Shaunaka Rishi Das

Shaunaka Rishi Das
Board Of Governor's Dinner 2010
Born	18 February 1961
Alma mater	St Peter's College, Wexford
Home town	Wexford
Title	Director, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Term	1997 - present
Spouse(s)	Keshava Kiernan 1958-2013
Relatives	Kitty Kiernan (first cousin twice removed)

Shaunaka Rishi Das (born 18 February 1961 as Timothy Kiernan) is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), a position he has held since the Centre's foundation in 1997. He is a Hindu cleric, a lecturer, a broadcaster, and Hindu Chaplain to Oxford University. His interests include education, comparative theology, communication, and leadership. He is a member of The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, convened in 2013 by the Woolf Institute, Cambridge. In 2013 the Indian government appointed him to sit on the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation. Keshava, Rishi Das's wife of 27 years, died in December 2013.

As Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies he maintains the vision and ethos of the OCHS and encourages the Centre’s continued growth and development in all spheres. In this role he oversaw the formal recognition of the OCHS by Oxford University in 2006, and developed the Centre's publishing partnerships with Oxford University Press, Journal of Hindu Studies, and with the Routledge Hindu Studies Series. He has also been responsible for forging formal relationships between the OCHS and Universities in the USA, Europe, India, and China. He is the first Hindu Chaplain to Oxford University in its 800-year history.

He is a regular broadcaster, making the Hindu contribution to 'Prayer for the Day' on BBC Radio 4 since 2007. He was also a participant in the popular History of the World in 100 Objects series broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and published by Allen Lane. He has acted as a consultant for a number of documentaries on Hindu culture and traditions. He has written articles for The Guardian and The Independent newspapers, Business India, and has written the Hindu entry for the Annual Register since 2004.

Shaunaka Rishi Das, by way of an invitation to the International Colloquium of Christians and Jews, was introduced to the world of inter-religious dialogue, in 1985, by the then Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Rabbi David Rosen. From that time he developed a personal interest, and played an active part in such dialogue. He was an early member of the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum, acting as its Chairman from 1998 to 2002. From 2002 -2004 he was a trustee and executive member of The Interfaith Network UK, and from 1998-2004 acted as a consultant to the International Interfaith Centre, Oxford.

Rishi Das has been a pioneer in promoting interfaith and comparative theological dialogue in his own community. As the first Convenor of the ISKCON Interfaith Commission (1997–2010) he led the consultation which resulted in the publication of ISKCON's Statement on Relating with People of Faith in God, which has been translated into six languages, and forms part of the course curriculum at Bhaktivedanta College, Belgium.