Doing research in and on India is not easy

The workshops for the morning session Day 1 at #ChangingNarratives are off to a flying start.

Organised by PG Diploma students of Culture Management

@ignca_delhi 

#Art #Inspiration #calligraphy #mandala 

Come cheer for the efforts of the students. https://t.co/0qhy8767PP

https://twitter.com/MusmCulMarktng/status/1235104605740007424?s=19

We're just entering into the 1st session 'WE ARCHIVE STORIES' featuring filmmaker Saba Dewan, filmmaker teacher Sameera Jain, Arundhati Ghosh of India Foundation for the Arts, archivist Ozge Calafoto and filmmaker Nina Sabnani moderated by writer and academic Navaneetha Mokkil.

https://twitter.com/IAWRT_India/status/1235066044802158602?s=19

Sameera Jain, filmmaker, editor and course director of a wonderful creative documentary programme at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication takes the floor.

Rammohan Roy is known as 1 of the first Hindu revivalists in the post Muslim rule era. Subhas Bose has brilliantly categorized Rammohan Roy as such (Indian Struggle). Since Rammohan is being grouped as a counterpoint 2 Vivekananda’s “casteism”, can we get some direct quotes?

https://twitter.com/sarkar_swati/status/1235194950633086983?s=19

Swami Dayananda Saraswati is also a Hindu revivalist.

2 of Gujarat’s greatest contribution to freedom struggle were not direct participants - Dayanand Saraswati & Shyamji Krishna Varma

https://twitter.com/sarkar_swati/status/1234626500718100483?s=19

I really don’t get the Kabuliwallah effect. It’s a beautiful story. I wish you leave works of beauty out, even if you can’t enjoy them. And, it’s a fact that overall certain communities produced less martyrs than others. U might want to take a look at Cellular stats

https://twitter.com/sarkar_swati/status/1234825076157100032?s=19

Since you are telling us what to do, let me, in turn tell you what you can do.

a) Dig out histories of peasant rebels of Gujarat and Rajasthan [many peasant rebels who fought and died against British] to counter Garga.

b) Read what Rabindranath said about Islam and Christianity.

The Communists have always disliked Rabindranath. He was always a `bourgeoisie poet' for them, always too Bengali Hindu for their tastes.. And modern day Sanghis, who haven't even read him properly, are telling us that Rabindranath is Leftist/Brit stooge/Islamophile ....

https://twitter.com/maidros78/status/1234850310864039936?s=19

Some of the strongest criticism of birth based castes came from Swami Dayananda Saraswati, but he is never mentioned !

https://twitter.com/KirtivardhanD/status/1235195449142906880?s=19

These people would prefer praising castism than embrace Dayanandas views,  because caste unfortunately is low on their list of priorities.

Fearless Freedom is, finally, available for sale on Amazon. 

A work of love, that is deeply personal and political, I send this book out in the world...

https://t.co/qOCbXTSmbq https://t.co/i6B0Gpt4ks

https://twitter.com/kavita_krishnan/status/1233278421196664832?s=19

Anarchy is riddled with so many obvious glaring errors in facts and chronology that I gave up halfway. I generally enjoy Willy’s work. Then again I’m a Maratha, so his blanket minimisation of our history stood out.

https://twitter.com/asc89/status/1234575001891639296?s=19

Sikhs have managed well enough. I suspect it’s because they have a robust diaspora. There isn’t a comparable Marathi community to speak of. Fwiw I was one of the early people on Wikipedia (circa 2005), started many of Maratha history articles.

I gave up on the place in 2009. A decade later, every single one of those pages is full of juvenile braggadocio, caste animus and just general puffery. *shrugs*

Spot on. The irony is that most young Indian adult males are not even aware of all the gynocentric laws that exist in the country while get into a relationship. It's only when shit hits the fan that they start discovering the trap. Massive male re-education needed in India.

https://twitter.com/EqualLawsNow/status/1234533420144852992?s=19

Not to belabor a point. 

IIT-Delhi course description: 

"Sex and gender; masculinities, gender as performance and identity; sexuality and gender identities, masculinity and femininity. Hegemonic masculinity; Inter-sections of gender and race, ethnicity, caste and class."

https://twitter.com/dubash/status/1234558222415138818?s=19

Why is a violated female body our go-to symbol for political exploitation? https://t.co/dXfn8FrzhI

https://twitter.com/scroll_in/status/1234591812955697153?s=19

Discourses of Hindutva masculinity also circulate through ideas of strength, progress, and development, with social media being a significant space for the transmission and circulation of these ideas.

https://t.co/bIYBk9r8Pu

https://twitter.com/epw_in/status/1234591899509559297?s=19

yes, he is (usually subtly) projecting current concerns (Hindutva, whatever) into the past.. Well, he knows his audience :)

https://twitter.com/omarali50/status/1234576298107756545?s=19

The sheer volume of cultural production (academic, semi academic/popular histories, children's books, TV etc etc) and cultural effervescence and dynamism it would take for us to render people like WD irrelevant is simply not something we can manage yet. Not in English anyway.

https://twitter.com/thegymnosophist/status/1234604902963437568?s=19

Because anyone sane keeps away. Doing research in and on India is *not* easy, for historiographical reasons as well as infrastructural. One must truly love the place or have a burning curiosity. I, for example, approached India mostly through foreign sources

As Wikipedia attaches a lot of importance to citations, they attack your citations from publicly available sources.

These editors ensure by one method or the other that their narrative on a particular page does not change.

