Balvant Parekh Centre for
General Semantics and
Other Human Sciences
Who We are
About Balvant Parekh Centre
Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences is an academic and research centre that conducts research in the area of human sciences with special focus on general semantics and organizes academic events in collaboration with universities and institutes across India. The centre was set up on March 15, 2009 with the generous support provided by Shri Balvant Parekh, who was then the Chairman of Pidilite Industries, Mumbai and his family.
The Centre is registered as a charitable trust under the provisions of Bombay Public Trusts Act of 1950 and administered by a Board of Trust with members from diverse backgrounds and experiences. The Centre aims to promote the study of general semantics and other human sciences in India. The Centre is included in the Directory of Programs, Centers and Projects, of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP) housed at UC Berkeley. To disseminate the knowledge of General Semantics among university students, the Department of English & CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, has been set up as the nodal Centre for Balvant Parekh Centre. This nodal Centre currently exists as the only university-level department in the world to formally teach courses in General Semantics.
The Centre houses a library with over 12000 books and reading rooms, a conference hall, a seminar room and an administrative office. It shares these facilities with the Forum on Contemporary Theory, which is also involved in academic activities of inter-disciplinary nature.
Both the Centre and the Forum work in close proximity and complement each other through their academic events and research works.The Centre’s library is meant for the use of both serious academics interested in research and common readers. The library has two sections: general and specialized. Books from the general section could be borrowed by the members; books from the specialized section are meant to be used in the library only. The library is kept open from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday through Saturday.
Our Publications
Academic Programmes and Publications
The Centre organises several academic programmes throughout the year in Baroda and across the country, which include an annual Balvant Parekh Memorial Lecture, workshops and seminars in general semantics and related topics, symposia and certificate courses in collaboration with other educational institutions.
The Balvant Parekh Distinguished Lecture was renamed as Balvant Parekh Memorial Lecture after the passing away of Balvantbhai on January 25, 2013.
The Centre used to publish Newsletters twice a year. Since 2016, it has published an Annual Report. The Centre brings out books on General Semantics and allied areas from time to time. Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought, a biannual journal is also published by the Centre.
