Part of the 'Relating to the other: Hindu and Christian perspectives' series.
Lectures on Diaspora
Hindus and Hinduism in contemporary Britain (part of the 'Relating to the other: Hindu and Christian perspectives' series)
Dr Savita Vij
26 Feb 2004
Second generation Hindus: Foreign diplomats in the everyday melas of the multiculture
Savita Bhanot
26 Feb 2004
Second generation Hindus: Foreign diplomats in the everyday melas of the multiculture
Savita Bhanot
28 May 2004
Hindus in the diaspora: Their histories and traditions (six lectures)
Professor Pratap Kumar
18 Oct 2004
This lecture series includes a general survey of the histories of Hindu communities outside India. The series will focus on the development and the maintenance of their traditions.
More specifically the series will unpack issues related to the contemporary understanding of Hinduism and the implications that the developments of Diaspora Hinduism have on how we conceptualise Hinduism. The discourse will look at the orientalist constructions through classical texts and the predominantly oral traditions that have influenced the diaspora Hinduism. It will raise methodological and theoretical issues in conceptualising Hinduism.
Related: Diaspora
Transnational religion: Hindu traditions in Cambodia, 5th-12th centuries
Wahlstrom Lecture
Professor Vasudha Narayanan
19 Oct 2004
Professor Vasudha Narayanan (University of Florida, USA and Tamal Krishna Visiting Fellow, President of the American Academy of Religion [2001-2])
Related: Diaspora
Jalaram Bapa: Vernacular Practice and Belief in the Gujarati Hindu Diaspora
Dr Martin Woods
4 Mar 2011
The scholarly literature concerning Gujarati Hinduism in the U.K. has tended to pay attention to so-called ecumenical, rationalised and representative Hindu beliefs and practices. This has been at the expense of any scholarly enquiry as to the role that regional, vernacular traditions play in the religious lives of Gujarati Hindus in this country. This paper will argue that the Jalaram Bapa tradition, through vernacular practices and beliefs concerning miraculous events and narratives, is offering a contemporary and alternative religious expression to that offered by kind of representative Gujarati Hinduisms located in the U.K. today. Furthermore, it is doing so in a very public manner that appears to validate regional, vernacular traditions as opposed to marginalising or dismissing them.
Dr. Martin Wood is Lecturer in Hinduism and Methodologies in the Study of Religion, Bath Spa University College, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol. His doctoral research examined Gujarati Hinduism in the U.K. and New Zealand concerning identity, authority and beliefs and practices relating to devotional food offerings. Dr. Woods has now begun for focus his research more specifically on the 18th Century Gujarati saint Jalaram Bapa and the significant tradition that has developed since his death in the Gujarat and the wider Gujarati diaspora. He examines the Jalaram Bapa tradition in relation to other Hinduisms, especially those considered more representative (Swaminarayan, ISKCON) addressing questions of religious identity and presence in the public domain particularly in relation to the interaction between vernacular (miracles, healings, visitations, and possessions) and more rationalised beliefs and practices.
Related: Diaspora
Hinduism’s Transnational Diasaporias*: the view from Oceania
Shivdasani Seminar
Professor Purushottama Bilimoria
31 Oct 2011
(*aporias of diaspora)
Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University in Australia and Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne. Visiting Professor and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Dominican University, San Anselmo, and Shivadasani Fellow of Oxford University. His areas of specialist research and publications cover classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics; Continental thought; cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies; bioethics, and personal law in India. He is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Springer. He also edits a book series with Springer on Sophia: cross-cultural studies in Culture and Traditions, Recent publication is Indian Ethics I, Ashgate 2007; OUP 2008, and Sabdapramana: Word and Knowledge (Testimony) in Indian Philosophy (revised reprint), Delhi: DK PrintWorld 2008; ‘Nietzsche as ‘Europe’s Buddha’ and Asia’s Superman, Sophia, vol 47/3 2008; Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (with Andrew Irvine, Ken Surin et al) Springer 2009. Teaches and publishes on Hindu religious philosophies. Also works on political philosophy, pertaining to ethics of rights, theories of justice, capabilities, education and gender issues in third world, particularly South Asian, contexts.
Related: Diaspora
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and the West
Dr Ferdinando Sardella
3 May 2012
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's (1874–1937) passing away. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was the founder of the Gaudiya Math and the inspirator of a wide range of Vaishnava movements that have been established in the West from the 1930s and onwards, among others ISKCON or the Hare Krishna Movement. The lecture discusses the relationship of Bhaktisiddhanta with modernity, his theological ideas in relation to Christianity, and his approach to Western culture. Bhaktisiddhanta launched a missionary effort in the 1930s to London that involved members of the British cabinet. The lecture will also present some of the latest research on Bhaktisiddhanta featuring the recent discovery of his diary and an autobiographical sketch. The lecture is based on Sardella's monograph titled “Modern Hindu Personalism: The Life, Place and Works of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati” to be published by Oxford University Press.
Dr. Ferdinando Sardella is based at the Department of Theology, Uppsala University (Sweden) and is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.
Related: Diaspora, Modern Hinduism, Vaisnava