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Sun 28 Jul 2024

11:00 AM - 7:00 PM (UTC+5.5)

Brahmins, Brahmanical, Brahminism

Brahmins, Brahmanical, Brahminism

Indological Origins & Its Impact

Brahmins and Brahminism are English words, with Brahminism being a colonial, modern, and contemporary coinage mostly used in a pejorative sense.

The terms Brahmanical and Brahminism were introduced in early European orientalist studies of Vedic history in India as synonyms for Vedic and Vedicism, often contrasted with non-Vedic, Buddhist, etc. Initially neutral, these terms gradually developed a pejorative sense due to orientalist, Eurocentric, colonial, and Christian missionary prejudices. Later, Marxist, Dravidian, and other anti-Brahmin movements solidified the negative connotation, making the term abusive.

When issues arose from conflating Brahminism with the attitudes of contemporary Brahmins, many clarified they opposed Brahminism as a supremacist ideology, not individual Brahmins. Nevertheless, Brahmins faced abuse, physical attacks, and even genocides in various regions of India, regardless of whether they adhered to traditional Brahmin occupations and lifestyles. The argument put forward by those justifying the violence is that they believe that the ancestors of the attacked committed misdeeds. The victims or those speaking for the victims of the violence argue that the present individuals cannot be held responsible for the actions of their ancestors.

Studies, though limited, examine the origins of Brahminism and anti-Brahminism, including the role of Abrahamic religious conversion projects targeting Brahmins. Research is also emerging on the abuse and violence against Brahmins in India.

The significant role of Brahmins in the emergence and development of IKS along with others is acknowledged is acknowledged, but often downplayed. Contributions of IKS are frequently attributed to non-Vedic or non-Brahmanical sources, such as Buddhism or tribal communities.

In this context, it is crucial to study the development of the term Brahminism, the attitudes around it, and its impact on contemporary Brahmins in India and abroad. Indica aims to focus on this topic from this perspective.

The symposium will feature distinguished speakers addressing various aspects of Brahminism and its perception. Dr. Nagaraj Paturi will introduce the complex terminology of Brahmin-related words. Sri Srinivas Udumudi will examine ‘Brahminism’ constructed from Buddhist sources, while Sri Mahalingam Balaji will discuss the semantic techniques of Brahmophobia.

Dr. Ashwini B Desai and Sri M S Chaitra will share diverse Brahmin narratives. Sri Aravind V. Iyer will explore overlooked Brahmanical elements in Brahma-vihāra studies. Sri Sahishnu Bhattacharya will critique Western frameworks in Brahminism studies, and Sri Jataayu will analyze anti-Brahmin rhetoric in Dravidianist discourse.

Sri Prabhav Paturi will explore the targeting of Brahmins by Christian missionaries, and Sri Tirtha will discuss the lexical dehumanization of Brahmins. Dr. Karanam Aravinda Rao will propose positive semantics for Brahminism, and Dr. Sushumna Kannan will assess Brahmins’ portrayal and gender dynamics in the Mahabharata.

Speakers
speaker

Dr. Nagaraj Paturi

Dean, INDICA

Trained in Sanskrit and Advaita Vedanta by his hyper-polyglot, polymath and spiritually accomplished sakala-shaastra-paarangata father, late Sri Paturi Sitaramanjaneyulu garu, Dr Nagaraj Paturi is seriously committed to the transmission of Vedic sciences to the present generation. In his PhD thesis (1998, University of Hyderabad), he developed an Indic Model of Myth Criticism of Literature and in his MPhil (1987, University of Hyderabad), he foregrounded Vakyapadiya as the theoretical foundation of the Ashtadhyayi. In addition to over 50 publications and about 60 conference/seminar/workshop papers, Dr Paturi has designed several courses pertaining to the contemporary applications of Vedic Sciences and has been successfully teaching them and getting them taught. Formerly Senior Professor of Cultural Studies FLAME School of Communication (& FLAME School of Liberal Education) and a Visiting Professor, University of Chicago (USA), Dr Paturi is currently Senior Director and Chief Curator at INDICA, a Distinguished Professor, Curriculum Designer, Executive Committee Member, Board of Studies, MIT School of Vedic Sciences (Pune, Maharashtra), Member, Board of Studies at Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University (Ramtek, Maharashtra) and Rashtram School of Public Leadership (Sonipat, Haryana). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of International Journals of Studies in Public Leadership and is a member of the Advisory Council of Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam (Bengaluru, Karnataka). He has provided consultancy to numerous culture research, theatre, and dance innovation projects. He has authored scores of creative writing works for Classical Dance, Modern Theater, and magazines and has delivered several series of talks and other programs on Radio and Television channels.

speaker

Dr. Sushumna Kannan

Scholar-in-Residence, INDICA

Dr. Sushumna Kannan has a PhD in Cultural Studies from Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bengaluru, India. Her research on the South Asian devotional traditions and feminist epistemology focused on the medieval saint, Akka Mahadevi and her vachanas. She received the BOURSE MIRA, French research fellowship in 2006 and 2007 and the Sir Ratan Tata fellowship for PhD Coursework and Writing in 2003 and 2007. Dr. Kannan has published her research on bhakti, dharmashastras, ethics, women’s writing in Kannada and English as well as on translation theory in peer-reviewed journals and as book chapters. She received the Indic Academy fellowship in Indic feminism to study “Women’s subjectivity in the dharma texts” in 2021. She is currently working on a book project, Hinduism, Violence and Nonviolence and is finishing an essay on “The Mahabharata as a stri-shudra text.” Dr. Kannan is Scholar-in-Residence at Indic Academy. She runs a podcast on Women and Hinduism for INDICA.

speaker

Sri Srinivas Udumudi

Sri Srinivas Udumudi was a former director at Indic Academy and former convener of Indica Hyderabad. Sri Srinivas has deep interest in history of ancient Indian thought, and is a keen follower of various schools of thought providing counters to colonial Indian self. Sri Srinivas has a B.Tech in Computer Science and worked towards a Masters in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) in the US. He currently heads India's premier Genetics and Genomics Laboratory based out of Hyderabad.

speaker

Dr. Ashwini B Desai

Assistant Professor, Centre for Study of Cultures, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University.

Dr. Ashwini B. Desai, Assistant Professor, Centre for Study of Cultures, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University. She holds a PhD in English literature and specializes in understanding the nature of institution of literature and problems associated with public discourse.

speaker

Sri M S Chaitra

Director & Associate Professor of Practice, Centre for Study of Cultures, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University.

Prof. M. S. Chaitra, Director & Associate Professor of Practice, Centre for Study of Cultures, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University. M S Chaitra started his career in Natural Sciences and later shifted to Social Science. He now coordinates a group of young research scholars who work in developing the scientific hypothesis on Indian traditions.

speaker

Sri Arvind V. Iyer

Arvind V Iyer has a research background in Computational Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering. His interests as an independent researcher include Indian languages, appreciation of classical performing arts, and contemplative practices. He currently serves as Assistant Director of Research at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai.

speaker

Sri Sahishnu Bhattacharyya

Academic Fellow, Affiliation: Centre for Research & Archiving, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi

Sahishnu Bhattacharyya is affiliated to the Centre for Research & Archiving (Indian Knowledge Systems) at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi. His main research interests revolve around human subjectivity, especially collective subjectivity through interdisciplinary perspectives (sociocultural, anthropological, and religious), with reference to both Western and non-Western (especially anti-individualist) approaches to subjectivity and selfhood. He works with Indian religious thought with a special focus on the recovery of the tradition of prayogaśāstra (ritual studies) from the Vedic paradigm through the smārta and tāntrika paradigms through their evolutions and reconfigurations.

speaker

Sri Jataayu

Exponent of Hindu Thought and Tamil Scholar

Jataayu has been writing and speaking on Indian cultural and social themes and Hindutva since 2005, both in English and Tamil. The range of his topics include Hindu philosophy, scriptures, history, culture, literature and arts. He is a scholar of Tamil literature, both classical and modern, especially Kamba-Ramayanam and Bhakti poetry and gives discourses on these subjects. A collection of his Tamil essays has been published as a book Kaalam-thorum Narasingam (2015). He is on the editorial board of the popular website tamilhindu.in. His articles and talks have been featured in Swarajya magazine, Swadeshi Indology and INDICA Conferences, Indic Talks, Atharva Forum and Pondy Lit Fest among others. He is active on social media through his Facebook ID Jataayu B’luru and regularly expresses his opinions on contemporary Hindu issues and controversies, often indulging in constructive debates. An Electronics Technology professional by vocation, he is currently a resident of Bengaluru.

speaker

Sri Prabhav Paturi

Vedic Psychologist and Cross Cultural Researcher @ Manoloka Holistic Wellness

Holds MSc in Counseling Psychology from BR Ambedkar Uni, Hyd and PG Diploma in Clinical Psychology from School of Achology, Scotland.

Taught Modern Psychology to BA Integral Psychology students at MIT ADT uni.

Offered Health Psychology Counseling at Apollo Hospitals and St. Judes Pediatric Oncology Wing.

Translated J Sai Deepak's India That is Bharat into Telugu. Published 2 cross cultural psychology research papers.

Trained in Indic Knowledge Systems by his grandfather and father, in Yoga by Narasimha Rao Garu and in Tantra by Shri Vidurendranatha Saraswati.

Does field work based studies in Telangana folk culture from cross cultural perspective.

speaker

Sri Tirtha

Poet | Author | Researcher & Assistant Professor, Centre for Indic Studies, Indus University, PhD Research Scholar, Dept. of English, BHU

Tirtha (a.k.a. Tirthendu Ganguly) is a poet, author, and artist. He has penned a collection of hundred-and-eight poems titled Firefly of Love (ISBN: 9781794652149) and he is now working on his next book, Tales from Mahābhārata, a collection of fifty short stories. His poetry, stories, and articles have appeared on multiple national and international journals, magazines, and conference proceedings. He is a Ph.D. Research Scholar in the Department of English at Banaras Hindu University and he has recently submitted his doctoral thesis titled, The Ontology and Aesthetics of Bhakti in the Hagiographies of Śrī Caitanya. At present, he is working as an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Indic Studies at Indus University. Previously, he held the post of the Editor-in-Chief at The Indian Rover, a multilingual literary magazine, for two years. He was a teaching instructor of communicative skills at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (BHU). He also has a few laurels to his credit. He is the recipient of the Research Excellence Award (2020), India Book of Records (2021), and Kalam Ratna Award (2021). In 2022, he was bestowed the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of Kentucky (USA).

speaker

Sri Mahalingam Balaji

Author-Brahmin Genocide

Sri Mahalingam Balaji hails from a lineage of Vedic Scholars and Agnihotris who moved to secular occupations on generation ago. He has had a successful career in the Corporate Sector for nearly three decades, having held many leadership positions in India and abroad. As Corporate Leader and Research Director, he is well known for his thought leadership and extensive experience in setting up global research and analytics teams and mentoring research teams at scale. Currently, he is incubating a think tank to articulate the Bharatiya civilizational world-view in contemporary contexts and develop institutional mechanisms to aid research on Bharatiya Parampara traditions. The urgent focus is to challenge the hate narratives against practitioners of Sanatana Dharma, especially the Brahmin community. He writes under the per name Asi.

speaker

Dr. Karanam Aravinda Rao

Retd. DGP & Trustee, INDICA

Dr. Karanam Aravinda Rao is a retired Director General of Police (Andhra Pradesh), who studied Sanskrit under Maha Mahopadhyaya Padmasri Dr. Sri Pullela Sriramachandrudu and studied Vedanta under Maha Mahopadhyaya Swami Tattvavidananda Saraswati. He has authored many books on Hindu philosophy.