Varnashram Project

Liberal democracy and socialism are the two dominant socio-political systems in the world today. Yet in terms of history they are relatively new to the world stage, and, more significantly, they are fundamentally Western approaches to ethics and civic society. With the decline of the West, a question arises as to what other social and political systems might arise to replace them. Would they be better? Could they be better? The Samprajña Institute seeks to explore these and other questions through its Varnashram Project (VAP). VAP seeks to explore how India's ancient social system, varnashrama, might be applied in the modern context and how it could present workable, alternative solutions to problems of communalism and terrorism as well as social and economic upheaval, which have characterized the secular 20th and 21st centuries.

Hindu Media Relations Project

The Hindu Media Relations Project (HMRP) aims to develop materials and courses whose objective is to provide information that will help guide journalists, educators, and government reprsentatives in dealing with substantive aspects of Hindu culture, the representation of Hindus to the public at large, and the formation of public policy that impacts the Hindu community.

The HMRP employs an emic, trans-ethnic approach that focuses on media relations not only with mainstream Hindus, whose ethnic origin can be traced back to the Indian subcontinent, but also with non-Indian Hindus.

(This project is under development.)

The Vivaha Project

Marriage is a universal social institution, yet different cultures and civilizations have developed different views and attitudes toward marriage that have, at various points in time, either strengthened or weakened this important institution. The Vivaha Project (VVP) aims to investigate and explore the institution of marriage from the perspective of dharmic cultures in order to develop educational and therapeutic alternatives to phenomenological therapies and counseling strategies currently popular in the West.

The VVP will employ both values-based approaches and conventional, data-based approaches standard in current sociological practice.

(This project is under development.)

The Humanistic Sciences Evaluation Project

The humanistic sciences are products of Western civilization, and they include fields as diverse as economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc. Although the humanistic sciences have had their significant achievements and, without doubt, have been influential in the global culture, there has been debate both within and outside of these fields as to how much good they have actually done in both the West and in other cultures. There has also been debate as to how scientific the humanistic sciences actually are.

The Humanistic Sciences Evaluation Project (HSEP) aims to evaluate the humanistic sciences from a cultural position outside of their Western cultural origins. Using a combination of academic scholars and traditional Indian scholars working in coordination with one another, the HSEP seeks to discover what aspects of the humanistic sciences are universally valid, what aspects are culture-specific, and what aspects are possibly representative of cultural bias. The HSEP also seeks to evaluate both the short- and long-term effects of select humanistic sciences on Western culture and other non-Western cultures.

(This project is currently under development.)