STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

In this letter I shall attempt to argue out why as a candidate for PhD admissions, I have much to
offer and much to gain from the Religious Studies department at Rice University.
Hugh B Uran in the second paragraph of the Introduction to his !he Power "f !antra# Religion,
Se$ulaity %nd !he Politics of South %sian Studies &'()(, I. B. !auris and *o.+ says # ,In the last
decade, !antra has also come to the center of a much larger deate over the politics of scholarship
and the interpretation of South %sian traditions. Indeed, a numer of authors-and particularly
%merican scholars such as .effrey /ripal, David 0ordon 1hite, and Sarah *aldwell-have
received fierce criticism from some Hindu readers for their allegedly hyper se$ual and neo2
"rientalist interpretation of Hinduism in general and !antra in particular. 1endy Doniger had an
egg thrown at her head during a pulic lecture, while Paul *ourtrightreceived death threats for his
interpretation of Hindu traditions, which some interpreted as a new form of %merican2style cultural
imperialism. In '((3, a group of Indian critics pulished a 4((2page volume entitled Invading the
Sacred, which argues that 1estern &especially %merican+ scholars have perpetuated a form of neo2
"rientalism that continues to e$otici5e and erotici5e !antra for a 1estern consumer audience. In
this sense, the study of !antra raises some of the most profound ethical and political 6uestions at the
heart of all cross2cultural understanding, aove all, in our increasingly violent and contested
gloal conte$t.7
"ne consistent undercurrent of o8ection, that all these contestations of the '(th2')
st
century
university scholarship of religion share, is the rather simplistic assumption that anyone who was not
of a particual race, could not authentically study and represent it9s traditions. 1hile at a racial level
the o8ection is laughale, ut, at a more serious level modern scholars cannot ignore familiarity,
respect and practice of these traditions that ,insider7 accounts ma:e possile.
I write this to you, a stranger to Religious Studies, with a Bachelors in Philosophy, a ;asters in %rt
History and a ;.Phil in Social Sciences, so I posses an interdisciplinary training in Social Sciences
that is re6uisite for a discipline such as Religious Studies. ;y engagement with religion on the
other hand susumes my intellectual and professional amitions and goes well eyond it. '((4
onwards I have constantly een travelling various pilgrimage circuits across northern and eastern
India and have een in prolonged conversation and consultation with Sadhus of various sects and
religions, <a:irs, Bauls, =uns etc. 0rowing up in the shadow of theBari ;as8id demolition and the
0odhara riots the 6uestion of transacting across religions and occupying multiple religious identities
simultaneously ecame important for me, which eventually led me to turn to the mystical
dimensions of these various religions &>aishnavism, Shaivism, Sha:tism, .ainism, Buddhism,
Islam, *hristianity, Shi:hism etc.+.
Particularly on the issue of violent censorship y the fundamentalist Hindu Right21ing, I can
empathise with the attac:ed %merican scholars of religion? for I found myself involved in a similar
controversy when in Baroda, 0u8arat '((3 self2proclaimed moral activists of a local Hindu Right
wing organisations disrupted the university e$amination display at the <aculty of <ine %rts, and a
print2ma:ing ;asters student named *handramohan was arrested for ma:ing nude depictions of
0oddess /ali and depicting a crucified *hrist with a phallus. In the ensuing students stri:e, Prof.
Shiv8i Pani::ar, acting Dean and Head of Dept. "f %rt History was suspended along with @ other
temporary %rt2History teachers. !he ;asters %rt2History students if not all of the student ody
suffered heavily from this incident.
It is ecause of the aove given reasons# that I have a solid training in social sciences, that I have
seven years of fieldwor: already in e$ploring the practice in religion in India and also partially
ecause of having gone up against the Hindu fundamentalist Right and :nowing precisely what is at
sta:e, that I feel that I would e well suited to offer sustance and variety to the religious studies
department at Rice University.
"n my part, it is after considerale misgivings that I made up my mind to apply to a foreign
university ut, two factors led me to elieve that U.S.% and Rice was the correct place for me to
apply to. "ne was that I could never receive a decent schooling on the 1estern "ccultic and
;ystical traditions in India, I would have to go to where they were in living practice and secondly
ecause of my interest in the academic study of paranormal aspects of mysticism&s+ and the fact that
several serious %merican scholars were already engaged with these concerns, including several of
the faculty at Rice University. I elieve my engagement with religion and my training in Social
Sciences allows for a uni6ue lending of the ,insider7 and ,outsider7 views of Indic religions and
occult.
!o put it reifly my pro8ect is an attempt to write a genealogy of Auro2%merican interest in occult
and miraculous phenomenon in India. It could e entitled # 9<rom theosophy to parapsychology#
Sciences of the miraculous in colonial India9. Starting from the early colonial encounters in the
second half of the )Bth century, writing a pre2history of !heosophy to the first half of the twentieth
century and the estalishment of parapsychology in India? this study see:s to trac: several
institutional C discursive sites that deal with miraculous phenomenon in India. 0oing eyond the
realm of myth and oral traditions where tal: of these phenomenon was traditionally understood to
operate, this study shall e on the Auro2%merican scholarship, scientific and otherwise? on tantra,
religion, occult, magic:al and paranormal phenomenon in India. the primary o8ective is to e$amine
the ways y which the study of paranormal phenomenon in this period created something of an
epistemic crisis in western :nowledge y lurring disciplinary oundaries etween the discourses of
religion, occult, and science? also etween 9hard9 sciences such as physics and psychology and
9pseudo9 sciences such as parapsychology. By the early '(th century, several Auro2%merican
occultists had also egun to lur oundaries etweencaalistic2hermetic occult and eastern occultic
systems such as 9Dama2ism9 and Patan8ali yoga. %lso e6ually, my attempt shall e to e$amine what
:ind of manoeuvres were re6uired then to re2estalish the disciplinary oundaries of these 9hard9
sciences and protect them from incursions y sacred and 9native9 :nowledges i.e. the occultists and
the 9pseudo92 sciences such as parapsychology. 1hile I am aware of several scholars writing the
intellectual history of Parapsychology and psi2phenomena in of )E
th
2 '(
th
century Auro2%merica, I
am 6uite unaware of any such wor: having een done on India, despite it having een an important
almost paradigmatic center during that time, further, I elieve, that the history of transactions across
Indian and 1estern mysticism of that period is an une$plored mine with gems to offer.
I hope I have een convincingly ale to argue as to why I should e positively considered for
induction into a PhD programme at Rice University.
%d Dei 0loriam
2/austuh Das