Infinity Foundation India Activity Report: FY 2021 (1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021)

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
  • Impact of Artificial Intelligence on:
    • Economy
    • Geopolitics
    • Agency
    • Spirituality
    • India
  • 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 Series

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 6 SI conferences on various issues pertaining to the advancement of national integrity, education and the building of an Indian civilizational narrative. Due to the prevailing Covid pandemic, IFI was not able to conduct any Swadeshi Indology Conference in FY2021.

Lectures, Discussions and Educational Videos

Infinity Foundation India was involved in organizing interviews and panel discussion where a wide range of social, economic and cultural issues were discussed.

Esther Dhanraj Show

Infinity Foundation India launched a series of educational videos by noted rationalist Esther Dhanraj where, she discusses various issues like blind faith, superstition and religious dogma, and how to overcome them in order to foster national integration and harmony.

In these online discussions she interviews various prominent members across different religious communities like Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism and gets their perspective on different ills plaguing society and what can be done to solve such issues. Some of the guests interviewed are:

  1. Dr. Anush Solomon Joy, a former evangelist
  2. Jerome Anto, a Christian member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
  3. Steve Baughman, American author and lawyer
  4. Dr Raj Vedam – Computer Scientist and philosopher
  5. D Amin – Author and speaker at Islamic Networks Group

IK Shorts

In FY2021, Infinity Foundation India launched its first season of Intellectual Kshatriya Shorts (IK Shorts) – a series of short 2 to 3 minute animated videos which talk about different issues confronting Indian civilization. A few videos are given below.

  1. Indian history
  2. Calculus and Indian mathematics
  3. Indian martial arts
  4. Caste System origins in Europe

These videos were very popular and widely shared on social media channels like Twitter and Instagram.

Discussion on Covid and the role of Ayurveda

In this online discussion series between Vaidya Rammanohar and Dr Priyanka Shandilya in September 2020, they discuss how a “new disease” can be understood using the seed principles laid out in the classical texts. The present disease that is afflicting people worldwide could be understood on the lines of Jwara and broadly brought under “Bhuta abhihangaja Jwara”(Extraneous), which eventually becomes “Nija”(endogenous-involving the doshas).

Intellectual Kshatriya Portal

In FY 2021, Infinity Foundation India published over 25 high quality essays and research papers in its “Intellectual Kshatriya”. The IK platform which provides an opportunity for scholars on Indian civilization to share their research and editorials on different aspects of Indian civilization and culture has gained immense popularity since its inception last year. High quality essays written by researchers and scholars from various disciplines across India, were published in the IK portal after receiving guidance as well as review by the in-house editorial team. There were discussions on different topics like spirituality, mind sciences, leadership, Dharma, social issues and other topics. 5 popular articles are mentioned below.

Educational Material in Hindi

In order to disseminate IFI’s scholarship, educational videos were dubbed in Hindi. A list of some of the important videos are given below: