Nimerta Dawani

Thesis Title:

A centre for Theological Research and Dialogue to encourage Interfaith Harmony and Peacebuilding

Project Title:

Ekatva

Location:

University of Karachi

User Group:

Researchers, Scholars and interested public

Peter Berger argues that today’s world is as furiously religious as it has ever been, hence the birth of Pluralism by modernity, which would idealistically imply co-existence and deeper interaction between believers of various faith-based value systems. However, that is not the case. Belonging to a religious minority in a majority state and having reflected upon my lived experiences as a Hindu, I realized that I and my community have gone through a lifetime of discrimination and violence. But that was not limited to only us. All religious minorities in Pakistan have been victims of otherization and intolerance on multiple levels. This realization brought forth a challenge- is there a way that multiple faiths could co-exist? According to Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, the key attributes of a pluralist society other than dialogue and conversation are actively seeking to understand differences and holding them in relation to one another’s beliefs and values. Hence, the proposed project is a theological research and dialogue centre, which creates a safe space for researchers and scholars to have an informed dialogue about the various issues being faced by our society related to religion as well as for the interested public to educate themselves with the new research and findings.