After acknowledging the need to carve out a less angry space for conservative commentary online, right wing supporters are continuing the process of building an intellectual ecosystem of their own using a tool that has long been wielded by the left-liberal set: the Goa convention.
The India Ideas Conclave, chaired by Art of Living head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, will host over 400 participants at a five-star hotel in Goa this week in an attempt to “discuss cutting edge ideas in various fields of human development”. The convention is run by the India Foundation, one of a small clutch of right-wing think tanks like the Vivekananda Foundation, that has close connections to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar.
Although it describes itself as an “independent” organisation, the India Foundation’s right-wing pedigree is not in question. Its directors include Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokesperson and BJP national secretary Ram Madhav, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, BJP Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Chandan Mitra, BJP Lok Sabha MP Jayant Sinha and Zeus Caps Managing Director Shaurya Doval, son of the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Earlier this year, another India Foundation director, A Surya Prakash, was appointed to head Prasar Bharati, the government’s public-service broadcaster.
The conclave, set to be held from December 19-21, has plenty of connections to the government of the day. Aside from Ravi Shankar chairing the event, it is set to feature speakers from BJP ministers Sushma Swaraj, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Seetharaman and Ravi Shankar Prasad, it also includes RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, BJP rabble rouser Subramanian Swamy and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Among the list of attendees from abroad include David Frawley, the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, Koenraad Elst, a Belgian Indologist whose work is frequently cited by the right, and Arvind Panagariya, an Indian-American economist who was a key influence on the Modi campaign.
The running theme of the event is integral human development, a call back to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's ideology of integral humanism, which was the guiding principle of the Jana Sangh, the political party that would eventually become the BJP. Among the topics up for discussion are things like “role of politics in integral development” and “role of faith leaders in imparting values”.
The Ideas India Conclave will only be the latest in an effort by the right wing to carve out a bigger intellectual space, both directly by appointing those connected to the effort to positions of power like the Prasar Bharati appointment, or through the creation of institutions that seek to add a more conservative, saffron voice to popular discourse through the establishment of publications like Swarajya magazine.
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The India Ideas Conclave, chaired by Art of Living head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, will host over 400 participants at a five-star hotel in Goa this week in an attempt to “discuss cutting edge ideas in various fields of human development”. The convention is run by the India Foundation, one of a small clutch of right-wing think tanks like the Vivekananda Foundation, that has close connections to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar.
Although it describes itself as an “independent” organisation, the India Foundation’s right-wing pedigree is not in question. Its directors include Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokesperson and BJP national secretary Ram Madhav, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, BJP Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Chandan Mitra, BJP Lok Sabha MP Jayant Sinha and Zeus Caps Managing Director Shaurya Doval, son of the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Earlier this year, another India Foundation director, A Surya Prakash, was appointed to head Prasar Bharati, the government’s public-service broadcaster.
The conclave, set to be held from December 19-21, has plenty of connections to the government of the day. Aside from Ravi Shankar chairing the event, it is set to feature speakers from BJP ministers Sushma Swaraj, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Seetharaman and Ravi Shankar Prasad, it also includes RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, BJP rabble rouser Subramanian Swamy and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Among the list of attendees from abroad include David Frawley, the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, Koenraad Elst, a Belgian Indologist whose work is frequently cited by the right, and Arvind Panagariya, an Indian-American economist who was a key influence on the Modi campaign.
The running theme of the event is integral human development, a call back to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's ideology of integral humanism, which was the guiding principle of the Jana Sangh, the political party that would eventually become the BJP. Among the topics up for discussion are things like “role of politics in integral development” and “role of faith leaders in imparting values”.
The Ideas India Conclave will only be the latest in an effort by the right wing to carve out a bigger intellectual space, both directly by appointing those connected to the effort to positions of power like the Prasar Bharati appointment, or through the creation of institutions that seek to add a more conservative, saffron voice to popular discourse through the establishment of publications like Swarajya magazine.
