The Discover India Podcast by Professor Pankaj Jain: Bhārat Darśan

Hinduism and Ethics of Creation Care  

Speaker: Professor Pankaj Jain 

Respondent: Professor Cybelle Shattuck 

Moderator: Dr. Robert A. Hunt  

Partners: 

The Interfaith Council of Thanks-Giving Square 

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum  

SMU Perkins School of Theology.  

Co-Sponsors:

The SMU Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life 

The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Cultures

The Interfaith Council of Thanks-Giving Square and its partners and co-sponsors listed below are pleased to present the 2022-23 Faiths In Conversation Series titled, ‘Religion & Ethics of Creation Care’.  This is a 6 part monthly series featuring scholars representing Judaism, Buddhism, Native Americans, Islam, Christianity & Hindusim. Speakers from different religious traditions will explain how their religious tradition understands the ethics of creation care. In addition to addressing the value of creation in itself,  of particular concern will be the relationship of creation care to human dignity, economic justice, and migration stimulated by changes in the climate. Participants will learn how each religion understands what it means to be human in relation to the rest of the natural world, and the particular responsibilities of humans toward the natural world and their fellow humans. Each presentation will be followed by a brief response and the opportunity to ask questions of the speaker.

Gandhi’s thoughts on non-violent political action and his programs for social reconstruction have been subjects of scholarly debates, often sharp, for a long. More recently, visual and literary representations of Gandhi that remind people of the meanings of an extraordinarily complex life have also received attention (Ramaswamy 2021). However, little consideration has been given to Gandhi’s aesthetic sensibility that informed his moral journey. The general perception of Gandhi is as a man of action with a utilitarian approach even to art and literature. Yet as he expresses at the end of his “autobiography,” he saw his “Experiments with Truth” as a source of rasa (aesthetic delight). His writings reference ethical actions as things of beauty and avenues to reach perfect harmony. His almost obsessive stress on simplicity also had an aesthetic dimension. Art historian Stephanie Chadwick compares Gandhian simplicity-based aesthetics with the minimalist art of American painter Barnett Newman in the early to mid-twentieth century. Chadwick suggests that even though the two men never met in their aesthetics, they share a concern for inclusiveness and equality (Chadwick, 2014). The fascination with Gandhi as a public figure may see ebb and tide in the coming times. What exploration of his writings and exchanges give us a glimpse into is something personal and deeper – an understanding of a moral journey intricately tied to an aesthetic journey. In my presentation, I will discuss how Gandhi’s writings reflect a search for the unity of truth, goodness, and beauty. They suggest that moral action was a path to realize that unity in his journey. In Gandhi’s view, moral action was in service of the goal of experiencing rasa. 

Bio

Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is a professor of Religion and South Asia Studies at Wellesley College,

4th song in #AnandBakshi Lyrics Series, reminding us of the motherland (in Raag Kedar)

yun nind se woh jan e chaman jag uthi hai

From https://www.hindigeetmala.net/song/yun_nind_se_vo_jaan_e_chaman.htm

Alternative ontologies and epistemologies: Is there an Indian way of knowing and theorizing in social sciences? 

In an “informal essay” (1989), poet, translator, and folklorist A. K. Ramanujam asks an intriguing question, "Is there an Indian way of thinking?” Taking inspiration from the celebrated essay, without any misconception of equivalent competence, I ask, Is there an Indian way of knowing and theorizing in social sciences? Ramanujan's answer was in the affirmative for an imagined India in the deep past but not for the post-colonial India of the present. The subtext of his argument was that in contemporary India, we do not have an Indian way of thinking capable of producing context-free theories with universal applications. Provocatively, Ramanujam suggests there are only Indian experiences but no thought. His analysis suggests that following a violent and subjugating encounter with the west, the Indian (or Vedic) way of thinking—rooted in a logic of chaos, context-dependent nature of truth, and a majestic celebration of ambiguity—was displaced by a bundle of inconsistent and contradictory ontologies and epistemologies. In this talk, I argue for ontological and epistemological pluralism possibilities in context-dependent ways of knowing. A pluralism in thinking gives rise to concepts and associated explications of alternative theories of society, cultures, polities, and economies. Context-dependent alternative understanding and explanations, which in a post-colonial sense challenge the hegemony of Eurocentrism in knowledge production. Using some examples, including from my earlier work on theorizing cultures of protests in Dhandak and Jan Andolan (2014), I discuss an Indian way of knowing and theorizing. 

Bio: Anup Kumar is a professor of communication in the School of Communication, Cleveland State University. He completed his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 2008. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed communication and political science journals and is the author of Making of a Small State (2014). Before joining academia, he was a journalist, then an environmental activist, and before that, a chemist.

Lyrics of Ye Shaam Mastaani, Madhosh Kiye Jae - ये शाम मस्तानी, मदहोश किये जाये

ye sham mastaani, madahosh kiye jaye

From https://www.hindigeetmala.net/song/ye_shaam_mastani_kishore.htm

Ye Jo Mohabbat Hai, 2nd song written by the great lyricist Anand Bakshi

ye jo muhabbat hai, ye unaka hai kam

From https://www.hindigeetmala.net/song/ye_jo_muhabbat_hai_ye.htm

Jis gali me tera ghar na ho, a classic song written by Anand Bakshi 

jis gali me teraa ghar na ho baalamaa

From https://www.hindigeetmala.net/song/jis_gali_me_teraa_ghar_na_ho.htm

Episode 63. Series on Popular Music Based on Classical Music - Raag Bhairavi in Hindi Film Songs

Webinar with Shri Manoj Govindraj and Professor Pankaj Jain