RRI I
New Delhi, India, 21-24 January 2008
The first conference of the five-year conference cluster took place in New Delhi, in January 2008. During the first conference, we realised that the need and urgency to develop an alternative theoretical framework for the study of the Indian traditions is acknowledged by many scholars of religious studies. More than anything else, we felt an intellectual enthusiasm among the participating scholars and a willingness to engage in extensive discussions on this topic. Most participants felt part of a larger project that needs to be supported and extended beyond the confines of a conference.
Watch the participants' reactions and thoughts about the first conference on www.youtube.com/cultuurwetenschap
Of course, not all objectives were achieved yet. The programming and organising teams have therefore started to reflect on changes to the format and organisation for the second conference.
To know more about what the conference did and did not achieve,
read the report of the first conference
Brief overview of Rethinking Religion in India I
Platform Sessions
The first conference Rethinking Religion in India was a success. More information about the first conference will appear soon on this page.
In the Platform sessions three speakers and two respondents compared and discussed their respective answers to the question ‘Are there native religions in India?’
Speakers:
- Timothy Fitzgerald (Religious Studies Dept., University of Stirling)
- David N. Lorenzen (Centre of Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de Mexico)
- S. N. Balagangadhara (Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University)
Respondents:
- Laurie L. Patton (Dept. of Religion, Emory University)
- Naomi Goldenberg (Dept. of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa)
The concept of the Platform sessions:
The Platform sessions juxtapose the different approaches to the question 'Are there native religions in India?' The classical study of religion regards entities such as Hinduism and Buddhism as the ancient religions of India. Yet, they face problems in identifying those properties by which to recognise Hinduism and Buddhism as religions. As a reaction to this, several scholars within religious studies have questioned the usefulness of the concept 'religion' as a cross-cultural analytical tool. Authors such as T. Fitzgerald and R. McCutcheon argue that 'religion' is a Christian theological concept and therefore unfit for a scientific study of other cultures. They argue that 'religion' should be replaced by less contested concepts such as 'culture,' 'ritual,' or 'soteriology.' Within the field of postcolonial studies, it is argued that this Western understanding of religion - with its focus on sacred texts, priests, a specific belief in one God, a central church-like structure, etc. - has imposed a unity - conceptual or real - on the multitude of diverse religions that existed in pre-colonial India. Modern Hinduism, they argue, is a construction that did not exist before British colonialism. Authors like D. Lorenzen, however, oppose the postcolonial argument by showing that Hinduism cannot have been constructed by the colonials since the Muslims and European travellers described a Hindu religion long before the British colonisation of India did. A fourth approach to the question of religion in India comes from the field of comparative science of cultures. S. N. Balagangadhara, for example, argues that there has never been any empirical or theoretical proof for the existence of native religions in India. Instead, comparative science of cultures studies 'Hinduism' and related concepts such as 'Vedism,' 'Brahmanism,' 'Buddhism' … as entities of the Western cultural experiences of India.
Three Roundtable sessions took up the issue of ‘Colonialism and Religion in India’. The Roundtable consisted of two groups of participants:
(1) a group of invited speakers who initiated the discussions with a brief presentation:
- Richard King (Religious Studies Dept., Vanderbilt University)
- Geoffrey Oddie (Dept. of History, The University of Sydney)
- Laurie L. Patton (Dept. of Religion, Emory University)
- Akeel Bilgrami (Philosophy Dept., Columbia University)
- Sharada Sugirtharajah (Dept. of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham)
- John Zavos (School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester)
(2) A group of respondents challenged these different positions:
- Jakob De Roover (Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University)
- Raf Gelders (Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap,Ghent University)
- Vivek Dhareshwar (The Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore)
- Martin Fárek (Department of. Religion and Philosophy, The University of Pardubice)
Concept of Roundtable Sessions I:
The Roundtable sessions aimed to generate challenging discussions in the debate on the colonial construction of Hinduism. Today, it is commonly accepted that colonialism has had a profound impact on the development of Indian society. Yet, its impact on religion in India has become a fiercely debated issue. During the last few decades several scholars have argued that modern Hinduism is a colonial construction. Ever since, a debate has been going on about whether Hinduism is an ancient indigenous religion of India or a creation of British colonial writers. On the one hand, the postcolonial studies claim that the colonial descriptions of Hinduism could not have described a reality in pre-colonial Indian society. Authors such as G. Oddie, R. Frykenberg, H. von Stietencron, etc. argue that British colonial scholars constructed one unified pan-Indian religion out of the multitude of diverse religious practices, rituals and doctrines that characterised pre-colonial Indian religion. They argue that because of the imperial need for unity and the Western notion of religion in terms of sacred texts, priests, and doctrines, the British colonials mistook Brahmanism for the Indian religion as a whole. On the other hand, this postcolonial position is contested by the classical field of religious studies. Some authors hold that Hinduism cannot have been constructed by the colonials since the Muslims and European travellers described this religion long before the British colonisation of India did. Others retort that the constructionist argument cannot explain why Indians have never contested the Western conceptualisation of their religion and why today so many Indians themselves speak about Hindu religion.
