Workshop: Is song a route to peace or conflict?

Join Dr Ankur Barua, University Lecturer in Hindu Studies for this interactive session. Listen as he sings a selection of devotional songs from Hindu and Indo-Islamic contexts—accompanied by explanatory comment.

Can you identify a composer’s religious affiliation based on what you hear? What does this form of listening reveal about religious inter-relations in South Asia?

This session is part of an Alumni Festival workshop series organised by the Cambridge Interfaith Knowledge Hub. 

Capacity is limited and advance registration is essential.

Background to this event

Dr Ankur Barua is University Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies. After a BSc in Physics from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, Ankur read Theology and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge. His primary research interests are Vedāntic Hindu philosophical theology and Indo-Islamic styles of sociality.

He researches the conceptual constellations and the social structures of the Hindu traditions, both in premodern contexts in South Asia and in colonial milieus where multiple ideas of Hindu identity were configured along transnational circuits between India, Britain, Europe, and USA. Some of these narratives are re-imagined in his work of historical fiction, The Harvest of Time (Austin Macauley, 2023).

On his personal YouTube channel (AnkurBaruaDivinity), he introduces Hindu visions without employing any technical jargon and shares his musical repertoire.