Zoom Online Presentation by Dr. Walter Andersen and Mr. Sridhar Damle for Bharatiya Vichar Manch on May 17, 2020, Starting at 5 PM (pacific time)

Dr. Walter Andersen with President of India  Sridhar Damle  https://penguin.co.in/author/shridhar-damle/ Online Presentation: Dr. Walter Andersen and Sridhar Damle  Sun  May 17, 2020  starting at  5 PM  (PDT) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89052712089?pwd=ZmN5R1hjWjd4d3d0RFR0em40R1RKQT09 Meeting ID: 890 5271 2089 Password: 826172 One tap mobile +16699009128, Meeting ID 89052712089#,,1#, Password  826172# US (San Jose) +13462487799, Meeting ID  89052712089#,,1#,  Password   826172# US (Houston) Dial by your location +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) Meeting ID: 890 5271 2089 Password: 826172 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdch26wdaB Both of the speakers will give their part of the presentation of approximately 25 minutes each.   Topic: Bharatiya Vichar Manch  Lecture : Messengers of Hindu Nationalism - How the RSS reshaped India.  By Mr. Walter Anderson and Shridhar Damle Time: May 17, 2020 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)  The Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and its some 100 affiliated organizations over the past twenty-five years have come to assert significant influence in India. These affiliates have penetrated virtually all areas of Indian society in fields as varied as labor, politics, the press, education and the Hindu ecclesiastical establishment.  Its political affiliate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India’s ruling party.  The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is a former full-time RSS worker.  Professor Walter Andersen of Johns Hopkins University is co-author of  a book on the subject, The RSS: A View to the Inside that is something of a sequel to his earlier book The Brotherhood in Saffron published in the late 1980s. The other co-author is Shridhar Damle. The Tata Literature Live awards committee selected it as the best non-fiction book published on an Indian topic in 2018. In his talk, Andersen will address four basic questions about the RSS that are analyzed in nine case studies in the new book  : (1) Why has the RSS and its affiliates expanded so rapidly over the past twenty-five years? (2) How have these organizations evolved to reflect their much more diverse membership? (3) What factors drive the RSS’ increased political involvement and how does the RSS’ evolution impact the country’s politics and policy, including the prospects for secularism and democracy?  (4) To what extent does the recurrent outbreaks of majoritarianism undermine the BJP’s stated goal of sab ka saath, sab ka vikas (together with all, development for all)?    Biographic Note   Walter Andersen was born in New York City and did his graduate work at the University of Chicago where he received his doctorate, writing a dissertation on religious politics under the supervision of Professors Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph.  This dissertation, based on extensive field work in India,  was turned into a book, the Brotherhood in Saffron.  He was a teaching intern at the University of Chicago, on the Political Science faculty at the College of Wooster where he also administered a junior year abroad program for the Great Lakes Colleges Association and also taught at the University of Georgia.  He worked as a staff member for a Democrat member of Congress from Ohio before joining the US State Department.  He served overseas in South Asia, including as special assistant to the US Ambassador to India, William Clarke, as well as in Washington, D.C., where he retired in 2004 as head of the Office of Research for South Asia.  Following that, he joined the faculty at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) where he became Administrative Director of its South Asians Studies Program.  Since  2010, he has also taught graduate International Relations seminars at Tongji University in Shanghai.    He has written extensively on religious politics and is now doing preliminary research on a book that will analyze  the intersection of law and religion in India.  He retired to retire from SAIS in late 2018. Shridhar Damle Shridhar D. Damle is a freelance journalist and scholar of Indian politics based in the US. He has completed his studies in History and Political science. He has been an academician and researcher. He is a linguist and has studied Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi Gujarati and English. he has wrote two books with Walter Andersen. He has extensively studied four religions; Christianity, Islam Hinduism and Buddhism. He is currently working with Original British documentation about India and Veer Savarkar ji. We have created a Bharatiya Vichar Manch Los Angeles Whatsapp announcement group, only admin can send the announcement in this group. Chat features have been disabled. This official BVM group, it will keep us all updated with upcoming BVM lectures, seminars, live video links. We will also post youtube links of recorded lectures and seminars. Click the link below to join the whatsapp group.  https://chat.whatsapp.com/CWrL7NudQZMFYJWdedYvbA Mission Statement of Bharatiya Vichar Manch: To promote dialogue by which Dharmic philosophy, culture, and traditions can positively influence global thought and action. Some of the past lectures are available at: http://www.youtube.com/bharatiyavicharmanch http://www.facebook.com/bhartiyavicharmanch.la How to join our mailing list?  If you want your email address to be added to the mailing list  please click the link below  and add yourself by providing your email address or please send an email to bvmanchla@gmail.com   Sign up for our list! Please forward the lecture invitation to your contacts who might be interested in attending. Going forward flyers will be posted at this web address, please save this address in your favorites section of your web browser. We will try to post the flyer for the following month lecture by 25th of each month.  This way, if you do not get an email for the lecture for any reason, the flyer can be viewed at this address.  https://bvmanchflyers.blogspot.com/  Feel free to send an email to bvmanchla@gmail.com if you have any comments/suggestions about the lectures, would like to volunteer few hours a month to organize the lectures or want to recommend a speaker who can be invited to give a lecture.  All lectures are free of cost, including free parking.  Lectures are normally 40-50 minutes long followed by 30-40 minutes of Q & A session.