Even though the postcolonial school touches upon certain fundamental problems in the classical approach to Hinduism, its explanations fail to give a satisfactory answer to an important set of questions: What does it mean to say that Hinduism is a colonial construction? What is said to be constructed: an idea or a real phenomenon? Why did the colonials need to invent religion, rather than something else?
Parallel Paper sessions
The themes of the Parallel Paper sessions were:
(1) Caste system and Indian religion; (2) Evolutionary explanations of religion; (3)
Colonialism and religion in India; and (4) Indians are Aryans, so what?
Paper presenters:
- A. Shanmukha, Centre for the Study of Local Cultures, Kuvempu University (India)
- Amitava Chakraborty, Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi (India)
- Cláudia Pereira, Department of Anthropology, University Institute for Social Sciences, Labour Studies and Technologies (Portugal)
- Dunkin Jalki, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (India)
- Esther Bloch, Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Jakob De Roover, Rearch Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Belgium)
- James M. Hegarty, School of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University (UK)
- Marianne Keppens, Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Martin Fárek, The Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, University of Pardubice (Czech Republic)
- Masahiko Togawa, The Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University (Japan)
- Meera Ashar, Department of English, University of Pune (Pune, India)
- Paolo Aranha, Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute (Italy)
- Peter Gottschalk, Department of Religion, Wesleyan University (USA)
- Purnendu Ranjan, Department of History, Government College for Girls, Punjab University (India)
- Raf Gelders, Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Rajaram Hegde, Centre for the Study of Local Cultures, Kuvempu University (India)
- Sarah Claerhout, Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Scaria Zacharia, School of Letters, Mahatma Gandhi University (India)
- Sumio Morijiri, Department of Kannada, Mangalore University (India)
- Ülo Valk, Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu (Estonia)
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Rethinking Religion in India also hosted two special sessions
(1) The special IASR panel on "Approaches to the Academic Study of Religion from within Contemporary India," with a panel consisting of
- Joseph T. O’Connell, Visiting Professor of World Religions - University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Visva-Bharati (India)
- Asha Mukherjee, Professor and Head - Department of Philosophy and Religion, Visva-Bharati Santiniketan (India)
- Madhu Khanna, Professor of Religious and Indic Studies - Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia University (India)
- Amiya P. Sen, Professor - Rabindra Bhavan, Visva Bharati Santiniketan (India)
- D.A. Gangadhar, Professor - Department of Philosophy and Religion, Banaras Hindu University (India)
- Satyapal Gautam, Professor - Department of Philosophy, Jawaharlal Nehru University (India)
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(2) The special IGNCA panels on "Terminologies, Interpretations and Religious Experiences: Perspectives on the Religion of the Self" with three panels consisting of:
- K.D. Tripathi, Professor Emeritus - Banaras Hindu University and Honorary Coordinator, IGNCA branch Varanasi (India)
- Shrivatsa Goswami, Director - Chaitanya Prema Sansthan
Lokesh Chandra, Director - International Academy of Indian Culture (India) - J.S. Neki, leading Sikh scholar and former director of the All Indian Institute of Medical Science (India)
- Kapil Tiwari, Secretary - Tribal Folk Art Academy (India)
- G.C. Tripathi, Professor and Head - Kala Kosa, Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts (India)
- Veena Das, Professor of sociology - John Hopkins University (USA)
- Madhu Khanna, Professor of Religious and Indic Studies - Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia University (India)
- Molly Kaushal, Associate Professor - Janapada Sampada, Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts (India)