12/25/2024 – Rising Scholar Shruti Dixit

I met a rising academic scholar in Hinduism at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego a month ago. Check this out. This is TenOnReligion.

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This episode is being released on Christmas Day 2024. My place is decorated and this is my Christmas tree decorated by the lovely Mrs. Dr. B. It looks nice, doesn’t it? Anywho, when I was at the American Academy of Religion in San Diego in November of 2024 I met a rising academic scholar in Hinduism. This is Shruti Dixit, a doctoral student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and she’s pretty involved there. She studies Raimon Panikkar, a Hindu-Christian scholar who was the subject of my dissertation. She’s been a graduate teaching assistant, and a coordinator of the Network of Hinduism in Dialogue. This was a great conversation and I think you’re gonna like, so let’s get into it.

Dr. B.: Hello, we are here today with a rising scholar in Hinduism Shruti Dixit. Shruti, how are you doing today?

Shruti: Hi Mark, I'm good. How are you?

Dr. B.: All right. I met Shruti just about a month ago at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego. It turns out we have sort of a common area of research with Raimon Panikkar, but I studied Raimon Panikkar more on the religious pluralism or the Christianity side and she studies it more from the Hinduism side. So, we're going to learn more about that in a minute, but we have a few questions to ask Shruti today and the first thing is you're currently in doctoral studies at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Tell us a little bit about when and how you became interested in the academic field of religion.

Shruti: Thank you for the question. I think it was mostly because of two reasons. So back in 2020 when I was doing my Masters in Comparative Indian Literature at Delhi University, I got the opportunity to read some excerpts from Hindu classical texts such as the Puranas and various vernacular versions of the Ramayana, so that made me aware of the richness of the Hindu tradition and the text that exist and also made me a bit curious to learn more about the religion and the religious texts. And secondly, during the covid-19 pandemic I was very much curious to learn about the concept of death and the end of the world so I was just interested and intrigued to know how different religions approach death and what do they think about the end of the world which was becoming the topic of that time. So that made me interested in the field of religious studies and I think that is what got me here.

Dr. B: Yeah well, I mean obviously the topic of death and or the end of the world is one of the most popular religious topics that people in in all religions right so I'm sure you've learned a lot as you tried to research some of that. So, at St. Andrews, what has your experience been like there? I mean, is it what you expected coming from India to the UK, or has anything surprised you?

Shruti: So, I think I had no expectations at all because it was the first time I was traveling internationally and moving anywhere at all apart from India [Mark: Wow, wow] so that was a big move. And I had no expectations but it has been a very positive experience because St. Andrews is such a peaceful, calm, and beautiful place that it makes you comfortable I think as soon as you get there so there's no restlessness at all. It's a small community. You get to know everyone. You get to know all the places. So, it's like living with the people you know so it's just that comfort and I think that is why people call it the bubble. Like you get there and you don't feel like going anywhere else so I think it's been good in that sense.

Dr. B.: Have you found any Indian food in Scotland?

Shruti: Yeah, I do, I mean, there are a couple of places but mostly in Edinburgh. So the good ones are in Edinburgh, but we do had some. I do have some in St. Andrews and Dundee as well which is quite nearby.

Dr. B: Okay, about how far away is that from I mean from Edinburgh?

Shruti: St. Andrews is about an hour and a half from Edinburgh.

Shruti: Yes, of course. So, I have been a graduate teaching assistant for almost 2 years now and it has been quite a learning experience for both me and I'm sure for the students as well. So you're only able to be a graduate assistant after you pass your first year so as a part of my tutoring experience I have tutored courses such as World Religions, Christianity in the Global Context, and Religions in the 21st Century, so I believe that tutoring has made me more closer to understand what students feel about what they're learning and what methods suit the best. So, at times it's easier to just test out methods during the tutorials like in what way are the students able to understand what you're trying to teach. And sometimes it might be a little bit difficult to initiate conversations, discussions in the classroom, but it's just a process and you get to know about it as you move forward, so I think it's been good.

Dr. B: Yeah it's a little bit different being on the other side of the... [Shruti: yes]... the table, right?

Shruti: It's I think being a graduate teaching assistant is like you are there for the first time so you're learning with the students as well and it's sometimes surprising. The essays are very different. They bring out different perspectives so it becomes quite interesting to engage with them and just carry forward the discussion.

Dr. B: Yeah, it's and it's always fun trying to figure out what's the best way to create content and then deliver that content and then as you say try to ask engaging questions to foster dialogue. All of that is a process, isn't it?

Shruti: Yeah, and I think with a subject such as religion, it's sometimes very difficult as well because you know you should know what words to use. You should always use words correctly, frames and tenses correctly, because there can be misunderstandings, misconceptions, so I think it's quite difficult, but it is a good experience.

Dr. B: And I'm sure it's a little, I mean coming from India, where English is widely spoken obviously, it's probably a little bit easier for you that maybe scholars from other areas where English isn't as widely spoken as India so.

Shruti: Yeah definitely, it makes it a bit easier.

