July 5

All the students had arrived by the 5th thus making it possible to commence the workshop officially. We started off with a trip to visit the Qutb Minar complex, North India’s first mosque after the Islamic Ghorid conquest of India. Cathy led the tour and discussed the monument in terms of its historical context. After lunch two scholars made presentations to begin orientating the students to India, its culture and history. Dr. T.N. Madan, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, discussed the regions of India with a special emphasis on the growth of Islam in Bengal and Kashmir, regions where there was mass conversion to Islam. Narayani Gupta focused on a discussion of regions and languages in India. We all had dinner at the Guest House.

~Cathy