City to get centre for oriental studies

Guwahati: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said Guwahati would soon get a centre for oriental studies.
He made the announcement at the 47th session of the All India Oriental Conference which began at Gauhati University (GU) on Friday.
Gogoi said the centre would attract scholars, especially from south east Asia, to the city.
“The centre for oriental studies will come up in Guwahati,” Gogoi said.He added that he may give up to Rs 5 crore to build the institute in the city.
"It is the time we started looking east," the chief minister added.
General president of the conference, Radhavallabh Tripathi, appreciated work done by western scholars to sustain oriental studies, but added that research in the Asian countries should assume equal importance and be accorded equal stature.
He said scholars from Asia should be able to match the contribution of their western counterparts and offer critiques and counter-questionings on the subject.
“Oriental learning should essentially belong to us, who reside in the ‘orient’, and must be cultivated by us as a major concern. We should be able to tell the west about oriental culture, wisdom and civilization, instead of the other way round,” Tripathi said.
GU vice-chancellor Mridul Hazarika laid emphasis on Chinese and Japanese issues at the conference. He termed India and China ‘lands of ancient wisdom’ and stressed on popularizing studies on the two countries.