Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is Visiting Assistant Professor at Wellesley College, and teaches courses within the South Asia Studies program.

She got her Master’s degree in English Literature from MS University, in Baroda, Gujarat, India, and then taught for five years at small colleges before moving to New Jersey  in the late 1980s. She then worked at American Express and other companies before applying to graduate school. She was accepted to Harvard, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2003.

From 1999 to 2003, Neelima served as the advisor to Hindu students at nearby Wellesley College, in the town of Wellesley. For the 2003-04 academic year, she taught at Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, NY, before returning to teach in the Religion Department at Wellesley. Neelima now has an active role in the newly-formed South Asia Studies program curriculum, teaching elementary Hindi/Urdu and other courses within the interdisciplinary program (for which students had been lobbying for several years before it was officially approved).

Neelima recently broke new ground in her personal life, too, by performing the sacred thread ceremony for her New Jersey-based nephew.

Lokvani approached Neelima to talk about her academic background, interests, and research, and her role within the Wellesley College and Hindu communities of which she is a part.

What led you to pursue a Ph.D. in Religion? What did you focus on for your specific field of research?

I applied, with the support of my husband, to various programs in Philosophy and Religion.  Religion is not a major academic field in India (there is one in Punjab), and I had never taken a single religion course. So I was pleasantly surprised when Harvard accepted me! I had to undergo another Master’s degree at Harvard Divinity School before I could complete my Ph.D. (from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences).

My research focused on South Asia as a religious complex; specifically, I examined expressions of devotion through poetry and songs. I have always been interested not so much purely in texts as what people do with those texts. Interfaith dialogue is another important aspect of my work. My thesis was on cultural forms and resources – such as bhajans, ghazals, etc – that tie people together across boundaries.

I studied pluralism with Diana Eck [Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies], South Asian Islam with Ali Asani [Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Cultures], and bhakti with Prof. John Carman [Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Religions Emeritus] at Harvard.


And what are you working on now?
As I said, I am interested in cultural products and aesthetic expression instead of straightforward doctrines. As such, I have four things in the process right now.

One is an article about Meerabai and the singing of her songs in Gujarat, as opposed to Rajasthan where they originated. It deals with “performance as translation”.

One is based on my dissertation [entitled Nectar of Bhakti], which is a translation and analysis of the devotional poetry of the famous saint-poet Narasinha Mehta, who among other things wrote Gandhi’s favorite song. One is on garba.

I’m also writing something on commercials. Zee TV, in America and England, runs these commercials for Ajmeri Baba and other pirs who claim to solve all problems in seven days, etc.The article deals with the ideology of consumerism, which turns everything into purchasable products – and with the interface of business and religion in the context of globalization.

Finally I’m working on a monograph, although I haven’t even sent out any proposals yet, so it’s probably too early to talk about that.
 

To backtrack a bit, how did you come to be associated with Wellesley College and the Hindu students’ organization there, Darshana?

Wellesley announced the position of advisor to Darshana in 1999. I interviewed and was offered the job in the fall of that year, and held the position until 2003 when I left for Syracuse.

While the advisor, I focused on various lines of activity and thinking with the students. The organization was just taking shape, and had no fixed format or structure. In my work with the students, I was more of a presence and counselor than a preacher. I just helped the students explore their religiosity in meaningful ways. One of the things the students wanted to do was establish routines for things like pooja; we also set up a small mandir. I found they wanted to perform the poojas themselves, so that became a tradition in Darshana. We met once a week to do so.

In addition, we would chat and explore discussion topics and ideas such as what it means to be a Hindu, the role of women in traditional context, how things are changing from the past to the future. We wanted to make meaningful use of religious ideas. It was a very rewarding experience.

I personally don’t go to the temple every week even though I do puja/meditation at home regularly… But Darshana was a good way to discover religion with other people, especially since another aspect of my work dealt with interfaith dialogue among administrators. The advisors of various faiths met for a few hours a week, to report back on group activities and plan interfaith programs with a common budget.  

And how did your current teaching position come about?

I had conversations with the Chair of the Department of Religion. But I didn’t want to be presumptuous and assume I could teach  without my having earned my Ph.D. Fast forward some years, and I am now officially a Visiting Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at Wellesley; the permanent position has just been announced.

Tell us more about the history of the South Asia Studies Program and your role within it.

The program is interdisciplinary and very meaningful personally and academically to me. There had been student initiative for such a program. The South Asia related faculty started meeting last year, talking about whether we could have a real program, discussing dimensions and possibilities… The administration, since I started getting involved in the process, has always been extremely supportive.


