Blackfriars Alumnus Recognised in Queen’s New Year Honours List
10th February 2020
Dr Ramesh Pattni was awarded the OBE by Her Majesty the Queen for services to interfaith relations and the Hindu community in the UK. Ramesh first came up to Blackfriars in 2010 for his MSt in Religious Studies and stayed on to take a DPhil in Theology, which he completed in 2016.
On hearing the news, Dr Pattni said:
I am delighted and humbled. My sincere gratitude goes to my inspiration and spiritual guide, Swami Chinmayananda … to my parents … and to my wife and children who have allowed me to dedicate time and space in service to others. This award is shared with all those who have been part of my life and my work in interfaith relations and with the Hindu community.
Dr Pattni is now Tutor at Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Vice President and Trustee of Chinmaya Mission, Vice President of Hindu Forum Britain, and a Trustee of DAWN.
As chair of Interfaith, Hindu Forum Britain, he, together with eight other contributors in the UK, received an invitation to a private luncheon with Her Majesty the Queen in 2013.
Having dedicated much of his personal time and efforts to interfaith relations in the UK, Dr Pattni volunteers as a trustee of the Interfaith Network UK. He founded and co-chaired the Hindu Christian Forum and chaired the Interfaith Committee of the Hindu Forum Britain (HFB), on which he now serves as Vice President. He has been an adviser on many Government consultations and has striven to foster links between the UK Government and the British Hindu community.
Dr Pattni has worked extensively with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, University of Oxford, teaching and giving public talks, guiding the public on Hindu concerns and helping deliver practical solutions for individual wellbeing and community cohesion based on Hindu Scriptures.
Dr Pattni’s involvement with Chinmaya Mission began 28 years ago. Between 1991 and 2001 he set up and ran the Kenyan branch of the Chinmaya Mission, before returning to the UK in 2001 where he was appointed a Trustee of Chinmaya Mission UK (CMUK) and immediately started facilitating classes serving the Hindu community and began his interfaith work in the UK at a national level.