What do we learn from Rabindranath Tagore’s copious yet lesser-known writings on the Hindu-Muslim question? What do we learn from the fascinating interplay of Hindu-Muslim interactions in the history of Bengal? How do the behavioral patterns between the two communities fare and change over the course of history, particularly entering into the modern period? What do the Bauls, Muslim and Hindu troubadours and singers, illustrate about the limits of language and identity? How do we maintain a distinct religious identity without effacing or encrusting our sense of self? Prof. Ankur Barua joins us again for a conversation on these topics and more as we discuss his fascinating recent publication ‘The Hindu Self and its Muslim Neighbours: Contested Borderlines on Bengali Landscapes’, which sketches the contours of relations between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal. The central argument is that various patterns of amicability and antipathy have been generated towards Muslims over the last six hundred years and these patterns emerge at dynamic intersections between Hindu self-understandings and social shifts on contested landscapes. The core of the book is a set of translations of the Bengali writings of Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), and Annada Shankar Ray (1904–2002). Their lives were deeply interwoven with some Hindu–Muslim synthetic ideas and subjectivities, and these involvements are articulated throughout their writings which provide multiple vignettes of contemporary modes of amity and antagonism. Watch our previous conversation on Image Worship in Hindu Traditions:    • Image Worship in ...   Prof. Ankur Barua is University Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies at Cambridge University. He read Theology and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge. His primary research interests are Vedantic Hindu philosophical theology and Indo-Islamic styles of sociality An integral dimension of Prof. Barua’s research is the comparative philosophy of religion. He studies the theological and the socio-political aspects of Hindu–Christian engagements. In recent years, his research focus has moved to Indo-Islamic theology and, in particular, to an exploration of the intersections between the idioms of bhakti, yoga, tawḥīd, and taṣawwuf on the multiply-stratified postcolonial landscapes of South Asia.

Prof. Arvind Sharma and Dr. Saad Ismail continue their conversation on Hindu-Muslim dialogue. This conversation explores the central role of the historical encounter of the two traditions, and asks whether history is essential or accidental to our encounter. If history is accidental, then this opens up great possibilities for better interfaith relations in the present. Who is a Hindu? Who is a Muslim? What is Hinduism? What is Islam? These notoriously difficult definitions are explored. Finally, the discussion centers on the question of religious identity, and what are the different possibilities available for us to envision our identities. Formerly of the IAS, Arvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in, He has taught in Austrlia (University of Queensland, Sydney) and the USA (Northeastern, Temple, Boston,Harvard) and has published extensively in the fields of comparative religion and Indology. He was instrumental, through three global conferences (2006, 2011, 2016), in facilitating the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s Religions. His recent books include The Ruler’s Gaze: A Study of British Rule over India from a Saidian perspective, Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography; Hindusim and It’s Sense of History and Decolonizing Indian Studies. He has contributed to and edited Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Prominent Scholars from Each Tradition. He is also the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer,2017).

One of the most simple yet profound phrases to represent God/Reality is the Sanskrit formula Sat-Chit-Ananda commonly translatable as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Prof. Arvind Sharma (McGill University) walks us through this elegant idea in our new conversation. Formerly of the IAS, Arvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in, He has taught in Austrlia (University of Queensland, Sydney) and the USA (Northeastern, Temple, Boston,Harvard) and has published extensively in the fields of comparative religion and Indology. He was instrumental, through three global conferences (2006, 2011, 2016), in facilitating the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s Religions. His recent books include The Ruler’s Gaze: A Study of British Rule over India from a Saidian perspective, Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography; Hindusim and It’s Sense of History and Decolonizing Indian Studies. He has contributed to and edited Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Prominent Scholars from Each Tradition. He is also the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer,2017).