Infinity Foundation India Activity Report: FY 2018 (1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018)

Infinity Foundation India was incorporated in Aug 2016 at Chennai with the aim to carry out activities conducive to the character of the Indian Nation and to the advancement of national integrity, education which will help build an Indian civilizational grand narrative. There are four tracks of activities:

  • Original R&D/book publishing on various topics on Indian civilization and culture
  • Swadeshi Indology Conference series: This conference is intended to take up the subject matters and produce more scholarship and publish more books. The idea is to build a Home Team of intellectuals of the highest standard.
  • E-learning: Through this track, IFI develops courses based on topics where it has research leadership.
  • Outreach. This includes popular level mass distribution, using media and social media.

Areas of research include:

  • Development of Indian Grand Narrative
  • History of Indian Science and Technology
  • Dharmic critique of 5 waves of Indology – Socialism/ Marxism, Postcolonial studies, Postmodernism, Subalternism, Neocolonialism
  • Digestion/ Appropriation, U-turn Theory and Western Universalism
  • Sanskrit Non-Translatables book proposals from various subject areas
    • Dance
    • Music
    • Arts
    • Yoga
    • Ayurveda
    • Linguistics

Swadeshi Indology Conference

The Swadeshi Indology (“SI”) Conference series has been envisioned to counter the 250-year-old narrative of Western Indology, the genre of Orientalism that focuses on India. As is well known, Western Indology helped formulate and legitimize the British colonial policies and played a very crucial role in the successful colonization and oppression of the Indian peoples. The Swadeshi Indology Conference Series and publications intend to analyze and respond to the well-orchestrated, systematic attack on:

  • the foundational elements (the Veda-s, Upanishad-s, Itihasa-s, and Puraṇa-s),
  • the living principles (the purushartha-s and the varṇashrama system),
  • the cultural manifestations (shastra-s, kavya-s, and kala-s) and
  • the sacredness of the still living articulations (art, temples, kumbha-mela, festivals, family and social-structures)

From 2016 till date, IFI has conducted 4 SI conferences on various issues pertaining to the advancement of national integrity, education and the building of an Indian civilizational narrative.

Infinity Foundation India organized two high impact conferences attended by many luminaries and top scholars from across India and abroad. The details of the conferences are provided below.

SI 3 – Tamil Nadu – The Land of Dharma

The third edition of the SI conference series was held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras from 22nd – 24th of December 2017. Under its theme “Tamil Nadu – The Land of Dharma”, and was attended by top luminaries across various disciplines including noted industrialists Mohandas Pai and Vallabh Bhanshali, renowned neuroscientist Shri V. S. Ramachandran, and Padma Bhushan awardee archaeologist R. Nagaswamy, and many others.

Organized by Infinity Foundation India, the conference’s focus was on the underlying unity of different cultural streams and people in Tamil Nadu, within the state and with rest of India, and how certain forces are trying to break this unity. Top scholars from across India addressed the issue of divisive, separatist, and racist discourse currently prevailing in Tamil Nadu, including the exploitation of caste and untouchability, Aryan invasion theory, Dravidian movement, Hinduphobia, etc. The conference had paper presentations in three parallel sessions from scholars, artists and researchers from various fields. Papers were presented on various themes of the conference as laid out in the concept paper. The sessions were very well attended with participation of scholars as well as students from IIT Madras and other institutes.

Two journals were produced based on selected essays as part of the Proceedings of the Swadeshi Indology Conference Series:

  • Land Of Dharma: Studies in Tamil Civilization
  • Fount of Culture: Studies in Tamil Civilization

A list of videos produced are given below:

S.NoVideo Title
1Swadeshi Indology 3 Inaugural Events (with Proceedings Book Release)
2Padmabhushan Dr. R. Nagaswamy’s Plenary Talk – Tamil Nadu Land of Dharma
3Panel Discussion on the proposed Harvard Tamil Chair
4Swadeshi Indology 3 – Panel Discussion on Dravidian Hinduphobia
5Swadeshi Indology 3 – Nilesh Oak’s Plenary Talk on Aryan Invasion Theories
6Prof. Kanagasabapathi’s Plenary Talk on Jati, Kinship and Entrepreneurial Development in Tamil Nadu
7Panel Discussion on Hinduphobia – Legal Perspectives – Panelists . Sri Ragavachari , Sri Ayush Garg
8Panel Discussion on the Current state of Aryan Theories
9Panel Discussion on the Nature of Pan Indic Traditions
10Panel Discussion on the Spiritual Traditions of Tamil Nadu
11SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 1 – Session 1 – Spiritual Streams of Tamilnadu
12SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 1 – Session 2 – Spiritual Streams of Tamilnadu
13SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 2 – Session 1 – Roadmap for the Future
14SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 2 – Session 2 – Modern Hinduphobia and Dravidian Movement
15SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 2 – Session 3 – Roadmap for the Future
16SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 2 – Session 4 – Modern Hinduphobia and the Dravidian Movement
17SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 1 – Session 3 – Embedded Sacredness
18SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 3 – Session 1 – Dravidian Movement and Evidence
19SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 3 – Session 2 – Dravidian Movement and Evidence
20SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 3 – Session 3 – Dravidian Movement and Evidence
21SI 3 Paper Presentations – Track 3 – Session 4 – Caste, Untouchability and Hinduism
22SI 3 Mini-Paper Presentations – Track 2 – Embedded Sacredness
23SI 3 Mini-Paper Presentations – Track 1 – Spiritual Streams of Tamilnadu
24SI 3 Mini- Paper Presentations – Track 3 – Tamil Identity Reasserting its Pan-Indic Nature
SI 4 – Indian Culture and Psychology: A Consciousness Perspective