Dr. B: Yeah. Now I, as some of my viewers know on the TenOnReligion channel, I did my dissertation on Raimon Panikkar, and for those of you that don't know, Raimon Panikkar is a Hindu-Christian scholar. His mother was Roman Catholic from Barcelona, Spain, and father was a Hindu from southern India whose native language was Malayalam, if I understand correctly. Now that you have researched, and published, and delivered lectures on Panikkar, I want to hear some of your thoughts. So, I often have conversations with Christians about Panikkar, or people more from a Western background and so on and so forth, but being from India, your perspective is probably a little bit different. So, what do you think are some of the important ideas that Panikkar contributes to this sort of general field of interreligious understanding?

Dr. B.: Yeah, thank you. So, when I began this journey of reading Panikkar and understanding his work, I was also fairly new to it, and I figured out that although Panikkar has written two volumes on Hinduism there was not much research done on them so I could not find much work which had analyzed the two volumes, the works that Panikkar has written on Hinduism, his interpretations, his analysis, translations and all of that. So, it was it was quite a task for me to get on get on it and to understand them, understand Panikkar's perspective. And it is complex as people say because Panikkar uses a mixed language which is both Christian and Hindu. So, he's completely mixing two words and two realites, [Mark: right, yes] yet keeping them apart, so it's only within understanding of both religions that you can actually decipher what Panikkar is saying. So having said that, what I personally think are the most fundamental ideas that Panikkar put forth is firstly, the idea of different realities. So, he always reiterates that there are different realities that you can't mix and hence you can't compare these two realities. So, he's always against comparing Hindu theology with Christian theology so he's never mixing it up. He's always keeping them different. Although his language is quite mixed at times and with that, he says that there is no absolute truth because there cannot be one. Their truth is always relative and we participate in truth in the sense that we understand it individually like I have my own truth and you have your own truth so we can't really mix the two things and that truth is what we see through our window. So that is why he says the dialogue is important to understand. What the other person is seeing through their window, so these are the different perspective these this is how the different perspectives come in dialogue so that you come to know there's not one truth. There are different realities and I think the idea of cosmotheandrism, I find that really interesting. So, to elaborate that Panikkar says that reality is cosmotheandric in the sense that reality is constitutive of three elements, which is cosmic, divine, and human. [Mark: right] And while these three elements are distinct, they are they become a whole. There is an interrelationship that is there so this inter-, interdependence exists everywhere around us and that is what is reality that is what is truth.

Dr. B: Yeah, it's I mean of course Panikkar also has work on Buddhism and a few other traditions as well, that he sort of mixes in but I mean I found, I just as a follow-up question, I mean I found when I started studying Panikkar, this was this more than 20 years ago now, but I mean I had to learn more about Hinduism and I had to learn about Indian culture, Hindu philosophy, read up on some Hindu thinkers. I mean it took me a while to sort of catch up, so I fully understood what he was talking about and what he was taking from the Hindu side and as you say mixing together. Did you find that you had to become more familiar with either, you know, Christian history or Christian philosophy or anything on the Christianity side to better understand Panikkar's ideas?

Shruti: Yes definitely. I would say that I had to learn both Hinduism and both Christianity, like even when you grow up as a practicing Hindu, I believe that practicing is more of a performance of rituals and basically recitation of shorter text such as kathas, which are stories, or aartis, and not really the classical text such as Vedas and Puranas. They're not in the everyday ritual, so you don't really get to know the Hinduism that Panikkar is talking about at times. So, with Panikkar, it is both scripture and experience because they both go together. So, I would say that I had to learn both Hinduism and both Christianity. With Christianity as well I had to contribute several months and years of my PhD and as with the PhD I had to concentrate on specific parts because I could not really do the entirety of it

Dr. B: Yeah, it's, I mean, because I'm thinking you know like being from his Roman Catholic background he sprinkled in his work some, you know, Latin terms, and some Greek terms, but from the Hindu side then he also threw in some Sanskrit terms, and I had to learn what those were and so it you know it's kind of tricky cause he knows all these different ancient languages that he, you know, throws in to try to make sense of all of his work. So, it's fascinating but uh…

Shruti: It is a bit helpful because Panikkar does provide translations to every word that he uses. Like mostly he does provide translations in his footnotes. It's basically reading an encyclopedia with so much information to consume but I did have some knowledge of Sanskrit so that was a bit helpful for me in that case.

Dr. B: Yeah, you were a step ahead of me when I started learning about Panikkar from that standpoint.

Shruti: Probably.

Dr. B: So, and now you're involved in a number of other things. So, let me talk about this Network of Hinduism in Dialogue. So, you're one of the coordinators. Tell me about like when how you got involved with this you know when you started about and just generally about this group and your involvement.

