Two IoE Research Interns in the Department of Sanskrit Studies, Dr. Abirlal Gangopadhyay and Mr. Sayantan Lahiri presented papers in the two-day international conference, titled “Information Infrastructure of Social Science Research in India” (IISSRI-2023) at the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) on 2nd and 3rd March, 2023. The conference was funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi.
The two selected papers titled “Tantrayukti as a research method in scientific writing” by Prof. JSR Prasad, Abirlal Gangopadhyay, KSR Chakravarthy and Girija Gole; and “Introduction chapter in doctoral theses and IRM: An exploratory study” by Prof. Shree Deepa and Sayantan Lahiri advocated in favour of application of Tantrayukti methods in Ayurveda in the academic vis-a-vis research writing as a homegrown, additional unique research framework following Ancient Indian Knowledge Systems.
Both the papers documented the initial results of the IoE research project “Indian Research Methodology (IRM) from Sanskrit Texts: Multidisciplinary Applications in Higher Education Spaces” under the supervision of Prof. JSR Prasad, Department of Sanskrit Studies and Prof. Shree Deepa, Centre for English Language Studies, University of Hyderabad.
The conference hosted eminent scholars across the world. The keynote speech was delivered by Prof. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Emeritus Professor and the founding director of IDSK. This was followed by a series of special lectures by leading social scientists and scholars, most notably by Prof. Saibal Kar, Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor of Economics at the CSSS, Kolkata and Institute of Labour Economics, Bonn, Germany; and Prof. Mary K. Shenk, Pennsylvania State University, USA. The two-day conference ended with a panel discussion on “Issues in scholarly communication”.
Both the papers were generously appreciated by the academic community present there and an engrossing discussion took place following the presentation, as the eminent scholars showed their interest in the research project as it may contribute in decolonizing the way research is envisioned and practiced in India at present. The extended abstracts of the papers were published in a conference proceeding.
-Contributed by Sayantan Lahiri and Abirlal Gangopadhyay, IoE Research Interns, University of Hyderabad