And what is the exact nature of the program as a whole?

Professors Geeta Patel [Women’s Studies], Christopher Candland [Political Science], Marjery Sabin [English], and Nikhil Rao [History] are involved with the program. The idea is to introduce students to the region through interdisciplinary courses. To major in South Asia Studies, a student has to take 11 courses in total, 2 of which have to be at the 300 [advanced] level. An Introduction to South Asia course is mandatory for majors and minors. Students get to choose their own focus within the discipline, and take 3-4 courses in that particular area of focus.

This semester I am teaching Elementary Hindi/Urdu. The course was capped at 15 students, but we had to open it up and allow 20 because of the demand. A good number of the students are second-generation, South Asian Americans. There are also 7 Americans. I am also teaching an Introduction to South Asia – which has about 12 or 13 students, several of whom are American of various ethnicities. The Intro class is very interesting, full of different perspectives, and we are focusing on both colonial and post-colonial material.  


Are there any other courses you are planning or teaching?

I will teach Aesthetic Expressions of Religion in South Asia in the coming (spring) semester. I have taught it before in a different format, as a Harvard Junior Tutorial on music and poetry and their relation to painting. We will look at poetry, architecture, sculpture etc, in this case, and examine the aesthetic theories behind these art forms.


Perhaps a difficult question to ask: do your personal history, beliefs, nationality or background in any way interfere with your teaching the Introduction to South Asia course? Can you comment on the subjective/personal angle to this objective/academic pursuit?

A good question. As an academic, I know that no knowledge is objective. There is always an angle. You can be either biased or dispassionate, secular or religious, but you always have a perspective. There will always be a subjectivity to deal with, and knowledge will always be presented with a particular perspective. Teaching history with a degree in Religion is of course a mixing of disciplines. But South Asia Studies is an interdisciplinary program, and we are looking at all religions.

I also know that religions are human creations: efforts to be in the world in a meaningful manner. And as a student of religion, I see that religion often gets entangled with politics and conflict. Also, religious phenomena always take place within history, within historical context. For instance, think of the religious reform movements of the 19th century within colonial contexts. You can’t separate the two. And history too is influenced by religious happenings.

People earlier looked for the “essence” of a particular religion – but there is no such thing. Things are constantly changing. And I think one’s perspective on one’s own religious practices change when studying – when one looks at religion as a human creation. But you have to ensure that your perspective doesn’t make you biased. I don’t think that having been the Darshana advisor made my perspective biased; I always wanted to get other people involved in discussion and have conversations with other religious groups. That is at the basis of my philosophy of teaching, and I would like to think that I am sensitive to people in my classes.

Finally, I should make it clear that this Introduction course is not only about religion and politics and history – we are also looking at lifestyle, attire, geography, food, many different things that will give people an introduction to varied aspects of South Asia, just like the title says.


Well put! We now shift focus from your academic life to your personal life: please tell us about your knowledge of Sanskrit, your decision to perform the sacred thread ceremony for your nephew, and your thoughts on how the Hindu religion may or may not be changing.

I studied Sanskrit in school in India and then for two years at college. I also took advanced courses at Harvard. So my exposure to Sanskrit was mainly academic. Family-wise, we are from a Brahmin family – Shukla is a Brahmin name. But the extended family comprises people from all castes.

My cousin [the young boy’s father] Himanshu really wanted me to perform the ceremony. He has a degree in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, and has often wondered what our contribution to history will be. He believes that we should all be doing innovative things, bringing about change, opening up things that have been closed for centuries. So he was very enthusiastic.

What I was doing was nothing new; women in Maharashtra have been doing this for some time now. India Abroad at one point did a piece on women who are doing part-time priestly work. They are from all different castes! There’s even a school for such women in Pune.  

I guess my actions did make a statement, but I believe that there’s nothing that women shouldn’t be doing. This in particular was an exploration of an opportunity, a one-time thing. I had no desire to become a priest, and don’t foresee this happening over and over again. In fact, I was concerned that people would react saying that I had no experience, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that people had no such reaction.

My cousin wanted the ceremony to be short yet meaningful, with the view that children who grow up here [in the US] have no background in their religion and should be introduced to it. I had the children come up on stage and recite mantras and shlokas – and people burst out in applause! In fact, some of them came up and offered me more work!


So, needless to say, you do think it’s OK for women to take on the old traditional version of Hinduism and create new roles for themselves…

Absolutely. I think some aspects of the old ways, the old system must be broken. For whatever reason the system was established, hundreds of years ago… But it should be open to everyone, open regardless of gender and caste. That is just unfair. And new people mean new energy!

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