By Matters India Reporter

Bengaluru, March 9, 2020: The Department of Women’s Studies of the United Theological College (UTC) celebrated 25 years of its existence along with the celebration of the International Day of Women on March 8.

The department has played a bit role in the lives of generations, and has had an international impact as many of its scholars are found all over the world, distinguishing themselves in teaching, pastoral service, and in working in institutions both at home and abroad, said Rev. Vincent Rajkumar, director, Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (CISRS).

The UTC is a Protestant seminary founded in 1910 situated in the southern city of Bengaluru, capital of Karnataka state.

The anniversary is a landmark, said Cynthia Stephen, writer, and a social activist.

Addressing the gathering, Stephen said, “During the long tenure of Principal Dr. Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar of UTC, I had many opportunities to share my ideas with the scholars in the department and did some collaborative activities. One of the most important of these was the two-day consultation in 2006 on ‘Dalit Women: Leadership and Beyond.’”

It was here that the first steps were taken to framing a new language to articulate the experience of Dalit women who had been in the struggle for gender justice with a women’s movement which did not seem to mainstream their existential realities, she added.

The present Principal of UTC, Vasantha Rao and his wife felicitated Stephen.

“It was here that I first applied the term Womanism to the experience of the marginalized women. The Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) statement was first drafted and released here, a historic document that articulated the concerns, asserted the beliefs and affirmed the solidarity of the marginalized people with each other, whether male or female, Adivasi, tribal or non-Dalit,” Stephen said.

DAWN is a network of feminist scholars, researchers and activists from the economic South working for economic and gender justice and sustainable and democratic development.

A Catholic nun, Sister Shalini Mulackal, a member of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Union of Sisters) congregation and former president of the Indian Theological Association, also addressed the gathering.

A large number of current scholars, distinguished guests and alumni attended the occasion.