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"India is a very important country (for the meet). In fact, India is a country that is even more multi-faceted (than the event's hosts)," Doulat Kuanyshev, ambassador-at-large in the Kazakhstan foreign ministry, said of the third Congress of World and Traditional Religions that Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev inaugurated.
Noting that both Hindus and Muslims were representing India at the Congress, he said that the two communities bring specific inputs to the discussions.
Noting that both Hindus and Muslims were representing India at the Congress, he said that the two communities bring specific inputs to the discussions.
In this context, he singled out the contribution of Kala Dhananjay Acharya, the director of the Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham, who is both a delegate at the Congress as well as a member of its permanent secretariat.
"I am fascinated by Acharya's work with the secretariat. She has been able to bring both a theoretical and scientific language into its work. I find her most rationalistic," Kuanyshev added.
17 delegates are representing India in this meet. Five each are representatives of Hindus, Muslims and Zoroastrianism, while three from the Swaminarayan sect are special invitees.
Academics, clerics and leaders from 60 nations have gathered for the two-day meet to deliberate on the prospects of peaceful coexistence among the world's religions. This meet will also discuss aspects related to terrorism.
Being held at a unique pyramid-shaped building here, the conference is a bold reminder to the world that people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds can and should live together in peace.
The Congress which was inaugurated in 2003 had Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu and Tao leaders’ adopting a declaration stating that "extremism, terrorism and other forms of violence in the name of religion... are threats to human life and should be rejected".
The second Congress was held in 2007.
