Chief Editor's Report

The annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of the India Heritage Research Foundation, in its's meeting in Pittsburgh on August 13, 2000 decided: (i) to shift a major portion of the EH operations to India for financial reasons; (ii) to keep operations in Columbia EH office at a skeletal level during 2001; and (iii) to do the final editing with required editorial personnel, when the nationally edited articles start flowing into Columbia.

Further, as per the advice given by the Board in the same meeting, I wrote letters to the Patrons, Board of Editors, and to the members of the International Advisory Board on the progress of the project, and sought their cooperation for making the project qualitatively excellent. Respective subject area lists were sent to Associate Editors for their suggestions regarding inclusion / deletion of entries. In response to their suggestions, duplications have been removed, smaller write ups have been integrated into longer articles, and the Master list has been /is being continuously updated.

Following advice of the Board of Trustees, I went to India to energize and speed up EH work, and stayed there for over two months. I discussed the objectives of my visit and a program to implement these objectives with Pujya Swamiji in Rishikesh, and got his green signal. Next, I met Dr. V.N Misra in Delhi and had a long conversation on practical matters. Then, I went to different EH offices in India, met involved scholars individually and in groups, gave orientation to copy and substance editing in workshops, and listened to their problems and assurances.

To scholars who filled the articles with quotations from ancient texts, I pointed out the need to bring into the open the profound and enduring philosophic and spiritual principles from the depths of Vedic scriptures and to convey them to the reader in simple words. To those who were limited to textual interpretations, I had to point out that Hinduism is a living religion, and that oral traditions and folk practices that inspire enthusiasm, joy, and the spirit of religious devotion have to be given equal importance; they have to be comprehended and communicated insightfully.

A particular point of discussion with authors was that a modern Hindu young man/woman lacks a source of ready reference to learn the contents of his/her religion in a methodical way. Our youths are exposed to certain rites, ceremonies and festivals; but they do not know the meanings and values of those customs and practices. Such ignorance, quite often, gives rise to indifferentism or cynicism and an unintended edge to certain materialist ideologies. In the present social, industrial, and economic set up, it is essential to make available to them accurate, authentic and insightful information of their traditions in a reasonable way.

I met officers of certain universities and heads of a few institutions, interested in this project; I brought them up to date on the progress of EH, and sought their cooperation in a speedy completion of the work. They were eager to make their contributions and ready to support. Their names, addresses, the areas of their expertise, and the themes on which they would write articles or get them written, were given to Mr.Varma, for follow up actions.

Three important academic conferences, meaningful for our project, were held in India during this period: (i) World Association of Vedic Studies in New Delhi (December 15-16, 2000) (ii) International Seminar on the Bhagavadgita and Modern Problems, in Tiruvananthapuram (December 7-10, 2000) (iii) the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of Indian Philosophical Congress in Delhi (December 28-31, 2000). I made presentations in each of them, and had opportunities to discuss about the EH with interested scholars, and to enlist more authors for writing as well as for editorial work.

Bangalore and Chennai promised to finish the work they had undertaken by April 1, 2001, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan completed the limited task of substance editing of articles, it had been charged with.

After my return to Columbia, I prepared a detailed report, and sent it to Pujya Swamiji, to all the trustees of IHRF, Board of Editors, and members of the International Advisory Board. Now this Academic News Bulletin has been prepared for wider circulation; which includes that report. In addition, it contains some sample articles, news about appointments, reports from India offices, messages from VIPS, etc. and an article on the recent Kumbh Mela in Prayag.

I could see signs of a new awakening and, a new interest in the older traditions of the country. Many young people wanted to cultivate the values of the heritage and relate them to the modern age. The computer revolution and the new developments in science are reconnecting with the Vedic mind and intelligence that produced Vedic mathematics and the Vedic mantras; a new intelligentsia is rising. This trend I think, has to be nourished and cherished. But it requires great effort, initiative and creativity.

NRI Hindus have become successful, well educated and affluent, they draw on their cultural resources creatively. They can contribute to the trends of regeneration of spiritual culture in India. It is this vision that has inspired them to make a gift of the 18 volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism to our youth and the youth of the World.

Highlights of work in Columbia:

Dr Sinha wrote to Catherine Fry that we are ready to pass on to the USC Press, a batch of five hundred articles each, every two months. But we were requested to give only 50 articles (of varied lengths and of different subject areas) for their evaluation. This has been done.

Northeastern Regional Unit of the EH has been established at Garutman, Calcutta, through the efforts of Dr. Ratna Lahiri. She has edited articles covering Northeast region (Bengal, Bihar, Assam, etc.). She is also editing articles in 04 and in some other areas.

• Database in Columbia is continuously reconciled, updated, and maintained.
• Glossary of 2000 terms is prepared.
• Index is under preparation.
• Selected articles are checked to make sure that they convey the spirit if Hinduism.
• Assignments for proposals received from Rishikesh are checked with the master
• List, duplications are removed, scope notes are determined,
• They are approved for further action.
• Correspondence with Bangalore, Madras, Rishikesh, and Varanasi offices.
• Electronic versions of all the articles in Columbia office(4050) are made.
• Hard copies are systematically and alphabetically filed for easy retrieval.

Work in India

• Unit coordinators appointed in Chandigarh, Nagpur, Delhi and Calcutta.
• Assignments and collection of articles are being made. According to the scorecard 72% of the total number of articles have been collected; 28% are to be collected. Varmaji says that articles collection work has been hampered, first, because of the absence of a functional office and a suitable office manager in Delhi; second, because of the shifting of EH office from Rishikesh to Delhi.
• National substance editing units are being established.
• Art-Director is identified
• Important sources for the collections of illustrative materials were identified. Several names for the position of Art Director were considered. In this connection, Mr. O.P. Tandon, Retired Director of Bharat Kala Bhavan, is in the short list for the position.

What is not done:

• Deadline of April 1, 2001 for the collection of all articles could not be met.
• Local workshops for editing D1 D2 D3 articles are yet to be organized.
• Transmission of all articles to Columbia in electronic form is not done.
• The reconciliation of the databases between Delhi/Rishikesh and Columbia offices has yet to be completed.

Too much is at stake for Hinduism and for the world in this Encyclopedia. This work will determine, in the minds of the people, the nature and structure of the Hindu tradition for centuries to come. It will be used by teachers, preachers, professors and spiritual leaders to remove distortions and misinterpretations for a long time. It will be referred to by lawyers and judges to determine relevant cases. Therefore, distortions and misinterpretations have to be set right. We dare not bring out substandard publication, simply because we do not have enough funds. Professionals must be hired with proper resources. An academic monitoring group should oversee their work.

EH is for future generations. It is to be written for humanity. We need to reevaluate aspects of our culture and traditions. We need to educate new generations of young people, with the Vedic vision of harmony. At a time when the world is looking towards India, we need to spell out clearly the Hindu spiritual ideals and values for our own sake and for the sake of others. The completion of the Encyclopedia of the Hinduism will go a long way in meeting these requirements. It is a promise that the IHRF made to the youth of the world.