The fourth edition of the SI conference series, jointly organized by the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, and Infinity Foundation India, was held at University of Delhi from 22nd – 27th of March 2018. Some of the themes covered were:

  • critical Issues in Indian Psychology
  • theoretical Models & Applications in Education
  • theoretical Models & Applications in Clinical and Counseling Psychology
  • theoretical Models & Applications in Organizational Psychology
  • Research in Indian Psychology: First person, second person, and third person
  • toward a shastra for Indian Psychology.

Top neuroscientists, psychologists and inner sciences experts from across the globe participated in this week long conference including Anand Paranjape (Canada), Matthijs Cornelissen (Netherlands), Vladimir Yatsenko (Russia), Dr Anuradha Choudhry (IIT Kharagpur), Father Joseph Mannath (University of Madras) and many other luminaries. A total of 9 international and 54 Indian experts presented their papers on various aspects of Indian mind science. Noted public intellectual Rajiv Malhotra discussed the unacknowledged contributions of India to the development of the field of mind sciences in the West. Multiple papers and panels discussed how the dharmic nature of India’s approach to the concept of mind sciences makes psychology not a separate but an integrated part of individual practice.

There were workshops on the sidelines of the main conference where themes from organizational behavior to IP and multiple concentrations were covered. The conference was spread over 6 days and was hosted by the Department of Psychology, Delhi University. Students and faculty members expressed tremendous interest and the event boasted a packed audience throughout its duration.

A list of videos produced are given below:

S.NoVideo Title
1Swadeshi Indology 4 – Indian Psychology – Talk by Dr. Ram Manohar
2Swadeshi Indology 4 – Indian Psychology – Talk by Dr. Rajiv Nagarkar
3Swadeshi Indology 4 – Indian Psychology – Talk by Dr. Anuradha Choudry

It may be noted that many additional videos were recorded but have not been released for the public yet. This is because some of the session were closed door sessions. Moreover some of the research presented was experimental work in progress R&D. Infinity Foundation India plans to release the videos for wider dissemination at the earliest possible opportunity.

Lectures and Educational Videos

Infinity Foundation India was involved in

  • organizing interviews/ panel discussion and incidentals
  • video shooting/ recording/ instrument costs
  • video editing

In these discussions, a wide range of social, economic and cultural issues were discussed.

IFI organized a very important discussion in Chennai between noted political and economic analysts S Gurumurthy and Rajiv Malhotra. Gurumurthy explained the origins of modern capitalism in the west, and how western model of economics has permeated all modern theories, and has been championed by international agencies such as World Bank, United Nations, etc. He concludes by stating that the global economic community has reversed its stand and concluded that the Western model is not suitable as a universal standard, and so India must develop and pursue its own development model.

The interview was video taped and shared for public consumption.

S.NoVideo Title
1Interview with S. Gurumurthy Part 1: The Rise and Fall of Western Development Models
2Interview with S. Gurumurthy Part 2: Prospects for Indian Development Models
3Interview with S. Gurumurthy Part 3: India’s Future in the World

Another important discussion organized by IFI in Chennai was between Padma Vibhushan R Nagaswamy and public intellectual Rajiv Malhotra. Dr. Nagaswamy stressed how Tamil civilization was an integral part of the larger Indian civilization and that attempts to portray it as opposed to India are harmful for the unity of India.

He compared the Tamil Tirukkural with Sanskrit Dharmashastras, and showed how the sequence as well as exact structure matches perfectly. The interview was video taped and shared for public consumption.

S.NoVideo Title
1Dr. Nagaswamy Demolishes Dravidianism: Part 1
2Dr. Nagaswamy Compares Thirukkural & Dharma Shastra
3Dr. Nagaswamy Explains How & Why Tamil Culture got Positioned as Anti-Sanskrit.

A few other important discussions organized by IFI are mentioned below:

1Youth Issues. Mohandas Pai’s Game-Changing Ideas on Education, Employment and Public Policy.
2Culture & Economic Empowerment – Discussion with Mohandas Pai
3Winning the Battle of the Mind: Conversation with Mohandas Pai
4Evaluating Modi: Interview with Mohandas Pai
5Is India Becoming a Digital Colony? Conversation with Mohandas Pai.