Hindu/Sikh/Jain Scholars

Professor Pal Ahluwalia was Pro Vice-Chancellor and Vice President of Education Arts and Social Sciences at the University of South Australia until he recently joined the senior management team of the University of Portsmouth. His main research interests lie in the areas of African studies, social and cultural theory.

Professor Ahluwalia is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and was appointed to a UNESCO Chair in Transnational Diasporas and Reconciliation Studies in 2008. At the University of South Australia, Professor Ahluwalia led the development of new research centres such as the Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Studies.

Professor Ahluwalia has always maintained a strong international research presence having previously held professorial roles at the University of California, and Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he was also the director of the Centre for Post-Colonial Studies.

Swami Atmapriyananda is the Vice Chancellor (Executive Head) of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, a multi-campus University trying to actualize Swami Vivekananda’s educational vision and devoted to teaching and research in a variety of unique Faculties on certain ‘thrust areas’ which are also ‘gap areas’ in that these areas are scarcely addressed by other conventional Universities, through the following Schools: (i) School of Indian Heritage, (ii) School of Mathematical Sciences, (iii) School of Agriculture and Rural Development and (iv) School of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physical Education. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Madras, India, in Theoretical Physics for his work in elementary particle theory and has a number of research publications in reputed international journals. Inspired by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideology, he joined the Ramakrishna Order as a monk in 1978 and has been serving in the field of higher education for more than three decades and a half. As a monk and an educationist, his present interests are: (i) Swami Vivekananda’s educational vision education for character building in the youth (ii) Yoga-Vedanta vis-à-vis modern science, (iii) Ramakrishna-Vivekananda thought in the context of present day challenges, (iv) Consciousness Studies as taught in the Upanishads, (v) Synthesis of the four yogas as taught by Swami Vivekananda and Bhagavad-Gita, and (vi) Harmony of religions as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna. He has a good number of publications on the above subjects in the journals of Ramakrishna Order and of various organizations. He also participates on invitation in various religious and educational seminars, symposia, colloquia, workshops and conferences in India and abroad organized by Universities, research institutes and religious organizations on the subjects of his interest as mentioned above.

Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is Associate Professor of South Asia Studies at Wellesley College.

Balwant Singh Dhillon is Head of the Department of Guru Nanak Studies, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He studied History in Rajasthan University, Jaipur, and Religious Studies in Panjabi University, Patiala. He was awarded a Doctoral degree by Guru Nanak Dev University for his thesis on The Sikh Gurus and the Mughal State. He has 25 years of teaching and research experience, and has published three books and numerous articles.

Interfaith activist and Sikh scholar Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University where he has launched an Asian Studies Minor, served as Associate Director for CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice, and will serve as the Center’s Director beginning in 2014. In addition to offerings in Christianity, global religions, and Indian thought, he teaches a yearly course on Sikh tradition and has twice won Diversity Professor of the Year since he joined the faculty in 2009.

Acharya Sri Shrivatsa Goswami is a member of an eminent family of spiritual leaders and scholars at Sri Radharamana Mandir, Vrindaban. He has toured extensively to participate in conferences on philosophy and religion and lecture in major universities around the world. Among other commitments, he is connected with several important international peace and environmental interfaith movements.

Satendra Khanna is Associate Professor of the Practice, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University.

Amanda Lucia’s research engages encounters between Hinduism and American religions. Her first book is an ethnographic account of Mata Amritanandamayi’s guru movement in the United States, entitled Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace (2014). Lucia’s current research investigates the creation of sacred space and subjectivity through cultural appropriation in contemporary transformational and yoga festivals in the United States. She is also engaged in a collaborative humanities studio researching religious festivals in immigrant communities in Southern California. Her articles and reviews have been published in Nidān, CrossCurrents, History of Religions, Journal of Asian Studies, and Journal of Hindu Studies.

Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh is a Sikh faith practitioner. A civil and structural engineer by profession, he took early retirement to answer an inner calling. Bhai Sahib is third in line of spiritual leaders and serves as Chairman of the Sikh registered charity, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ). ‘Bhai Sahib’ is a conferred title, acknowledging his historic contributions towards faith propagation and the conservation of sacred and historical Sikh shrines. He is an International Trustee of Religions for Peace, Trustee of Museum of World’s Religions (UK) and a recognised ‘Interfaith Visionary’, holding the Juliet Hollister Award from the Temple of Understanding. He promotes intra / inter-faith cooperation and peace-building through shared values, locally and internationally and is working on a Charter for Forgiveness. Bhai Sahib recently spoke at the UN General Assembly on ‘common ground for the common good’ on the occasion of World Interfaith Harmony Week 2012.

Eleanor Nesbitt is Professor Emeritus (Religions and Education), in the Institute of Education, University of Warwick). Her ethnographic research has focused on the perpetuation and adaptation of Sikh, Hindu and Christian tradition. Her many publications include Sikhism A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2005), Intercultural Education : Ethnographic and Religious Approaches (Sussex Academic Press, 2004) and Interfaith Pilgrims (Quaker Books, 2003).

Samani Charitra Prajna has received her MA degree in Comparative Religion and Philosophy at the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute in Ladnun, Rajasthan, India, where she is now the Vice-Chancellor. The JVBI is an academic platform for advanced studies, research, training and
dissemination of Oriental & Conventional Philosophy, Religion, Culture & Values. In addition, she teaches preksha meditation and stress management.

Dr. Anantanand Rambachan is Chair and Professor of Religion, Philosophy and Asian Studies at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, USA, where he has been teaching since 1985. He received his Ph.D and M.A. (Distinction) degrees from the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom. Prof. Rambachan is the author of several books, book-chapters and articles in scholarly journals. Among his books are, Accomplishing the Accomplished, The Limits of Scripture, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, The Hindu Vision and Gitamrtam: The Essential Teachings of the Bhagavadgita. Prof. Rambachan has been involved in the field of interreligious relations and dialogue for over twenty-five years, as a Hindu participant and analyst. He is very active in the dialogue programs of the World Council of Churches, and is participant in the consultations of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican and an educator on interfaith issues in Minnesota. He is currently an advisor to the Pluralism Project (Harvard University), a member of the International Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, a trustee on the Board of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and a member of the Theological Education Committee of the American Academy of Religion. The University of the West Indies recently honored Professor Rambachan with the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Dr. Deepak Sarma, professor of South Asian religions and philosophy at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader(2011), Hinduism: A Reader (2008), Epistemologies and the Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry: Doctrine in Madhva Vedanta (2005) and An Introduction to Madhva Vedanta (2003). He was a guest curator of Indian Kalighat Paintings, an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is a curatorial consultant for the Department of Asian Art of the Cleveland Museum of Art. After earning a BA in religion from Reed College, Sarma attended the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he received a PhD in the philosophy of religions. His current reflections concern cultural theory, racism, and post-colonialism.

Arvind Sharma has been a member of the faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University since 1987, where he lectures on Hinduism, and on comparative religion. He has held fellowships at the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, and the Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and at the Brookings Institute. He also received a Maxwell Fellowship and was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.

Ashok Vohra, Professor of Philosophy, Delhi University has published more than One hundred seventy research papers and articles in national and international research journals, anthologies and newspapers. He taught for over a decade (1975-1986) at St Stephens College. He was the Member Secretary of Indian Council of Philosophical Research from 1995 to 1998, and Director of Gandhi Bhawan, Delhi University from 1998 to 2000. He was the Vice-president of UNESCO’s Asia Pacific Philosophy Education for Democracy (APPEND) for a term of two years to December 2000. He is the author of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mind (London, Sydney, 1986; and is the co-author of Radhakrishnan: His Life and Ideas (New York, 1990). He has translated into Hindi Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (Delhi, 1996); On Certainty (Delhi, 1998); Culture and Value (Delhi, 1998); and Radhakrishnan Memorial Lectures 1996 and 1997 (Shimla, 2000). He has co-edited several additional works. He has delivered special lectures in various Universities in India, USA, UK, Austria, Japan, Thailand, Kenya, North Korea, South Korea, Lithuania, Greece, Czechoslovakia, and Canada. He writes regularly for the Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Tribune, and The Pioneer on philosophical themes with a view to popularise them.