Global Renaissance: Indic Contributions
Schedule and Confirmed Participants

Dates: Weds, July 24 – Mon, July 29, 2002. Weds and Mon are check-in and check-out dates. Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun are full-day meeting days.

Each person has 30 minutes to present and lead a discussion. Roundtable style – each participant gets to hear each other.

NOTE: All section divisions and topics below are preliminary, suggestive, and subject to change. Participants should not feel constrained by any particular theme or category but should rather know that they are encouraged to contribute in whatever way they feel they can best address the overall spirit of the colloquium.

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Day 1- Society Today

(A) Indic Intellectual Challenges to Western Modernism / Postmodernism

Here we will explore the dissimilarities or discontinuities, seeking to highlight possible contributions that Indic theories might make to the global discourse, implicitly (or explicitly) challenging the chauvinistic and modernistic notions that contemporary Western critical social sciences necessarily produce superior analyses of and models for contemporary society.

  1. Bob Thurman – Global Renaissance: Introduction and Overview
  2. Rajiv MalhotraABSTRACT and PAPER (rev. 7/24/02): "The Case for Indic Traditions in the Academy."
  3. Makarand ParanjapeABSTRACT and PAPER: "The Third Eye and Two Ways of (Un)knowing: Gnosis, Alternative Modernities, and Postcolonial Futures."
  4. Arvind Sharma ABSTRACT and PAPER: "An Indic Contribution Towards an Understanding of the Word 'Religion' and the Concept of Religious Freedom."

(B) Reconstruction and Applicability of Indic Social Sciences

Here we focus on challenging the pervasive stereotype of Indic social unconsciousness with concrete examples and critical analysis. We collect critiques of the commonly held view that critical, structural analysis of society is a uniquely Western invention, discover to what extent indigenous Indian social thinkers have been engaged in this type of analysis, and present Indic social scientific theories which suggest similarities or continuities with contemporary types of critical approach.

  1. Yvette RosserABSTRACT and PAPER: "India: Rewriting History in the Headlines."
  2. Tara SethiaABSTRACT and PAPER (rev. 7/24/02): "Representation of Jainism and Buddhism in Indian History Textbooks."
  3. Ian Whicher ABSTRACT and PAPER (rev. 9/10/02): "Countering World Negation: The World Affirming and Integrative Dimension of Classical Yoga."
  4. Ashok AklujkarABSTRACT: " 'If India doesn't have it, too bad; if India has it, so much the worse': the tale of social theory in Indian tradition."
  5. Laurie PattonABSTRACT and PAPER (new 8/22/02): "Samvada as a Literary and Philosophical Genre: An Overlooked Model for Public Debate and Conflict Resolution."

Day 2 – History

(A) Fighting the Wrong: Challenging the Common Misportrayals of Indian History and Society

  1. TS Rukmani NEW ABSTRACT and NEW PAPER: "Dynamics of Being and Becoming in Hindu Thought: A Hermeneutic Exercise."
  2. Christian WedemeyerABSTRACT: "Historiography of 'Them' and Historiography of 'Us': India, Narrative Archetypes, and the Very Idea of a 'Global Renaissance'"
  3. Richard KingABSTRACT and PAPER: "Cartographies of the Imagination: The Discourse of 'Religion' and the Mapping of Indic Traditions After Colonialism."
  4. David GrayABSTRACT and PAPER: "Blinded By The Light Of 'World History' – Re-Centering India In The Mandala Of Eurasian Civilizations."
  5. Bob Thurman – Integration of Hindu/ Buddhist/Jain/Sikh traditions.

(B) Presenting the Right: Indian Contributions that are Seldom Acknowledged

  1. Roddam NarasimhaABSTRACT and PAPER: "Some thoughts on the Indian half of the Needham question."
  2. Kapil KapoorABSTRACT and PAPER: "Loss, Recovery and Renewal of Texts in India's Tradition."
  3. Cleo KearnsABSTRACT and PAPER: "Indic Traditions, American Literature and the Third Point of View."
  4. D. P. Agrawal ABSTRACT and PAPER: "An Indocentric Corrective to History of Science."
Ryuichi Abe Indic Contributions to East Asia.
[Gary Tubb(Prof. Tubb can not attend) Indic influence on European linguistics, literature, culture.]

Day 3 – Indic Outer Knowledge Systems

(A) Logic, Language, Philosophy

Engage the West through: comparative analyses, historical influence flows, and future cross-fertilization possibilities. Not to present an “expose” of the Indic theory in isolation by itself.