Shruti: Yeah, thank you. So, basically this journey started I think two years back. I was looking for networks to join which mostly focus on interreligious dialogue, talk focused on Hinduism emerging from Hinduism and that is when I got to know about Oxford Center for Hindu studies and they had something written on the website regarding a network that that is like in its growing phase, and my colleague Melanie Barbato was doing that, so I wrote her an email and we both came up with the idea of forming this network which is Network of Hinduism and Dialogue, and it is affiliated with the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies. So, the Network is really a space for carrying out dialogue with Hinduism so Hinduism is at the center and that is where the dialogue emerges. So, it there's it's mostly for academics who do interreligious or interfaith dialogue with Hinduism coming from any perspective so they may be from any discipline ranging from area studies, religious studies, anthropology, geography, arts. So, it's not restricted in that sense but that that was that was the sense behind it to just create a space where people could talk to each other.

Dr. B: And this is, how extensive is this network? So, we inaugurated it last year at the European Academy of Religion conference which was held at St. Andrews. So that is when the network was launched. And we also organized a panel at that conference specifically for the network which had 10 participants. So, it went well, and we're working on more online events and like the participants have been at the American Academy of Religion twice, at the European Academy of Religion. So, there are representatives going to conferences and the membership is free for who whoever is eligible, so you can look up the website.

Dr. B: And do you have regular gatherings or meetings or how does it work?

Shruti: Yeah, so we are starting regular online meetings probably from January so that is the plan. And there will be online conversations based on different themes.

Dr. B: Okay, and anybody, this is for anybody in the world to join or how does it work?

Shruti: Yeah, so this is basically for anyone in the world to join who does interreligious dialogue with Hindu, Hinduism, Hinduism so, that that is the core idea behind it mostly for academics who are eligible, yes.

Dr. B: Academics who are eligible? What does that mean?

Shruti: So, academics who have published articles who teach based on the idea like they’re the vision behind the network correlates to what they teach so that is that is the idea behind it.

Dr. B: Okay, that sounds good. I, do you have some sort of a website? If you do, I can put it down in the in the comments here.

Shruti: So, I will send you the website.

Dr. B: …the description. So yes, so now you also have done some podcasting. What has that experience been like?

Shruti: So, I did those podcasts when I started my PhD journey to get to know to grow this network of people to interact with authors who were writing books related to my subject area. So that I got to read them, got to interact with them, and it was a very good experience. There's this website called New Books Network so you basically interview authors who come who have recently published books so I was the podcast host for Indian religions. So as a part of that I interviewed Professor Anustup Basu on his book on Hindu nationalism and Professor Jonathan Edelmann so and Thomas Pruiksma, so that that is what it was.

Dr. B: Okay that's interesting. Now you've written a number of articles, but what are there, is there, certain types of things or research that you're working on now? What's coming up for you in the near future?

Shruti: I think I'm going to continue research. I think there are not many there are not many words that have come across that focus their research on Hindu-Christian dialogues, it's most mostly Christian-Hindu or Christian-Muslim or you know Christian-Buddhist but there are very few that come from the point of Hinduism [Mark: right] so I would like to contribute to that scholarship and I would like to continue my research in that sense. So, I have some ideas in mind and let's see what happens.

Dr. B: Now at the American Academy of Religion, did you, were you visiting other groups? Did you engage in a conversation or do a presentation when you were there in San Diego a month ago?

Shruti: Yes, so I did present my paper on Hindu and Catholic death rituals as a part of a panel of the Society of Hindu-Christian Studies. So that was that, and I attended a few panels and I was at the Panikkar panel as well. So that was all that I was there for mostly.

Dr. B: So, Hindu-Catholic death rituals? How did you feel your paper was received? Did anybody, you know, ask questions about it, or...?

Shruti: So that is a fairly new project so I just shared the introductory sort of draft of my project and it was very helpful because of the comments and the people who have been working on this theme for a very long time and it was very helpful in the sense because I am continuing that research and if you think about it there are different rituals for different age groups, for genders, for the condition in which you die. So, it's a very large project that needs to be done. So, it was quite helpful to be there and to interact with people and what they think about it and how they perceive talking about death in terms of these two religions.

Dr. B: Wow, that's interesting. So, you're about how long for you to finish your current program at St. Andrews?

Shruti: Well hopefully uh next year. I mean. I don't think anyone can give a definite answer of when the PhD is going to end, but hopefully next year.

Dr. B: Yeah, yeah, no I mean I understand but I mean it's I just didn't know if it was like you know you know four years or maybe one or two years so...

Shruti: Yeah so, so it's probably next year.

Dr. B: Probably next year? That sounds great. Well, I thank you so much for being here and chatting with us for a few minutes and again we'll leave some information down in the description if you want to learn more so thanks so much for being here Shruti.

Shruti: Thank you, Mark.

So, what did you think about our convo? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. To start off next year in 2025, we’re going to have episodes on Construction-Deconstruction-Reconstruction, another great episode on Feuerbach, and some more great interviews with religion scholars doing some fantastic work. Until next time, stay curious. If you enjoyed this, support the channel in the link below. Give me a Super Thanks. Also, please like and share this video and subscribe to this channel. This is TenOnReligion.