Saturday, September 24th, 2011 Is Every Sanskritist a Nationalist?

Description

In the last several decades, arguments about Sanskrit as the language of imperialism or nationalism have come fast and furious. While these understandings are not inaccurate, and certainly necessary, they present only a partial picture of the use of Sanskrit today.

Drawing on over ninety interviews with women Sanskritists across both urban and rural centers in India, this lecture will bring to light the everyday uses of Sanskrit by women in the home and in the classroom. Moreover, it will examine the critiques of Hindu nationalism that many of these women and their households express, and the alternative literary productions of small Sanskrit journals and dramatic performances in which they participate. In so doing, this study emphasizes the possibilities of the secular,critical, and ironic uses of Sanskrit in the public sphere.

This public lecture is the plenary address for the 2011 Conference on South Asian Religions, a Graduate Student Conference at the University of Toronto.

Laurie L. Patton became Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Religion July 1, 2011. Previously, she was the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Religions at Emory University and directed Emory’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. From 2000 – 2007, she chaired the Department of Religion. In 2005, she received the Emory Williams award, Emory University’s highest award for teaching.

Patton received her BA from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in history of religions from the University of Chicago. An accomplished scholar, she is the author or editor of eight books and fifty articles on South Asian history, culture, and religion, including Bringing the Gods to Mind (2005) and Notes from a Mandala; Essays on the History of Indian Religions (2010). In addition, she has translated the classical Sanskrit text, “The Bhagavad Gita,” for the Penguin Classics Series. She is currently completing a work on women, Sanskrit and religious identity in contemporary India.She also has published two books of poetry: Fire’s Goal: Poems from a Hindu Year (2003) and Angel’s Task: Poems in Biblical Time (2011).

Patton has held Fulbright fellowships in India and Israel and lectured widely on religious pluralism and religion in the public sphere. She has held visiting appointments at the University of Tel Aviv, Hebrew University, and Deccan College (India). From 2000-2010, she was founder and co-convener of the Emory’s Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Initiative, which hosted regular summits on local practices and global implications in interfaith relations. She recently consulted with the White House Office of Faith-Based Community Partnerships on interfaith literacy and the U.S Department of Education’s Initiative on Civic Engagement. From 2008-2011, Patton served as president of the American Society for the Study of Religion.