Conception

Two dominant forces were at work in India around the turn of the millennium-globalisation and varied sets of fundamentalism. They were unleashing cataclysmic changes in society and culture in Gujarat and beyond. Gujarat is one of the most developed states in India. The character of its development needed scrutiny. Only robust social research could capture it. Globalisation is generally defined as the network of connections of organisations and peoples across national and cultural borders. The rise of different fundamentalist positions needed to be examined and comprehended.

The Jesuits had long desired to set up a social science research institute in Gujarat. The task of setting it up fell on Lancy Lobo who had worked for 15 years at the Centre for Social Studies (CSS), Surat. On his return to Gujarat from an international fellowship at the Georgetown University, meetings were held with Jesuits of different districts at which the issue of setting up an institute was discussed and later approved. In 2001, Lancy resigned as the Director of CSS and founded this new institute.

After much thought Vadodara was chosen because of several favourable factors: location in central Gujarat, easy accessibility from all sub-regions; well connected by air, road and rail; the seat of the renowned Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda; and the city lacking in social research institutes, unlike Ahmedabad and Surat.

The then Provincial of the Jesuits, Jerry Sequeira, identified a site for CCD in the periphery of Vadodara city, at the Xavier Technical Institute, Sevasi, whose staff quarters were vacant. The campus, lined by huge trees, is somewhat cooler than the city, and its building was designed by the well-known architect Hasmukh Patel, known for exposed brick walls. Though it was not entirely suitable, a decision was taken to customise and renovate it to use it for a few years.