The seminar was held as part of events dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Russian Academic Oriental Studies.
It was organized for the most part by Kazan Federal University, Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies, Center of Indian Studies (Kazan, Russia), Maharashtra Historical and Cultural Research Institute (Mumbai, India), Russian-Indian Friendship Society «DISHA» (Moscow, Russia), «Tatarstan-India» Center of House of People’s Friendship of the Republic of Tatarstan (Kazan, Russia).
The event was announced on the initiative of the Indian counterpart and supported by the Russian partners as Interdisciplinary international meeting with recognized Indian scholars to discuss philological, historical, culturological, scientific and educational research in Indology, current problems of long-standing and contemporary connections of Russian Federation and Republic of Tatarstan with Republic of India.
The Organizing Committee was represented as follows: Chairpersons of the Organizing Committee – Latypov Linar, Vice-Rector for International Relations of Kazan Federal University; Takhtarova Svetlana, Deputy Director for International Relations of Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies of Kazan Federal University; Khabibullina Elmira – Director of Higher School of International Relations and Oriental Studies. Secretary of the seminar – Bobkov Dmitriy, member of staff of Center of Indian Studies of Kazan Federal University, Teacher of Hindi.
In the first part, a Ceremonial reception was held for Indian and special Russian guests in the main building of Kazan Federal University. Doctor Pradeep Singh – Secretary of Maharashtra Historical and Cultural Research Institute, other Indian guests presented welcome speeches. They saw a video presentation about Kazan Federal University, made a tour around the Museum of History of the University, the Imperial Hall and University campus. Photo and video coverage was provided.
The seminar continued at Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies. Director of J. Nehru Cultural Center of Embassy of India in Russian Federation Mr. D. Jeysundhar and the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee Vice-Rector Linar Latypov officially welcomed the participants. Rameshwar Singh – Doctor, Head of Russian-Indian Friendship Society «DISHA», made a report «Prospects of friendship between Russia and India». Director of «Tatarstan-India» Center Ishtiaq Ahmad congratulated the participants. Introduction of Department of Oriental Studies was made by its head Alim Abidulin and Hindi students. Guzel Mratkhuzina, Director of Center of Indian Studies of Kazan Federal University, delivered a report «Kazan school of Indology: continuity of traditions». Both parties presented letters of gratitude and gifts. The guests sent their greetings to Director of Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies Ramil Khairutdinov with the request to present him a lapel badge «70th anniversary of establishing Russian-Indian diplomatic relations».
The working session included presentation and reports by participants in Russian, English and Hindi languages. Among the participants of the seminar and their reports, we can mention the following:
Arun Srivastava – visiting professor (Varanasi, India). Topic: «Importance of historical records and manuscripts of the National Archives of India».
Meenu Sharma – doctor, teacher of Hindi at J. Nehru Cultural Center of Embassy of India in Moscow (Moscow, Russia); teacher of Hindi at Directorate of Education (Delhi, India). Topic: «Russia as I see it».
Boris Zakharyin – professor, head of Department of Indian Philology of Institute of Asian and African Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia). Topic: «Experience in teaching Hindi in Moscow State University».
Ludmila Khokhlova – assistant professor of Department of Indian Philology of Institute of Asian and African Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia). Topic: «Role of native language in self-identification of ethnic groups in modern India».
Guzel Strelkova – assistant professor of Department of Indian Philology of Institute of Asian and African Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia). Topic: «Studying and teaching the Marathi language in Russia».
Ekaterina Panina – assistant professor of Department of Indian Philology of Institute of Asian and African Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia). Topic: «Hindi in contemporary humanities: traditions and innovations in education».
Leena Sarin – researcher of Moscow State Pedagogical University (Moscow, Russia). Topic: «Impressions of the exhibition of Vasiliy Vereschagin at Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow».
Daniel Mratkhuzin – student of Asian and African literatures and languages (Hindi language), Kazan Federal University (Kazan, Russia). Topic: «First achievements of Kazan School of Young Indologist».
Reports were also delivered by teachers of Department of Oriental, African and Islamic Studies, Department of Theory of Translation for International Relations of Kazan Federal University.