Open Lecture: Love in the Time of Conflict - The Bonds of Bhakti in South Asia

Ipswich Faith and Community Forum has collaborated with the University of Suffolk to deliver the Annual Faith Open Lecture.

Dr. Ankur Barua, Faculty of Divinity, University of Delhi, will deliver this year's Annual Faith Lecture - 'Love in the Time of Conflict: the Bonds of Bhakti in South Asia'.

Central to many forms of Hinduism are ideas, imaginations, and institutions associated with bhakti. One core dimension of bhakti is wholehearted love directed towards the divine reality – this has sometimes operated as a synthetic tissue across the borderlines of Hinduism and Indian Islam as well as Hinduism and Indian Christianity. In this talk, Dr Ankur Barua will explore the symbolic power of bhakti to facilitate certain types of interfaith engagement.

Doors will open at 5:30pm, with tea, coffee, and refreshments available in the foyer. The lecture will begin promptly at 6:00pm in the WLT1.

Biography

After earning a BSc in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, Dr Ankur Barua went on to study Theology and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. His main research interests lie in Hindu philosophical theology and Indo-Islamic forms of social interaction.

He explores the conceptual frameworks and social structures of Hindu traditions, focusing on both premodern South Asia and the colonial period, where diverse ideas of Hindu identity emerged through transnational exchanges between India, Britain, Europe, and the USA.

A key aspect of his work involves the comparative philosophy of religion, particularly examining theological and socio-political dimensions of Hindu–Christian interactions. More recently, his research has turned to the intersections of bhakti, yoga, tawḥīd, and taṣawwuf within the postcolonial context of South Asia.