ICSD President’s Tribute to Shanti K. Khinduka

I was familiar with the name Professor Shanti K. Khinduka through social work and social development literature. I first met him at the 13th International Symposium of the Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development (IUCISD), now the International Consortium for Social Development, held in Mumbai, India, from December 29, 2003 to January 02, 2004, which was hosted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and other collaborators. Under his presidential leadership of IUCISD, the Asia Pacific branch of the IUCISD was established in this 13th symposium. I recall with pleasure my initial encounters with Prof. Khinduka. Despite his several engagements in the symposium, Prof. Khinduka offered me a window of opportunity to meet him in person, and I invited him to visit the Charles Sturt University in Australia to speak to our Social Work students, which he did so kindly in 2004. Since then, I have significantly gained from my interactions with Prof. Khinduka, for the profession and my personal and professional life.

In the 14th IUCISD International Symposium, held in Recife, Brazil, on July 25–29, 2005, at the Asia Pacific branch meeting, I was asked to lead in developing the branch. In this symposium, the name change was announced from IUCISD to the International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) to open up the organization and to make it explicitly more inclusive for interdisciplinary social development scholars and practitioners globally. Along with branch colleagues, we organized the first ICSD Asia Pacific branch conference, “globalization, development, and human security in the Asia-Pacific region,” in Pattaya, Thailand, on October 18–20, 2006. As we did not have adequate funds, with minimal support from the organizers, Prof. Khinduka agreed to travel to Pattaya to deliver a keynote address (Pawar, 2017). This evinced his keen interest in and commitment to supporting and building the branch.

In 2016–17, when I was preparing to assume the role of the president of the ICSD, we held a pre-symposium workshop at the 20th biennial symposium of the ICSD, organized by the University of Zagreb, Croatia, from July 7–11, 2017. The survey findings of the ICSD members were discussed at the workshop to develop a strategic plan for the ICSD (Pawar & Androff, 2021). Prof. Khinduka not only significantly contributed to the workshop deliberations but also generally donated US$ 300 to increase the membership of the ICSD. This act of generosity inspired a couple of ICSD colleagues to follow suit. Later, ICSD twice received an unsolicited generous donation of US$ 500 from Prof. Khinduka.

Inspired by his commitment to the ideals of social development, Prof. Khinduka’s family members, wife, Mrs. Manorama and daughters Abha and Seema, asked ICSD to establish the Shanti K. Khinduka Lecture in Social Development as a mark of their love and esteem for him and generously donated US$ 10,000 to endow the lecture in perpetuity (Mrs Khinduka’s letter dated June 19, 2009). As the president of the ICSD, it is of immense academic pleasure to see these lectures delivered at the ICSD biennial international conferences by top-notch social development thinkers. In this special issue, two such lectures by world-renowned social development thinkers, Prof. Leila Patel and Prof. James Midgley, are included. As every lecture depletes the dedicated fund for the lecture, recently, Prof. Khinduka further contributed more than US$ 2000 to the lecture fund and advised the ICSD to increase the honorarium from US$ 400 to $ 700 to speakers who deliver this prestigious lecture. Under the guidance of Prof. Khniduka, our Treasurer, Prof. Benjamin Lough has made arrangements to carefully invest this dedicated fund for the Shanti K. Khinduka Lecture in Social Development in perpetuity.

As per the ethos of the ICSD, along with the ICSD colleagues, I led the digitization of all volumes of Social Development Issues, 1977–2021, to spread the knowledge of social development worldwide through the online medium. Prof. Khinduka was one of the speakers to launch the digitized issues online on Saturday, December 11, 2021. In his launch speech, Prof. Khinduka observed (ICSD Newsletter, 2021) as follows: “SDI is a journal of alternatives. It should remain a journal of ideas and not the ideology… It should help overcome the intellectual marginalization of people… a part of the ICSD’s goal is to develop knowledge, and it is now taking this historic step to democratize and better disseminate that knowledge. So, this is a great moment for this organization…”

In a rare session on Honoring the Pioneers, organized during the 15th ICSD Biennial International Symposium, Transforming Society: Trends and Models, in Community Leadership and Social Development, held in Singapore, from July 7 to 10, 2015, for recapitulating the history of the ICSD, Prof. David Hollister noted that among others, Prof. Shanti K. Khinduka has been associated with ICSD from its inception. When a Memorandum of Agreement to form the Midwest University Consortium for International Social Development (MUCISD, this was ICSD’s original name) was finalized in 1974, Prof. Khinduka was one of the seven board of directors and the inaugural chair of the board (Hollister, 2015). As noted elsewhere, he was the president of the ICSD from 2001 to 2005.

Being part of the formation and dedicating to the consortium for half a century, from MUCISD to IUCISD to ICSD, simply shows the vision and virtues of Shanthi K. Khinduka, which are worth emulating. Of that vast time, I have appeared only in a small part (less than 40% of the time), though that time and experience with Prof. Khinduka have been highly valuable to me.

In my two decades of personal and professional association with him, I have found a true mentor, guide, and friend in Prof. Khinduka. As the president of the ICSD, and as well as in my personal and professional capacity, I would like to pay rich tributes to Prof. Shani K. Khinduka for his distinguished and generous contributions to social work and social development knowledge, educational institutions, and professional bodies, including ICSD, and social work and social development scholars throughout the world.

I also would like to sincerely thank Prof. Brij Mohan for his leadership as the Editor of the Social Development Issues, and for conceptualizing, proposing, and bringing to fruition this special issue in honor of Prof. Shanti Khinduka.

Manohar Pawar, Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work and Arts, Charles Sturt University, Australia; and President, International Consortium for Social Development. He can be contacted at mpawar@csu.edu.au.