Schedule

Panelists: Elisa Freschi, Munema Moiz, Aneri Patel, Srilata Raman, Ajay Rao; moderated by Alessandro Graheli. Panel Abstract: Rāmānuja is commonly recognised as the founder of the Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta school of Vaiṣṇavism, which has been one of the key players in the religious and philosophical landscape of South India for the last millennium. Among his works, Rāmānuja's Śaraṇāgatigadya, 'Discourse on Surrender to God,' is a key text in the history of Sanskrit thought and of South Asia in general (for instance, one of its verses is now part of the national hymn of India). The Śaraṇāgatigadya has been commented upon in Maṇipravāḷam (Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai, traditional dates 1167--1262) and in Sanskrit (by Veṅkaṭanātha, traditional dates 1269-1370, and Sudarśana Sūri, an older contemporary of Veṅkaṭanātha). The commentaries vary in length (with Veṅkaṭanātha's one being much longer) and content. Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai's commentary is one of the earliest examples of the engagement of scholars and teachers writing in Maṇipravāḷam with the philosophy and theology of Rāmānuja and it is therefore crucial to understand the early development of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta. By contrast, Veṅkaṭanātha has been the main systematiser of the school. Hence, his commentary marks some elements that later became part of the "orthodoxy" of the school. In this roundtable, we will discuss some of the key topics of the Śaraṇāgatigadya as highlighted by its commentators.

Panelists: Bilal Haroon, Amina Ejaz, Sarwat Viqar, Osama Ahmad; moderated by Arafaat Valiani.

Panelists: Devayani Shenoy, Julie Vig, Nandini Rawal; moderated by Shobna Nijhawan.

All conference participants and attendees are warmly invited for lunch; vegetarian and non-vegetarian options will be provided.

Social justice, an important framework for transformative change in the contemporary world, is often framed in the West as a secular, liberal, and modern project. However, social and indeed environmental justice concerns are arguably found in all religions and the religious has long been a site of and space for protest and reform. This panel explores the emergence and manifestation of social justice traditions within Sikhism, which notably arose so as to challenge Hindu caste, and arguably gender, practices, and thus to reframe collectivity and community. Our papers explore some of the ethical, spiritual, identitive, material, pragmatic, sustainable, and socially and environmentally engaged dimensions of Sikh traditions such as langar, karah parshad, and sevā, the ways in which Sikhs envision, embrace, give voice to, and seek to enact protest, resistance, reform, and social change, and the confluences of spiritual, secular, and material in the Sikh pursuit of social and environmental justice. We also consider the broader potential of Sikhi in imagining, creating, and enacting justice amid and across community borders and in contexts where Sikhs and Sikh identity are marginalized and politicized, as well as the as yet incomplete manifestation of Sikhism's justice ideals. Panelists: Nicola Mooney, Andrea Farran, Anne Murphy, Zabeen Khamisa; moderated by Arafaat Valiani.