IKS Meta Retreat – Deconstruction & Reconstruction: Beyond Colonial Discourse

INDICA is pleased to organise a Meta-Retreat “Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Beyond Colonial Discourse” with Prof. Kundan Singh as Lead Faculty at Bilvam Foundation, Tiruvannamalai from 26-July to 28-July 2024.

IKS Meta-Retreats are immersive intellectual explorations spanning 2-3 days, led by an Acharya in the ambience of a Gurukula and conducted with an attitude of Shraddha. Acharya, is the subject matter expert (SME), seeking to explore a specific topic, discipline, or domain along with a cohort. 9-12 participants who possess shradda and the right experience in the chosen theme form the cohort. This cohort then comes together with an upanishadic attitude of learning through immersion at a location that echoes the ambience of a Gurukula.

The Meta Retreat is organised in the context of the publication of Prof. Kundan Singh’s book “Colonial Discourse and the Suffering of Indian American Children.” The book, while characterising the impact of colonial distortions on Indian American children, presents a universally relevant deconstruction of James Mill’s The History of British India which is applicable to every context where its narrative made an impact. Prof. Singh’s book has been published Open Access as well in order to ensure a wide readership across the world. Please find its pdf as well as epub versions at the following website: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-57627-0

The following is the abstract of the book:

“In the early nineteenth century, James Mill, who eventually became one of the topmost officials in the imperial East India Company, wrote a three-volume work titled The History of British India. In volume one, he wrote seven chapters on the Hindu people with the thesis that they are savage, uncivilised, brute, primitive, uncouth, rude, coarse, etc. Making their primitiveness and savagery the defining characteristic of his work, he wrote on topics about their social structure and social laws, their governance and taxation systems, and their manners and customs. In addition, he devoted considerable space to arguing that Hinduism was a primitive and pagan religion that was irrational, superstitious, incoherent, and child-like. Backed by the massive imperial power that Britain eventually exerted on the world, this colonial-racist discourse set the narrative on Hindus, Hinduism, and Ancient India, which continues to get regurgitated in different places in different forms in educational institutions from school to higher learning, not only in other countries but also India, albeit in politically correct and sanitised ways.

Consequently, this archaic and racist discourse, camouflaged under the cover of political correctness, produces a psychological impact quite similar to what racism is known to have: shame, inferiority, embarrassment, identity confusion, assimilation, and a phenomenon identical to racelessness where the children dissociate from the tradition and culture of their ancestors.  The irony of it all is that Mill’s discourse is one of complete fabrication and projection, given that there also is an exact correspondence between his British social and political writings on the one hand and his noxious discourse on Hindus and Hinduism on the other. Mill concocted his narrative on India, Hinduism, and Hindus in light of the social and political conditions that he wanted to reform and expel from British society—at the expense of India and Hinduism.

Mill’s characterization of Hinduism is in the shadows of the practices of the Church of England—the Church of Englandism as he called it. His description of the Hindu society bears an exact correspondence with his description of the British society that he did not want in Britain to exist.  Given that his discourse got the backing of the imperial East India Company, it became the normative discourse as time passed. It now finds a reproduction in the school text- books in a politically correct and sanitised form, causing damaging psycho-social consequences for many generations of educated Indians.”

This Meta-Retreat is being organised in this context. With Prof. Kundan Singh’s book at the core, this MetaRetreat seeks to discuss ways and means of deconstructing the Colonial Discourse and begin a process of reconstruction of civilizational discourse. This could be a multi-dimensional, multi-decade, multi-generation project. This MetaRetreat seeks to map all directions in even this deconstruction/reconstruction must spread and explore particular strands of it in depth.

We are pleased to share with you that Prof. Kundan Singh ji, the author of the book, would be leading this Meta-Retreat discussion. Prof. Kundan Singh-ji who is a Professor@Sofia University, Research Faculty@Hindu University of America, President@ Cultural Integration Fellowship, San Fransisco, Senior Fellow@Hindupedia is shortly on a trip to Bharat to offer a series of lectures in the context of his book and the deconstruction/reconstruction of the colonial discourse.

The Evenings shall be spent in informal conversations around the subject, temple and ashram visit.

INDICA is pleased to invite applications for the participant cohort. It will consist of specially curated 12 members consisting of academicians, scholars and scholar-activists deeply immersed in Hinduism studies from different stand-points and seeking to shape an aspect of our civilization in their own chosen domains. Please send us your bio at namaste@indica.org.in. A 300 word summary mentioning the subject, domain, or discipline you seek to explore along with the names of cohort participants they would like to invite should also be furnished.

Travel, logistics, and accommodation at the Retreat will be hosted and managed by INDICA.

Faculty

Prof. Kundan Singh

Professor of Transpersonal Psychology

He is faculty at Sofia University and was Core Doctoral Faculty for almost a decade. A scholar-practitioner of Integral Yoga and the darshana of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he has taught in the areas of Integral Philosophy and Psychology, Contemporary and Traditional Vedanta, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Postmodern Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Epistemology, Critical Thought and Deconstruction, Postcolonial Studies and Psychology, Cultural and Cross-cultural Psychology, Indian Psychology, Yogic Psychology, and Transpersonal Psychology among a few others. He is a Senior Fellow at Hindupedia where he focuses on research related to Hinduphobia and Hindumisia, its psychological impact on kids and correction of how Hindu dharma is portrayed in instructional materials. He is a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at Hindu University of America. He is the Vice President of the Cultural Integration Fellowship, an institution in San Francisco inspired by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He has also taught as a Visiting Faculty and Adjunct Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union and the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dr. Kundan Singh holds a doctorate in Humanities with a Concentration in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California. Earlier he obtained an M.A. in Applied Psychology with a Concentration in Social Psychology from the University of Delhi, India.