For over three decades, Dr. Valson Thampu has been a voice of reason on issues of national importance in India, covering education, politics, religion and culture.
Having contributed regularly to the national print media and, less frequently, to the electronic as well as social media, Dr. Thampu is recognized as a bridge between Indian Christianity and other faiths in the worrisome ambience of the rise of strident Hindutva.
In view of his wider contributions, the Government of India appointed him to the first-ever National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, mandated to safeguard the educational rights of the religious minorities in India, numbering over 200 million people. He was also nominated for two terms to the National Integration Council (of the Government of India) in the category ‘Distinguished Citizens’.
His long association with the late Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu reformer and spiritual thinker of distinction, their collaborative interventions in issues of national significance, and their spiritual seeking after the light of the divine beyond the cacophony of competitive religiosity, combined with his eclectic erudition, intrepidity of thought and classical bent of mind make this work a persuasive invitation to look beyond religious stereotypes and evolve a new spiritual vision for the post-COVID global village.
It was as a member of the English faculty in St. Stephen’s College that he commenced his life of public service, earning his way up the ranks to become its Principal (2008 – 2016). During this time, his interests grew, blossomed and covered the Indian sub-continent, a process of growth in which he followed the footsteps of an illustrious predecessor, C. F. Andrews, who was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Tagore. His memoir covering those controversial years, On A Stormy Course, has been widely welcomed.
His other published works include:
- AIDS: Heresy and Prophecy,
- Be Thou My Vision,
- Re-discovering Mission: Towards a Non-western Musicological Paradigm,
- Hidden Treasures,
- Gift in Green (translation of Aathi, a novel by Sarah Joseph, the first-ever instance in Indian literary history of a novel being translated concurrently, with the vernacular and English versions being launched simultaneously)
- The Scent of the Other Side (translation of Othappu by Sarah Joseph, which won the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Translation Award for the best translation from all Indian languages to English that year).
Dr. Thampu is inspired by his conviction that religions are the rainbow colours that imply, beyond them, the white radiance of the divine. God is the necessary point of coherence for life luxuriant with iridescent plenitude and inexhaustible diversity. The world will be sane when time is re-engaged with eternity, and the physical is attuned to the metaphysical. The present rupture in creation points to the need for a post-placental adventure of faith towards maturity in the understanding and practice of faith illumined with reason.
Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity enfolds an intimation of the springtime of a new humanity, instinct with the apprehensive yet irrepressible longing for an alternate spiritual vision – the time for which is surely at hand. Details of the book are at https://pipparannbooks.com/book/beyond-religion-imaging-a-new-humanity/
_______________