International Relations Committee invites you to
“Religious Pluralism in South Asia” - A workshop by Dr. Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, Associate Professor and Director of South Asian Studies, Wellesley College, USA


Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is an Associate Professor and Director of South Asia Studies at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA. She studies religion in South Asia with a focus on devotional literature of medieval north India and its performative aspects as platforms for community building. The other areas of her research interest include goddess traditions in Gujarat, Hindu women’s religious life, Gandhi’s thought, South Asian models of religious pluralism, and South Asian religions in the context of globalization, especially as they traverse popular media. She is the author of Narasinha Mehta of Gujarat: A Legacy of Bhakti in Songs and Stories (New York: Oxford, 2015) and co-author (with Surendra Bhana) of A Fire that Blazed in the Ocean: Gandhi and the Poems of Satyagraha in South Africa, 1909-1911 (Delhi: Promilla, 2011). She has also published articles on woman poet Mira of Rajasthan, goddess worship dance of Gujarati women, goddess traditions of Gujarat, commercials for faith healers on the South Asian channels in the diaspora, and parliament of world religions. She has worked for over fifteen years for the award-winning Pluralism Project directed by Diana Eck, first as a researcher and then as a faculty consultant. This workshop is based on her teaching, research and extensive participation in interfaith activities.


Developing regionally grounded cultures of religious pluralism in various parts of the world is recognized as one of the most critical needs of our times by a number of scholars and world leaders alike. It is one response among many to religious diversity and is distinguished from what is signified by two commonly used terms with positive connotations “toleration” and “tolerance.” But what exactly is it? And why in the post-post-modern world, which was expected to turn away from religion, has it become critical? And if it is critical indeed, does South Asia as a world region have any components its history and culture that can be drawn upon to develop distinctively South Asian cultures of religious pluralism? Looking at two current stories and interviews of two leading scholars of religious pluralism as well as looking back and around to explore components of South Asian cultures that may be utilized in building pluralistic cultures, in this interactive workshop the participants will collectively reflect on challenges to pluralism in India and the possible avenues to achieve it using cultural resources and historical models.