The Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad (UoH), jointly with The Alladi Memorial Trust, organised ‘Justice Umamaheswaram Memorial Lecture’ on 20 February 2025, Thursday at 5:30 PM in CV Raman Auditorium, UoH.
The Alladi Memorial Trust sponsored the lecture to honour the memory of Justice K Umamheswaram (1903-1965), former Judge of the Madras High Court, Andhra High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court. The lecture was held under the “Law and Religion Series” of The Alladi Memorial Trust.
Other speakers who delivered this lecture earlier include eminent people such as Justice Ranganath Misra, Justice M. N. Rao, Mr K. G. Kannabiran, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Prof. Mushirul Hassan, Prof. Javed Alam, Mr. K. Parasaran and Mr. Suhrith Parthasarathy.
Titled, ‘Indian Judiciary’s Response to Rights of Linguistic and Religious Minorities’, The Umamaheswaram Memorial Lecture on last Thursday was delivered by Prof. Faizan Mustafa, a prominent legal scholar and public intellectual – currently the Vice Chancellor, National Law University, Patna. Prof. Pushpesh Kumar, Department of Sociology presided over the event.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Mustafa emphasised that “As we consider religions as remnants of history, it is crucial to adopt a forward- thinking perspective. An overemphasis on religious fervor and its public display can undermine true spirituality.”
He touched upon various facets of articles 26, 29 and 30 of the constitution, with the clear message that the true prosperity of any country would be possible only when the sections of citizens with minority status are fully included in the development planning, political processes and resource allocation. Young students in the audience responded very enthusiastically to the lecture and interacted with the speaker during the question-and-answer session at the end.
While Prof. Alladi Uma introduced the speaker and gave a brief background to the lecture series, Prof. M. Sridhar offered the vote of thanks and expressed their gratitude to the university administration for continued support and collaboration with the Alladi Memorial Trust over the years.