  1. George CardonaABSTRACT and PAPER (rev. 8/1/02): "Tradition and Argumentation: Tensions Among Some Early Thinkers and their Backgrounds."
  2. Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande –  ABSTRACT: "Interpreting Hinduism: Issues of Perceptions and Parameters" – A critique of present interpretations of Hinduism in texts and in the media.
  3. Stephen Phillips ABSTRACT and PAPER: "Genuine vs. Apparent Knowledge and Justification." (NOTE: Stephen Phillips can not attend for medical reasons. His paper will be read at the colloquium by Arvind Sharma.)

(B) Applications of Indigenous Knowledge to Society Today

  1. Madhu KishwarTOPIC: "Language is the Gateway to Culture and Tradition."
  2. Purushotama BilimoriaABSTRACT and PAPER: "Influence of Gandhian Nonviolence on the U.S. and African-American Civil Rights Movement 1905-1968 (pictorial argument)."
  3. Susantha GoonatilakeABSTRACT and PAPER: "Coming Intellectual Shifts to Asia: The Indic Possibilities."
  4. Rita ShermaABSTRACT and PAPER (new 7/24/02): "Power and Potentiality: The Reclamation of Hindu Theology for A Contemporary Ethical and Ecological Application."
  5. Roy PerrettABSTRACT: "Locating Indian Ethics."
  6. Ashok Gangadean ABSTRACT: "The Potential of Meditative Thinking for the 21st Century."
[Deep N. Pandey ABSTRACT and PAPER (posted here for peer-review; Dr. Pandey can not attend): "Indigenous Sustainability Science."

Day 4 - Inner Science

(A) Inner Sciences

Ethics, epistemology, psychology and mind science, spirituality, meditation, yoga, and other models for and techniques of personal transformation.

  1. Bob Thurman – Indo-Tibetan Inner Sciences – Overview and Importance.
  2. Sunthar VisuvalingamABSTRACT: "Towards an Integral Appreciation of Abhinava's aesthetics of Rasa."
  3. Joe LoizzoABSTRACT and PAPER: "Candrakirti and the Buddhist Mind Sciences: A Tradition-Neutral Research Program."
  4. Stuart SovatskyABSTRACT and PAPER NOTES: "Toward a Psychology of Impermanence: The Five Ashrama Social Body of Sanaatana Dharma, and the Kundalini Yoga Developmental Body."
  5. Sangeetha MenonABSTRACT and PAPER: "Binding Experiences and Epistemologies: Instances from Indian philosophy (darsana sastra), Indian psychology (moksa sastra) and Indian dramaturgy (natya sastra) in the context of recent discussions on 'consciousness'."
  6. Vesna Wallace ABSTRACT and PAPER: "Bridging the Disciplines: Integrative Buddhist Monastic Education in Classical India."
  7. Arindam ChakrabartiABSTRACT: "Making 'Sense' of the Vedic/Tantric Divinities."
  8. Alan WallaceABSTRACT and PAPER: "Why the West Has No Science of Consciousness: A Buddhist View."
  9. Ram-Prasad Chakravarthi ABSTRACT and PAPER: "Self and Self-knowledge: Indic perspectives on the challenge of consciousness studies to the good and right life."

Conclusion: Strategies to Better Utilize Indic Contributions to the Global Renaissance

This concluding discussion session (about an hour), lead by Rajiv Malhotra and Bob Thurman, deals in a broad summary way with the central concern of the Colloquium: To pinpoint misperceptions of the “Indic” in Society Today, especially as perpetuated through discourse and structures within the Academy, and to suggest ways to redress these distortions as well as to present potentially positive but overlooked Indic contributions. This includes both presenting empirical data that refute the current misperceptions, as well as theoretical analysis of such meta-level issues as the current structure of the Academy (its disciplinary and departmental divisions, curricula, and so forth), suggestions for its restructuring, and strategies for overcoming the structural, procedural, or attitudinal obstacles to better incorporation of non-Western and traditionally time-tested arts and sciences. It will also raise pedagogical and methodological issues regarding emic and etic approaches to Indic studies, the (re)integration of Hindu and Buddhist histories, and so forth. We hope to discuss the types of paradigm shifts that might be necessary across a wide variety of fields, and the types of ideal agenda for systematic investigation, publication, and dialogue over the coming decade, in order to involve mainstream academia in the process of completing, rather than resisting, the coming global renaissance.


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