by Johan Englen

In this last week, Drury has played host to two important intellectuals from India: journalist Suman Chattopadhyay and musician Prabuddha Raha. Both will be holding free cultural events about their home country that students can attend.

“[Prabuddha] Raha is a highly recognized musician in West Bengal, India,” said Drury chaplain and professor of philosophy and religion, Peter Browning.

His music is based on traditional Indian folk but has overtones of western music style. His use of piano in particular creates a blended nature to his music. Having traveled the world and listened to many different pieces of international music, his music is a mix of east and west.

Raha has been on campus all of this past week. On Tuesday, Oct. 10 he participated in a discussion about Hinduism and on Wednesday Oct. 11 he was a guest lecturer in one of professor Stephen Bomgardner’s music classes.

The main reason Raha is visiting Drury is to play in a free concert on campus this weekend, called “Music Mind”. The concert will be at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 in Clara Thompson Hall.

While the concert is free, donations are encouraged. The funds will support the tribal school in Khatguria, West Bengal, India. The school provides education to the children of a tribal village which would otherwise never have any kind of formal education.

Suman Chattopadhyay, the other Indian intellectual to visit Drury this past week, is a senior journalist in India and in the state of West Bengal. He describes himself as, “An old school professional journalist who abhors activism.”

He has spent over three and a half decades working in the media and has been an editor for several major newspapers and television stations in West Bengal. He has covered the war in Afghanistan, the civil wars in Sri Lanka, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the transformation of China under Deng Xiao Ping. He is a strict objectivist and takes pride in only reporting facts, not opinions.

The Asian studies program and the history, philosophy, and religion department are sponsoring a free, informal talk by Chattopadhyay entitled, “The Role of Hinduism in Today’s India”. The talk will be held in the Hoblit suite at noon on Monday, Oct. 16. There will be free lunch for attendees.

Retired Drury professor Rabindra Roy and current Drury professor of education Protima Roy, related as brother and sister, are hosting both Raha and Chattopadhyay during their stay in Springfield and initially encouraged the trip partly to bring attention to their humanitarian projects in rural India. In Khatguria Durgapur, West Bengal, they have built the Protima Child & Woman Development Centre as a skills development center for adults and for the formal education of children. The center is vital to the people, as it is the only source of education in the tribal area. However, the center still needs funds for operations, upgrades and to continue its service to the community.