Monday, September 29, 2008

17 unmesh


A Two–Days
National Seminar
on
Pilgrimage Tourism in India
(Past Present and Future)
Hkkjr esa rhFkZi;ZVu@rhFkZ;k=k
(Hkwr] orZeku ,oe~ Hkfo";)
Sponsored by UGC
March 12 - 13 , 2008

Dear Sir/Madam ...............................................,
Departments of Commerce, History and Sanskrit of this college cordially invite you to participate and present a paper in a two–days National Seminar being held on the above said date. You are requested to send an advance copy of your paper (one hard copy and one soft copy in Page Maker 6.5/7 or MS-Office, Font : Arial Unicode 12 pts. in English or 14 Pts. Hindi or e-mail only) along with Abstract as we are going to publish them before the seminar.
We invite you to deliberate on this topic in the light of your own experiences and the subject you are presently teaching. It is our humble objective to evaluate the concept of Pilgrimage Tourism through an inter–disciplinary observations and find a better needful understanding. We are sure that such an interaction between different subjects and individuals can raise hope for a better future where Pilgrimage tourism and cultural ethos may exist in real sense.
You are kindly requested to choose a topic of your conviction and convenience.
Kindly submit your paper latest by Feb. 10,2008.
You will be provided boarding and lodging.
Delegation fee : Rs 200 e-mail : sd.sanskrit@yahoo.co.in



Pilgrimage Tourism in India
(Past, Present and Future)
Hkkjr esa rhFkZi;ZVu@rhFkZ;k=k
(Hkwr] orZeku ,oe~ Hkfo";)

Idea of the seminar
Tourism in India has not only established itself as an industry by providing economic and commercial opportunities to the people but also work as a strong pillar for democratic norms, national integration and secular-values, education methodology and social behavior. Not only this, tourism also work as a corrective method to the issue of the identity to the religious groups, adventure loving groups and other economic groups of the society. Keeping in view the different dimensions of the tourism one must be aware about the basic socio-cultural and economic background because only then sensible policies can be framed so that tourism should be a tool to positive socio-economic change and not an unplanned industry. Tourism as an industry must not be allowed to play havoc with the environment, of local ways of life-style and living. Unplanned tourism development is neither good for the country nor for the people. The government policies must fall in line with the Indian norms, values and identity. Tourism of late has been a tool of economic development and has been able to generate lots of business opportunities but what price we as a nation, society and environmentalist are paying. Comprehensive guidelines for tourism are the need of the hour only then tourism would be able to sell itself to the tourist — foreigner or local because tourist is interested either peace and comfort or adventure or the mystery of the place.
India as country and as a culture certainly mystifies not only foreigners but also locals too because from geographical point of view it offers lots of unexplored places and from cultural angle it mesmerizes, so looking from the philosophical angle one needs to understand what makes India so interesting. What makes India to survive even after all invasions - external and internal, modem and ancient, in the history of mankind? Of so many reasons one reason which has helped to sustain India and its identity is the pilgrimage which has very long tradition in the terms of history, mythology, religious rituals and places. One needs to investigate the philosophical, psychological and sociological practices of this Indian Pilgrimage Tourism in order to make the tourism policies more sensible, practical and accountable.
Pilgrimage means a journey to a so called sacred place and a person who makes a journey to that place is known as a 'Pilgrim'. In Hindi Pilgrimage means ‘Tirth Yatra.’ The place of Pilgrimage is referred as Pilgrim centre or ‘Tirth Esthan’. The importance of Pilgrimage is recognized by almost all religions of the world though the meaning and nature of Pilgrimage varies from individual to individual and from religion to religion and region to region.
India is a secular country that is a land of many religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism etc. Every religion has its own Pilgrim centers and these are spread through out the length and breadth of the country. For Example famous Hindu Pilgrimages include Amamath, Char Dham Yatra, Vaishnodevi, Gangotri, Yamunotri, four Kumbh places, shaktipeethas etc. and Pilgrim places of Islam include Dargah at Ajmer etc. The Pilgrim centers associated with Sikhism includes Golden Temple at Amritsar; Hemkund Sahib in Uttaranchal, Anandpur Sahib Etc. Buddhist Pilgrim centres includes Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Vaishali, etc.
Pilgrimage serves many purposes but the main importance of Pilgrimage lies in its contribution towards the enhancement of National Integration. There may be many motives behind Pilgrimage. Some of these are listed below :
l Pilgrims may undertake Pilgrimage to get so called blessings or to seek fulfilment of one’s wishes from the concept of God/Goddess.
l Pilgrims perceive that they can get ‘Moksha’ by visiting to a sacred place and may be liberated from the continuous cycle of birth and rebirth.
l Pilgrims undertakes Pilgrimage so that they can get a glimpse of their deity i.e. to get a ‘darshan’ of deity as they think that deity would protect them in case of any difficulty.
l Pilgrimage is also marked by the devotees so that their wishes could be fulfilled by a supernatural power known as God.
l Pilgrimage is marked after the fulfilment of a wish from the concept of God and to convey him thanks.
l Devotees also visit to a Pilgrim centre as to pay the respect to the God or to simply mark an attendance in the front of God.
l Pilgrimage is also recommended in some religions. For example, in Islam, it is said that every Muslim should go, if one has money, on Hajj at least once in one’s lifetime.
l Pilgrimages are also marked during some Fair and Festivals. For example, during Navratra fair tihere is a great rush of pilgrims to sacred shrine of Vaishnodevi, Mansa Devi etc. During the time of Urs great rush can be seen at the Dargah at Ajmer.
l Pilgrims may have curiosity, fun and adventure in Pilgrimage Tourism without any emotional devotion towards the concept of popular religious concepts.
There is an urgent need to discuss these issues at the seminar so that pilgrimage tourism along with economic development may be given a direction in such a way that it expands without creating environmental hazards.
Suggested Topics :-
1. Historical development of pilgrimage tourism
2. Pilgrimage in Vedic and pauranic literature
3. Pilgrimage as source of Nationalism
4. Traditions of pilgrimage in India
5. Practices of Pilgrimage in different Religions.
6. Major Pilgrimage Centers and Economic Development
7. Consumer Behavior of Pilgrims.
8. Socio-Economic Study of different religious Pilgrims
9. Pilgrimage Tourism Industry and Environmental Issues.
10. Tourism Management with special reference to Pilgrimage Tourism
11. Perception and Objectives of Pilgrims
12. Marketing of Pilgrimage
13. Pilgrimage Governance
14. Role of Local Self Govt. at Pilgrimage - Problems, Challenges and Solutions
15. Pilgrimage as a source of Entrepreneurship in Tour & Travels and Hotel Industry
16. Pilgrimage as a source of Foreign Exchange
17. Pilgrimage Tourism and Transportation - Opportunities, Problems and Challenges
18. Pilgrimage and secularism
19. Historical importance of Pilgrimage Centres of India.
20. laLd`r lkfgR; esa ;k=k lkfgR; dk vonku
21. 'kkDr ,oe~ 'kSo ihB&;k=k,a
22. rhFkZ ;k=k,¡ ,oe~ /keZ ;k=k,¡
23. Hkkjr ds lkaLd`frd fuekZ.k esa ;k=kvksa dk ;ksxnku
24. iqjk.kksa esa rhFkZ;k=kvksa dk Lo:i
25. Mythology and Pilgrimage

No comments: