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A speech by Dr Ravi Gupta, Board of Governor's Dinner, Oxford Town Hall, 23rd June 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening! It is a great pleasure to be present in such a distinguished gathering of individuals. This is a homecoming of sorts for me—I studied at Oxford for six years and then went off into the real world, as they say. Now, after a year of full time teaching at the University of Florida, it is great to be back with friends at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

As the Centre renews its lease on the current buildings in Oxford until 2013, the OCHS Friend's Campaign is continuing to strengthen its foundations by developing new friends and benefactors. A programme of events organised by Friends of the OCHS is ongoing.

Thanks to kind donations from friends of OCHS, two new awards have been established to recognise OCHS scholars for their academic excellence and outstanding achievements.

Spring brought two new Shivdasani Fellows to the centre: visiting scholars who use their time in Oxford to teach, discuss, and open a new window onto Indian culture.

The Routledge Hindu Studies Series, in association with OCHS, is going from strength to strength under the auspices of new editor, Prof. Gavin Flood. Developed to bring the depth and originality of current scholarship into the public sphere, the Routledge/OCHS series brings ancient Hindu traditions into dialogue with the latest trends in contemporary thought. New and forthcoming titles explore new horizons for understanding India's religion, history and culture.

Our Shivdasani Visiting Fellow for Michaelmas term was Dr Himanshu Prabha Ray, who took a term away from the Centre for Historical Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi to explore the archaeology of ancient Hindu temples in her talks at the OCHS.

This term sees Gopal Gupta from Boise Idaho, USA, arriving at OCHS to pursue an MSt in Science and Religion. In recognition of his excellent work to date, the University of Oxford have awarded him a full Clarendon Fund Scholarship to support his studies at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. The highly sought-after Clarendon Scholarship, which is given to encourage scholarship in important and often ground-breaking fields, covers the fees for Gopal's Masters and Doctoral degrees in the emergent field of Science and Hinduism.

The Centre has been fortunate to host two distinguished scholars this academic year. In autumn 2004,Vasudha Narayanan, Professor of Religion at the University of Florida and past president of the American Academy of Religion, came to the OCHS as the Tamil Krishna Goswami Visiting Fellow. She delivered the Wahlstrom Lecture, providing insight into the breadth of Hindu cultural expansion beyond the borders of modern India, with examples from Angkor Wat and other Cambodian sacred sites.

Following in the footsteps of senior scholars like Prof.Frank Clooney (Harvard University, USA)and Prof.Pratap Kumar (KwaZulu Natal,South Africa),from October 2005 the new Academic Director of OCHS will be Prof.Gavin Flood,who is currently the senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland.

Scholars, students, and community leaders from across the country came together last Thursday for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) 7th annual Board of Governors dinner. The event, which took place at Oxford Town Hall, was an occasion for friends and well-wishers to learn and reflect upon the diverse and rewarding activities of the OCHS over the past year.