Rare honour for Malayali

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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KOCHI: B Vivekanandan, former chairman of the Centre for American and West European Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), ha..

KOCHI: B Vivekanandan, former chairman of the Centre for American and West European Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), has become the first Indian to be conferred with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Sciences (DSc) by the 350-year-old Helsinki University of Finland.
Vivekanandan has been presented with a Hat of Wisdom, a Sword of Truth and a Diploma by Seppo Hentila, the conferrer of the honorary doctorate. Another celebrity to receive the honour was Paavo Lipponen, former Prime Minister of Finland.The degree is awarded with a formal red carpet welcome, ceremonial guard of honour, sword whetting ceremony, colourful procession, street march, sword in hand and hat on head. It is customary that during the sword whetting ceremony (the whetting of the sword with a traditional hand operated whet stone mounted on a wooden frame with an ornately clad attendant pouring champagne over it), the honorary doctorate holders should make a speech in their mother tongue. On the occasion, Vivekanandan gave a speech in Malayalam, later giving its English version to the audience. The conferment ceremony was held in the Great Hall of Helsinki University and was attended by 600 dignitaries, including the President of Finland.

In the domain of fundamental research, University of Helsinki is rated on a par with Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as a University of Excellence in Europe. During the last three and a half centuries, Helsinki University is holding the grand conferment ceremony once in five years, and the honorary doctorates have been conferred with outstanding personalities from all over the world.