Skip to main content

Current Events

This year’s symposium is held April 21-23 2022 at King's College London

48th Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions Schedule

Register Now

Day 1: Friday 21st April 2023

    • 12:30-13.00: Registration

    • 13.00-14.30: PANEL: Narrative Lineage Constructions in Early Hindu Literature

    • Sanne Dokter-Mersh (Leiden, Netherlands)
      Purāṇic Influencers: Authoritative Lineages in the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa
    • Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff, UK)
      ‘Taking Back the Disgraced Wife in the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata’
    • 14.30-14.45: Coffee Break

    • 14.45-17:00: PANEL: Sikh Traditions of Authority

    • Satnam Singh (Independent Scholar, Denmark)
      Intellectual Authority in the Early Modern Sikh Tradition: A case study of Bhai Mani Singh
    • Julie Vig (York, Canada)
      Imagining Early Modern Punjab in Gurbilās literature: Tensions, Affinities, and Conflicts
    • Nirinjan Khalsa-Baker (Loyola Marymount, USA)
      Subjectivity, Sovereignty, and Authority in the Sikh Kirtan Renaissance
    • 17.00-17.30: Coffee Break

    • 17.35-18:30: Opening Keynote Address

    • Professor Tulasi Srinivas (Emerson College, USA)
      The Lake of Fire: Water, Caste and Gender in India’s Climate Apocalypse

Day 2: Saturday 22nd April

  • Postgraduate Panel: 9.00-10.30

  • Arkamitra Ghatak (Heidelberg, Germany)
    The Divine Mother as Vaishnava Guru: Female Leadership, Charismatic Authority and Succession Dispute in the Nimbārka Sect in the early Twentieth Century
  • Imran Visram (Oxford, UK)
    The Shi’a Imam as the Satgur: Religious Authority in the Satpanth Ismaili Muslim tradition
  • Tillo Detige (Bochum, Germany)
    Successions of Sovereignty: Digambara Jaina Ascetic Lineages of Early Modern Western India
  • 10.30-10.45: Coffee Break

  • PANEL: Constructing Authority on Texts, and Writing Texts on/for Authority, 10.45am-1.00pm

  • Nabanjan Maitra (Bard, USA)
    Provincializing the Digvijaya: Jain Antecedents to Śankara’s Rule at Śṛṅgeri
  • Rosina Pastore (Ghent, Belgium)
    How does a King become a Philosopher? Jasvant Singh of Mārvāḍ (1626–1678) and his Vedāntic Writings
  • Avni Chag (SOAS, UK)
    Sources of Schism Formations in the Svāminārāyaṇa Sampradāya

  • Lunch one hour (1pm until 2pm)

  • PANEL: Constructing Self-made Identity/Authority (1), 14.00-15.30

  • Taushif Kara (King’s College London, UK)
    The Imam between the Merchant and the King
  • Christine Marrewa-Karwoski (Columbia, USA)
    The Political Dynasty of Gorakhpur’s Godmen: The Nath Mahants, the Ramjanmabhoomi Movement, and a New Era for India

  • 15:30-15:45 – Coffee break

  • PANEL: Constructing Self-made Identity/Authority (2) 3.45pm-5.15pm

  • Amanda Lucia (California-Riverside, USA)
    ‘Self-styled God man’: lineage versus criminality in media discourse
  • Jon Keune (Michigan State, USA)
    Babasaheb’s Heavy Mantle: Buddhism and Community Leadership after Ambedkar

  • 17:15-17:30- Coffee break

  • PANEL: Gender and Leadership, 5.30pm-7.00pm

  • Leah Comeau (Saint Joseph’s, USA, and Hamburg, Germany)
    Organic Leadership at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: the Samadhi, the Mother, and her flowers
  • Dr Waithanji Mutiti (Gretsa, Kenya)
    Patriarchy, Women and Leadership Contestations in Hinduism in Kenya
  • CONFERENCE DINNER (with ticket) – 19.30 onwards close by King’s College London

Day 3: Sunday 23rd April

  • Postgraduate Panel 9.00-10.30

  • Tushar Shah (Cambridge, UK)
    ‘The Guru Never Leaves the Earth’: Death, Transition and Continuity
  • Kirtan Patel (Texas, USA)
    Politics of Piety: Schism, Sovereignty, and Obedience in Colonial Gujarat, 1870-1905
  • Lucy May Constantini (Open University, UK)
    Evolutions in the Transmission of Kaḷarippayaṟṟ˘, a South Indian Martial Art

  • 10:30-10:45-Coffee Break

  • PANEL: Tradition, lineage and succession, 10.45-12.15

  • Jonathan Edelman (Florida, USA)
    Lineage and Ontology: The construction of tradition and conversion in Hindu and Christian Scholasticism
  • Måns Broo (Abo Akademi, Finland)
    Rupture and Reform of Succession: The Case of the Gauḍīya Maṭha

  • CLOSING KEYNOTE ADDRESS, 12.15-13.15

  • Professor Gwilym Beckerlegge, Professor of Modern Religions (Open University, UK)
    From Gurus and Svāmīs to Workers, Trusts and Managing Committees

    13.15-13.30 Closing discussion

    13.30 Conference ends