas of special interest are case studies involving specific interventions in the education and development sectors by Hindu organizations, and how these interventions are helping to shape social relations, both in India and the Diaspora (and across the divide between these two):