The India Centre

Publications

As enunciated in the objectives, the Center's research mandate is to study various aspects of Indian cultural traditions, including artistic heritage, artist and artisanal communities, socio-economic-religious-ecological traditions, and historical and epistemological knowledge. It has the directive to undertake advanced research of select projects of the student-driven Discover India Program (DIP). While the centre has been recently established and new projects are currently being conceptualised and initiated, a sample of the publications of the members affiliated with the centre, given below, provides a brief glimpse of their research and allied interests.

Prof. Pankaj Jain

BOOKS
Jainism: From Bhagavan Mahavira to Mahatma Gandhi
Jainism: From Bhagavan Mahavira to Mahatma Gandhi
Jain, Pankaj. Modern Jainism: A historical approach. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2023
Jain, Pankaj. Modern Jainism: A historical approach. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2023.
2. Jain, Pankaj, and Long Jeffery D (eds.). Indian and Western philosophical concepts in religion. Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.
Jain, Pankaj, and Long Jeffery D (eds.). Indian and Western philosophical concepts in religion. Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.
3. Long Jeffery, Sherma Rita D., Jain, Pankaj and Khanna, Madhu (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, 2022.
Long Jeffery, Sherma Rita D., Jain, Pankaj and Khanna, Madhu (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, 2022.
4. Visual Anthropology of Indian Films
Visual Anthropology of Indian Films - Religious Communities and Cultural Traditions in Bollywood and Beyond


Recent Articles and Chapters
  1. Sharma, Shikha, and Pankaj Jain. “The Matrix, Advaita Cosmology, and Ecological Consciousness,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology.
  2. Sharma, Hardik, and Pankaj Jain. “WALL-E from Jain Perspective: Ahiṃsā, Aparigraha, and Ecological Ethics in Popular Cinema,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Vol. 30, Issue 1
  3. Birla, Krati, and Pankaj Jain. “Avatar and Jain Philosophy: Harmony and Contradiction,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Vol. 30, Issue 1
  4. Jain, Pankaj, and Suniti Vadalkar. “The Mahabharata for Ecodharmic Activism: Examples from the Bishnoi and Svādhyāya Communities,” in Dialoguing with Timeless Text: Revisiting the Mahabharata, ed. Balaganapathi Devarakonda and Geetesh Nirban. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2026.
  5. Jain, Pankaj. “The Jain Islands in the Hindu Heartland: Delhi, Ayodhyā, Hastināpur, and Vārāṇasī in Northern India,” in Sacred Heritage and Pilgrimages in Cities, ed. Rana P. B. Singh and Olimpia Niglio. Cham: Springer, 2025.
  6. Jain, Pankaj. “Modern Jainism: Dharma of Sustainability and Sustainability of Dharma,” in Summerhill: IIAS Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2024, pp. 53–58.
  7. Jain, Pankaj. “Jain Dharma” (in Hindi), in Himanjali, IIAS, Shimla, 2023, pp. 115–120.
  8. Hegde, Chirag and Pankaj Jain. “Kantara (2022) through the Lens of Indian Religious and Environmental Philosophy,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology. Vol. 29, Issue 3, pp. 271-273.
  9. Sharma, Shikha, and Jain, Pankaj. “Trishagni (1988): A Review Based on the Jewel Net of Indra, the Buddhist Notion for Environmental Sustainability,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Vol. 29, Issue 3, pp. 263-270.
  10. Tiwari, Gyanendra, and Pankaj Jain. “The Ecodharmic Significance and Liminal Experience of the Kumbh Mela,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Vol. 29, Issue 3, pp. 223–240. 
  11. Jain, Pankaj. “Flora and Farming in Jainism,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 2025, Vol. 29, Issue 2, pp. 170-179.
  12. Tiwari, Gyanendra and Pankaj Jain. “Maharaja Burger – Mad Cows, Holy Cows: Comparative Bovine Ecology from India and the UK,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 2025, Vol. 29, Issue 2, pp. 181-185.
  13. Kapoor, Khushi, and Pankaj Jain. “Exploring the Religious and Environmental Allusions in Ram Teri Gaṅgā Maili,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 28.3, 2024, pp. 295–301.
  14. Jain, Pankaj and Anindita Shome. “India’s Diasporic Diplomacy: A Millennial Survey.” In The Future of Indian Diplomacy: Exploring Multidisciplinary Lenses, edited by Eerishika Pankaj and Divya Balan. New Delhi: KW Publishers, New Delhi, 2025, pp. 15-30.
  15. Jain, Dhwaj, Yukti Khaitan, and Pankaj Jain. “Ship of Theseus: A Jain Monk’s Nonviolent Struggle for Animal Rights,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 28.3, 2024, pp. 211-217.
  16. Jain, Atharv and Pankaj Jain. “The Railway Men: Revisiting the Government Response to an Environmental Disaster,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 28.1, 2024, pp. 71-80.
  17. Jain, Pankaj. “Sustaining Dharma, Sustainable Ecology: Dharma as Rural Environmental Ethics,” in Indian Ethics, New Delhi: Routledge, edited by Purushottama Bilimoria, pp. 223-232, 2024.
  18. Jain, Pankaj (ed.). Visual Anthropology of Indian Films: Religious Communities and Cultural Traditions in Bollywood and Beyond, Routledge, 2024 (in Press).
  19. Jain, Pankaj. Jainism: From Bhagwan Mahavira to Mahatma Gandhi (2024). Manohar Publishers & Indian Institute of Advanced Study (In Press).
  20. Jain, Pankaj. "Interpreting and Responses to Pandemics in Indian Philosophical Traditions and Films," in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 27.2, 2023, pp. 285-303.
  21. Jain, Pankaj. "'Children of the Earth' to 'Dark Wind': Nature, Environment, and Climate in Indian Films," in Journal of Visual Anthropology, 36.1, 2023, pp. 69-79.
  22. Jain, Pankaj. "Ecocritical Analysis of Classics by Three Indian Film Maestros," in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 26.3, 2022, pp. 267-280.
  23. Jain, Pankaj, and Ajay Raina. "Film as a majoritarian framework of Hindu nationalism: The case of Purab Aur Pachhim," in Film and Place in an Intercultural Perspective: India-Europe Film Connections, edited by Krzysztof Stachowiak, Hania Janta, Jani Kozina, and Therese Sunngren-Granlund. London: Routledge, 2023, pp. 211-224.

Prof. Viraj Shah

Recent Publications
  1. 2023 Serpents or Nagas in Jaina Visual Imagery of India in Aloka Parasher-Sen edited Conversations with the Animate 'Other', New Delhi: Bloomsbury, pp. 140-160. ISBN: 9789356403055.

Prof. Vinod Vidwans

BOOKS
The Doctrine of Raga in Indian Music: With Nava Gana Ragas System
The Doctrine of Raga in Indian Music: With Nava Gana Ragas System
Recent Articles and Chapters
  1. Vidwans, Vinod. "Computational Indian Musicology: Challenges and New Horizons." In Computer Assisted Music and Dramatics: Possibilities and Challenges, pp. 231-239. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2023.

Prof. Tarinee Awasth

Recent Articles and Chapters
  1. Pañcānana Tarkaratna Bhaṭṭācārya’s Twentieth Century Śakta Vedānta in The Journal of Hindu Studies, 26 February 2026.
  2. “The Vādakautūhala of Svāmiśāstrin and Bhāskararāya (Part I): A Debate in Late Mīmāṃsā,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 54(3), pp. 193–234, Jul 2026