This is mainly the case with political pages.

https://twitter.com/Soumyadipta/status/1235205845496954880?s=19

The complex wheels of Wikipedia grind very slowly.  It is effectively the opposite of twitter in this regard.  Twitter is therefore prone to angry mobs and extreme disinformation.  Wikipedia can make mistakes, of course.  But it is a very different environment from social media.

https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1235209327184670723?s=19

Excellent investigation by @UnSubtleDesi exposing Deepesh Raj (of @Intel ?) who uses @Wikipedia to run a vicious anti-Hindu hate campaign. Given the poison he is spreading in association with Wikipedia as intermediary, both should be prosecuted. @rsprasad https://t.co/bWnQlknsIG

https://twitter.com/KanchanGupta/status/1234724132719218689?s=19

This tweet captures the tragedy of Modi's hijacking and cultification of the Hindutva movement.

https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1234552896018173952?s=19

Yes in the play of forces Modi has part to play his & others of us have ours to play too. The role that Modi inhabits, the power that is in his hands is too great to be allowed to go waste. As Arjuna had his choice NOT to do his dharma Modi has too. That is why he must be opposed.

https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1234600143049109510?s=19

Yes the main question is WHAT is going to be stabilized? If he is simply providing a corruption-free poorly-performing Hindu-averse secular socialist Congress-ideology govt then he is STABILIZING and PERPETUATING the very problem he was elected to change in the first place.

In the ultimate analysis Yoga mattered. Not the deities. Mother Worship is there in every religion, which is the main thing in this yoga. But the fanatic muslims n their intelligentsia refuse to understand that. Syed Mehdi Imam wrote a good bk on Savitri. A pioneer from Lucknow.

The central surrender is to the Mother. Sri Aurobindo says at many places whoever you offer your devotion there is there one recipient-- the World Mother. But people think that there Ishta Devtas receive it. The recipient is the mediating force- mediatrix. Always.

https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1235161579538219009?s=19

The " deities matter" and Sri Aurobindo has given infinite freedom  in his path, the personal religious choice is always there. But the Supramental yoga is impossible without the Mother. Only the Mother can break the lid to initiate the Supermind descent.

https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1235162693570613248?s=19

Sri Aurobindo is the future of Mankind. Naturally the progress is slow. All others will take a backseat 50 years later. There will be only Sri Aurobindo with plenty of Overmen controlling the scene.

https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1235137292601196545?s=19

But the "Hindus" have no copyright to Sanatan Dharma. Sri Aurobindo liberates the 3 major texts, the Vedas, the Upanishads n the Gita from the clutches of the fanatic Hindus n alone brings out their true yoga. They were addressed to Man for their transformation.

https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1235221686611513345?s=19

Because in no other religion or cultural framework is found the bedrock of spirituality, the living Shruti of the Veda, the Secret-Word..it was inevitable that Master was born in our Dharma..His SaptaChatustaya was founded upon the already rare heights of the Veda..

https://twitter.com/kalisbrood/status/1235087251467456512?s=19

The deities matter, for the forms and modes of expression of this Yoga’s force is not a colourless neutral...it does take aspects of some older religions, say Egyptian and Nordic for example, but dominantly it is Hindu in character..Satprem’s experiences attest to this.

https://twitter.com/kalisbrood/status/1235145702432366592?s=19

Absolutely. She alone receives. Yet there is a precision and fullness in receiving each expression and inflection of Her in each layer. https://t.co/QdZ0ZJutNo

No confusions there. Contention was about characterising Integral Yoga as something that bloomed in isolation and not connected to Sanatana Dharma...while its genesis and experiential fact indicates it is but a continuation of the thread that the Vedic Rishis began...

https://twitter.com/kalisbrood/status/1235216353360891905?s=19

While this aim sounds impressive, it's impossible to have a view from nowhere. Bias or prejudice lurk always and the urge to win brownie points. The function of philosophy however is to understand the world sans distortions imposed by socio-cultural lenses https://t.co/MccX4Hifjw

https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1235181701925441536?s=19

Precisely and that's where a new religion is born. And a new thread!

https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1235187886086950918?s=19

Defining spirituality may not be difficult but finding one with access to that is. Religion on the other hand is like an umbrella under which different persons with common faith take shelter for social utilities. The Mother among others is one such theme.  https://t.co/TA40KS9mIW

https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1235195861409251328?s=19

No disputing with your apprehensions but from what I have observed, it's not in human hands. Always some absurdity becomes normal, I can cite so many examples. So the current phase is also as per Divine plan, there must be some purpose, even contradiction. Expecting ideal in vain

https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1234596653295906818?s=19

Instead of tweeting KG level facts on Sri Aurobindo, reading the Wikipedia article on him is more profitable https://t.co/uQLs5i1JFa

More intrepid can check his Complete Works and allied resources https://t.co/3qEVAapxfZ

Those who get headache to read https://t.co/bHgfESwBOb

https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1234497245841698817?s=19

We have seen three phases in the course of the last sixty years.

1. Socialism will bring equality and freedom from exploitation

2. Market will force freedom and access to equal opportunities

3. Internet will usher in transparency and fairplay

The three have failed; Cartels rule.

https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1235136923993284608?s=19

VIP VAK: We need to talk about Human Unity https://t.co/BKKToYN3cK

Tusar Nath Mohapatra @NathTusar, Director (SELF - 2005)

#SavitriEra of those who adore,

Om #SriAurobindo & #TheMother

https://t.co/upjH4BU1Q1

https://t.co/JJS7HM0DGn

https://t.co/9IaBwJNfVI

https://t.co/BA3NuhB6Lq

https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1234546286935891970?s=19