Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the founders and have been quoted directly. These topics are hotly debated by academics and have not reached a decisive conclusion. The EPC encourages readers to research further about these on their own and form educated opinions. 

On February 15, 2022, the English Press Club sat down with Yash Khandelwal and Uttank Jha, the founders of the newest club on campus—the Indic Club. According to the founders, the growing influence of ‘Western culture’ has driven young Indians away from traditional Indian philosophy and ‘more Indic’ ways of life. They aim to solve this issue by providing a safe space for discourse surrounding India’s historical and civilisational past. 

On being asked the reason behind the creation of this club and formalising such a body, Uttank said that there was a dearth of knowledge regarding Indian history, philosophy, values, cultures, and spiritual beliefs. Yash added that centuries of foreign rule has eroded our knowledge and pride in our civilisational heritage. Inspired by the setting up of similar Indic Knowledge Centres across premier institutes like the IITs, Yash and Uttank decided that the campus would be well served by an organisation like the Indic Club.

On the topic of responsibilities of the club, Uttank said that they were ‘trying to cultivate some level of confidence within their members’, once they were well acquainted with their subject, they would ‘start creating content and organising seminars, events, expert talks, collaborating with other cultural bodies to promote regional arts, and conducting research on various aspects of the Indian Knowledge System’.

While discussing their idea of a perfect recruit, they revealed that, while they hold certain positions on contentious issues, they were perfectly open to debate, discussion, and scrutiny. They further added that scientific rigour and academic integrity would be the backbone of their members’ attempts to study aspects of India’s past that had been excluded from common discourse and school textbooks, according to them, largely by design. Further discussion about the same led Yash to claim that at present they plan on recruiting anyone who displays the slightest amount of interest in the topic. He ultimately aims to form a core team based on their performance. The purpose of recruiting almost any interested individual is to increase the discourse on the topic and encourage BITSians to engage in a healthy discussion regarding the same. Yash further added that since the subject matter is immense and ‘the more one explores the more they find’, they only plan to recruit individuals who demonstrate a keen interest in the subject matter. 

The Google form shared for recruitment asked for a candidate’s opinion on issues ranging from the validity of the Aryan invasion theory, the erosion of certain aspects of India’s history by the post-colonial ruling dispensation, and whether the Saraswati river existed. 

When asked about how they would avoid conflict in discussions since such topics tend to get political very fast, Uttank said, ‘Well, we don’t endorse any ideology, whether it’s religious, spiritual or political. Let’s say there’s an opinion of yours that aligns with a certain political party, we do not need to address that political party. If your opinion is backed by enough scientific integrity and fact checking, the ideology will be appreciated in a purely academic sense and not in light of the party it aligns with.’ Yash then added, ‘We will try to keep politics out of it. I don’t think it is that tough, especially if we do it from an academic standpoint. Moreover, a lot of focus would be on the knowledge system aspect, things that are undiscovered and not just pre-existing topics of contention.’ Despite Yash and Uttank sharing their desire to remain purely academic, the extent to which restraint can be enforced in such extensively debated topics, remains to be seen.

When asked about who would be responsible for monitoring the accuracy and validity of information disseminated by the club, Yash clarified that, ‘the first step won’t be the dissemination of information but to extensively research and understand these concepts’. To ensure this, Yash and Uttank are already in contact with a few good professors in this domain. With their assistance, they hope to develop an ecosystem that will help them ensure that the knowledge disseminated is well-grounded. Uttank further added that they would try to emulate the ‘peer review concept on a much smaller scale, in order to uphold scientific integrity.’ The scholars and professors that the club is in contact with includes Professor Michel Danino of IIT Gandhinagar and a recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award, and Professor Kapil Kapur of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who is a prominent personality in the field of Indian linguistics. They also regularly interact with a couple of Sanskrit professors. However, both Uttank and Yash acknowledged that ensuring that only accurate, unbiased, and well-researched information gets shared would be complicated, and that they are currently working on ways to ensure the propagation of genuine information.

To conclude, the Indic Club is a place for people who aim to carefully pick out the shells of Indic wisdom and knowledge lost in time, and bring them to our untrained eyes. All in all, both Uttank and Yash are highly optimistic that the Indic Club will serve as a safe platform for BITSians to engage in discourse surrounding Indic Knowledge Systems.