RECEPTION COMMITTEE
Dr. SHANTA .V
Chairperson
Smt. Akhila Srinivasan
MEMBER
Smt. Hema Gopal
MEMBER
Dr. Kamala Selvaraj
MEMBER
Dr. Preetha Reddy
MEMBER
Dr. Nivedita R. Bhide
MEMBER
Smt. Vanitha Mohan
MEMBER
Smt. Rajalakshmi.R
Secretary
Organising Committee
Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam
Chairperson
Smt. Akhila Srinivasan
Vice-Chairperson
Smt. Hema Gopal
Vice-Chairperson
Dr. Kamala Selvaraj
Vice-Chairperson
Dr. Preetha Reddy
Vice-Chairperson
Dr. Nivedita R. Bhide
Vice-Chairperson
Smt. Vanitha Mohan
Vice-Chairperson
Smt. Rajalakshmi.R
Secretary
Smt. Arthi Ganesh
Smt. Aruna Sairam
Smt. Bharathi Thirumagan
Smt. Chandra Kantha Gariyali, IAS (Retd)
Dr. Chitra Thangavel
Smt. Chitra Visweswaran
Smt. Ilampirai Manimaran
Dr. Jaya Venugopal
Smt. Indra Subramaniam
Dr. Lakshmi. K.S.
Dr. Nachiyar
Smt. Nallammai Ramanathan
MEMBERS
Dr. Nirmala Prasad
Smt. Nithyasree Mahadevan
Dr. Prema Pandurang
Smt. Priyadarshini Govind
Smt. Rajini Reddy
Smt. Rani Muralidharan
Smt. Dr. Y.G. Parthasarathy
Smt. Sheela Balaji
Smt. Thangam Meganathan
Smt. Uma Kannan
Dr. Vasanthi Badrinath
Dr. Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan
Logistics Committee
Sri. T. Chakravarthy
Sri. P. Ganapathy
Sri. S. Gurumurthy
Sri. K. Prabhakar
Sri. Sharon Rammohan
Dr. Sumanth C. Raman
Sri. U. Sundar
Dr. S. Vaidyasubramaniam
Swami Vivekananda 150
Women’s Initiative[sv150wi]
How to prepare
Indian women
to lead the world
What is “modernity”?
 Western modernity [or Western anthropological modernity] is extremely
dangerous. It
 Regards individual rights that override the family interests – as anthropological
evolution
 Celebrates sexual freedom – as women's liberation
 Treats teenage sex and pregnancy – as acceptable
 Views neglect of you parents and the infirm by your children – as inevitable
 Clubs Women, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders [LGBT] – as allied
groups
 Treats all those who disagree with these as un-modern, backward and inferior
 In short, modernity celebrates a woman's external body and discards her inner
spiritual core
Result: See the state of the
“Modern” women in West
41% of the babies in US and 47% in UK are for
unmarried women and teenagers
55% of the first, 67% of the second and 74% of the third
marriages in US end in divorce
51% of US families are without father and mother
living together -- “fatherless America”
As 60% Americans are unmarried, US President's
announces National Marriage Project;
The population-to-rape-ratio in US is 80 times India's
UK's 120 times.
Superficial Indian understanding of
West-centric “Modernity”
Indian
understanding
about
modernity is India is limited to
western dress and English language –
both mixed a vague idea of equality of
sexes.
But this is superficial.
W
Proved:
Yet “Modern” Women in
west are an unhappy lot
A 2009 Study of US and Europe by economists
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers focusing
on the period from the 1970s to the mid-2000s
when 2nd wave of feminism took place, found
women had become less happy than they were
before, despite economic independence.
Why this happened to the
West?
This perversion of life, family, men and women occurred
due to unbridled individuals rights for all with no sense of
duty to each other or to the family. Family relations are
reduced to choices and contracts – with no cultural
obligations.
Result: The care of aged, infirm and unemployed has
become government responsibility leading to virtual
nationalisation of the families and bankruptcy of
governments.
Life sans responsibilities has perverted individual
character and made men and women purposeless.
Educated Indian women need to realise
they are different
Despite all odds Indian women have kept family traditions,
culture and values in functional form -- preserving the
relation-based life that takes care of the elders, infirm and
unemployed and educating children. The family is the most
vibrant socio-cultural and socio-economic institution in
India.
With traditional cultural obligations driving the family life,
the Indian family savings has gone up from 19% of the GDP in
1991 to 29% of the GDP in 2009 and that is the backbone of
the Indian economy, says Goldman Sachs. Thanks to this,
with very little foreign investment, India's growth rate rose
up to almost 10% -- to shock the world.
West-centric modernity – threat to
Indian women
Young Indians wrongly equate and limit modernity to fashionable
clothes and western manners, urban habits and the English language.
In India as Indian women leaders, intellectuals and media are assuming
Westernisation as modernisation.
But the Japanese modernise without westernising by Nihonjhindron or
Japaneseness; so does China by Neo-Confucianism........
And so India should modernise without Westernisation.
There is the danger of Indian womanhood being perverted by Western
modernisation soon, unless attended immediately. Indian women also
need to protect their girls and children from the perversive aspects of
western modernity which trivialise women and destroys families.
Declining West & Rising Asia
and India
With the economic crisis of 2008, the West is declining
socially culturally and economically.
 Now the economic power is shifting to India which led
the world for 1700 years and India and China to share
super power status with US by 2030 – says the
National Intelligence Council of US.
 The west has now been weakened by cultural
degeneration which has led to economic decline. This
has imposed a huge global responsibility on India and
Indian women.
wake up
the Indian women to realise their
power
Indian womanhood is Indian women's gift to the world. The
rising India's soft power is already impacting on the West which
bas begun listening to India [see Lisa Miller's article in News
Week] – a U-turn from Indians listening to the West. This
development coincides with the 150 birth anniversary of Swami
Vivekananda who envisioned India rising as the Global Power
and it is being realised today.
In the sacred birth anniversary of the greatest spiritual
nationalist son of India the SV150WI is seeding the thought
“Indian Women as the guide for the World at cross roads” to
prepare the Indian women for this momentous task.
Convention on
23 January 2014
As the first step, the SV150WI plans to hold a massive women's
convention on 23rd January 2014 at Gnanananda Hall (Narada
Gana Sabha, TTK Road, Alwarpet) Chennai on 150th Birth
Anniversary of the Swamiji consisting of women who are
educated and achievers in diverse fields – Artistes, Musicians,
Doctors, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, Company
Executives, Businesspersons and others – on the Theme.
The Convention will constitute the Vivekananda150 Women's
Foundation to carry forward the work.