Home
People
Organizations
Events
Themes
Oral Histories
Learning Resources
World Congress of Faiths
‐
A conference in which matters related to religion and spirituality were discussed by international speakers from various faith groups
Place of event
University College, London
About
The World Congress of Faiths was a descendant of the Parliament of Religions Congress held in 1893 in Chicago (attended by Swami Vivekananda). A Second Parliament of Religions was held in 1933 in Chicago, organized by Kedar Nath Das Gupta and Charles Weller. Francis Younghusband attended this Congress and through discussions the idea arose to have a Congress in London in 1936.
A number of international speakers were invited to the Congress, which sought to discuss spiritual matters and was held at University College, London. The committee for the Congress was headed by the International President, the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda, but the British National Chairman was Sir Francis Younghusband. After the success of the Congress, the World Fellowship of Faiths based in the UK decided to break away from the American parent organization and ran annual congresses such as those in Oxford in 1937, Cambridge in 1938 and Paris in 1939.
Albion Banerji, Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda, Kedar Nath Das Gupta, Khalifa-Tul Masih, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Denison Ross, Ranjee Shahani, Charles Weller, Francis Younghusband, Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
Braybrooke, Marcus, A Wider Vision: A History of the World Congress of Faiths 1936–1996 (Oxford: One World, 1996)
Sir Francis Younghusband papers, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
British Newspaper Archive
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
