Dharma Civilization Foundation – The Opportunity and the Challenge

Dharma Civilization Foundation – The Opportunity and the Challenge

A student of Pre-modern India, of virtually any Caste or tradition, could gain access to a thorough grounding in the spiritual philosophy and value system that supplemented the family traditions and practices, and provided a context for the cultural training and learning that was imparted at home by the family. Modern India has squandered that heritage […]

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The Wendy Doniger Controversy and the need for Hindu Theologians

The Wendy Doniger Controversy and the need for Hindu Theologians

The decision by Penguin (India) to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s controversial book,The Hindus: An Alternative History, has, not unsurprisingly, elicited a huge volume and range of responses. On one side are those who see the issue solely as one of freedom of expression and worry that Penguin’s capitulation undermines free speech. On the other side are […]

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Dharma in the Academia

Dharma in the Academia

Never before in history has Indian culture been studied by more students than it is today in the curricula of formal education systems in America. It is an integral part of the today’s World Civilization and World History courses at both K-12 and college levels. Through these courses millions of students acquire “authoritative”—but questionable—knowledge about […]

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The Dharma Traditions of India

The Dharma Traditions of India

Among the religious and spiritual traditions of the world, the traditions born in the Indian sub-continent, belong to a family. They were all born from the great mother tradition called “Sanatana Dharma” that can be translated as “Eternal Dharma”. In fact the word “Religion” itself is a category of thought that is of Western origin […]

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The Why of DCF

The Why of DCF

One of the foundations of Indian Civilization (also called Indic or Bharatiya – to use a Sanskrit word) is the conception of the human potential for spiritual and transcendental realization. The primacy accorded this tendency towards the spiritual and transcendental, as well as the great plurality of perceptions of ultimate reality and the multiplicity of […]

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The Lens of Suspicion

The Lens of Suspicion

When approaching the systematic academic study of Religion in academic settings, there are two fundamental positions that a scholar may lean towards – the position of a believer of the faith tradition, or the position of a dis-believer. While these two positions – belief and dis-belief are two ends of a spectrum of possibilities, any […]

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