Progressive Dawoodi Bohras

The Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community has announced the 15th All World Dawoodi Bohra Conference which will be held in Udaipur on March 11-12 at the Lok Kala Mandal auditorium.

The chief guest at the event will be Vajahat Habibullah, the first Chief Information Commissioner of India and ex-chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities. Guests of honour will include social activist Swami Agnivesh, Professor Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, and Indira Jaising, former Additional Solicitor General of India and senior Advocate of the Supreme Court.

Fateh Sagar in Udaipur.

The conference is being held after a gap of five years and is expected to generate a lot of interest worldwide from Dawoodi Bohras and social activists alike. It comes at a time when the Dawoodi Bohra community is witnessing a power struggle among the priesthood as two claimants are vying for the seat of the Dai. Progressive and mainstream Dawoodi Bohras from all over India and the world are expected to attend the event.

Memorial lecture

In tandem with the conference, a seminar is being organised by the Bohra Youth Media Cell of Udaipur to commemorate the 78th birth anniversary of Dr Asghar Ali Engineer. This event, slated for March 10 at the same venue, will involve a memorial lecture on the topic “Relevance of Secularism to Struggles of Oppressed and the Challenges”. Keynote speakers will include Professor Faizan Mustafa, Ved Vyas, president of Rajasthan Progressive Writers Association, Harsh Mander, retired IAS officer and advisor to SC, RTF Secretariat Delhi, and Irfan Engineer, head of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai. Guest of honour will be Swami Agnivesh.