News

The Academic Appointments Committee is pleased to have secured the services of Prof. Gavin Flood as Academic Director for a further five years.

Now that Prof. Flood's position as Academic Director has been secured it becomes possible to develop a number of new teaching directions. Along with Hinduism I and II, Prof. Flood intends to offer more courses within his areas of specialisation and in broader fields.

Trinity Term at OCHS saw two new Shivdasani fellows coming to Oxford: Prof. Shashiprabha Kumar, Professor of Sanskrit at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, and Dr Sangeetha Menon from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. The Shivdasani Fellowship exists to enable outstanding scholars of Indian nationality to come and study and teach at Oxford University.

The OCHS web-team led by professional web-designer, Mr Patrick Tusler, has just completed the relaunch of our site - www.ochs.org.uk. Patrick, a longstanding Friend of the Centre, has been involved in the development of the site since its earliest days. His stated goal is 'to make an even more welcoming site to our thousands of dedicated visitors, and to show new visitors the wide range of facilities that we offer.'

In November 2006, we held a Benefactors meeting to look at that year's shortfall of £40,000.The appeal, launched by the Benefactors Council and co-ordinated by Dr Ramesh Shamdasani, ably assisted by Kamlesh Patel, Jamin Patel, Harish I. K. Patel, and Upendra Kalan raised £41,500.

The OCHS web team have launched a section of our website devoted to lecture downloads. Presently we can offer downloads in MP3 format but we are also working on facility to listen online and Podcasts.

These lectures and seminars are offered mainly as reference material for scholars and students interested in the topics covered. We offer the service in an effort to help develop the field of Hindu Studies and make good scholarship more accessible.

New scholarships are being established and awarded to deserving students at the OCHS, making life easier for those who are studying far from home.

Our ambition to encourage international growth in Hindu studies has borne new fruit in agreements with universities as far apart as Baroda and Florida.

The development of Hindu Studies is now a global concern, yielding affiliations that bring together scholars, students, fresh perspectives, and new insights, in a common appreciation of Hindu culture and its importance for the world.

The past few months at OCHS have been busy ones, full of talks and events that brought OCHS scholars together with a wider public, in a shared love of Indian culture.

The OCHS has officially unveiled its unique Online Library of over 100 MP3 recordings of lectures and seminars. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection now has free access to the best of Oxford's teaching about Hindu Culture.

Oxford University has recently given its official seal of approval to OCHS by awarding it with the newly created status of "Recognised Independent Centre of Oxford University" - a self governing academic institution that works in harmony with the University to enrich its field of study.