Conservatives’ Collective of India Foundation organized a general interaction with Ma. Dr. Krishna Gopal, Sah-Sarkaryavah, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on September 01, 2023. The interaction session was chaired by Prof. Shri Prakash Singh, Director, South Campus, University of Delhi. The session was attended by senior academicians, bureaucrats, young scholars and professionals based in New Delhi.
In his initial remarks, Ma. Dr. Krishna Gopal emphasized on the need for youth to have conceptual clarity on the fundamentals of Hindutva, and to build solid academic scholarship on the subject. He pointed out towards a general lack of understanding of the Hindutva movement in academic circles, notwithstanding the political positions of individual scholars, and discussed the need to promote well-researched and balanced scholarship on the Hindutva worldview. He also later discussed the distinction between Western conception of ‘nation-state’ and Indian idea of ‘rashtra’, and deliberated on the scope for generating academic work on the unique nature and trajectory of ‘rashtra’ as an ideational entity. He further elaborated on the nature of ‘Bharatiya sanskriti’ and the scope for in-depth research on Indian culture and traditions. He noted the presence of substantial academic research on Indian culture and traditions in both English and regional languages, and stated that such lesser known scholars and their works should be brought into limelight, and the knowledge produced be promoted through mainstreaming in academic circles, translation, felicitation of the scholars, and re-publication of past scholarship.
