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Audrey Truschke

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Audrey Truschke
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Associate professor, historian, author
Academic work
InstitutionsRutgers University
Websiteaudreytruschke.com

Audrey Truschke (/ˈtrʌʃki/ TRUSH-kee) is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on inter-community relations in medieval South Asia, especially during the Mughal Empire. In 2017, she was conferred with the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by American Historical Association.

Truschke has been a frequent target of harassment by right-wing Hindu nationalists, who accuse her of having prejudiced views on Hinduism, and making offensive statements; scholars reject the charges.[1][2][3][4]

Education and career

Truschke earned her bachelor's degree in religious studies from the University of Chicago in 2004.[5] She earned her MA from Columbia University in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies in 2007 before going on to receive a MPhil in the same discipline in 2008.[5] She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2012, and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge (2012–2013) and Stanford University (2013–2016).[5]

In 2015, Truschke joined Rutgers University as an assistant professor of South Asian history and in 2020, she was promoted to associate professorship.[5]

Publications and reception

Monographs

Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court

In 2016, Truschke's Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court, was published by Columbia University Press. It dwelt upon the literary, social, and political roles of Sanskrit in the Mughal courts from 1560 to 1650, and was reviewed in multiple journals.[6]

Aria Fani, in the journal Iranian Studies, found the work to be an invaluable contribution to South Asian studies.[7] Edmond Smith of the University of Kent, writing for Reviews in History, found the work to be "evocative, [and] expertly researched", where Truschke used her "exceptional linguistic talents" to pose and answer provoking questions about the Mughal Empire while inspiring other scholars to re-examine their approaches to studying religions.[8][9]

Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King

In 2017, Truschke published Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King about the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, with Stanford University Press.[10] Truschke, in her reading of sources, suggests that Aurangzeb was not the anti-Hindu tyrant he has been made out to be in popular scholarship; there was no "systematic" attack on Hindus and his sporadic destruction of temples or imposition of jizya must be interpreted from within a political and economical milieu.

Munis D. Faruqui, a historian of Mughal India, found the book to be an excellent work aimed at non-specialists, and praised Truschke's willingness to tackle the topic despite being aware about the inevitability of "vicious personal attacks from mostly nonacademic critics".[11] However, Faruqui cautioned that the book "[did] not fill unexplored gaps in the historiography."[11] Sara Mondini, a scholar of Indo-Islamic art and architecture, commended Truschke for having penned a "precise and exhaustive" volume on the subject with due regard to sources; it was far more "rich and complex" than the "stereotypical nationalist" ones prevailing in scholarship, and was "pivotal" to the understanding of Hindu-Muslim encounters in the premodern era.[12][13]

The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule

Truschke's third monograph, The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule, was published in January 2021 by Columbia University Press.[6] Sheldon Pollock, Romila Thapar, Cynthia Talbot, and Richard M. Eaton provided blurbs for the publication.[14]

Edited volumes

In May 2021, Truschke co-edited "The Ramayana of Hamida Banu Begum, Queen Mother of Mughal India" which was published by Silvana Editoriale and Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.[15]

Honors

In 2017, Truschke was awarded the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by the American Historical Association for Culture of Encounters being the "most distinguished work of scholarship on South Asian history, [published in 2016]".[16] She received the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence in 2020.[17]

Social media activity

Translation controversy

In one of her tweets in 2018, Truschke, referring to an episode in the Ramayana, said that Sita had admonished Rama as a "misogynist pig";[18] she cited a critical translation of the Valmiki Ramayana by Robert P. Goldman in support.[19][20][21][22] Goldman however denied that he ever used such language and deemed her choice of words to be "highly inappropriate".[4] Truschke responded by stating that such disagreements are routine aspects of scholarly discourse and she had only offered a "loose translation" using contemporary language.[21][23] According to Truschke, Goldman himself had used words like "pimp" in describing Sita's criticism of Rama and further, she was not endorsing Sita's criticism.[23][24]

Srinivas Reddy, a professor of religious studies at Brown University, found Truschke's choice of words to lie in the extreme and missing contextual nuances; however, he supported her right to critically interpret epic characters and found subsequent attacks on her by the Hindu right to be misogynistic in essence, and deplorable.[24] Highlighting how the Ramayana was not a dead text but a way of life in India, he urged Truschke to adopt a less polarizing voice in her analyses and respect the text, if not revere.[24] Writer Purushottam Agrawal found the tweet to be inflammatory, disrespectful and poor; it reduced the layered and complex character of Rama to a "caricature in a contemporary American comic strip," noting that "'Prakrita' [is] a common word, which essentially means 'ordinary' or 'uncivilised', or 'raw' as opposed to refined."[25] Cultural critic Pushpesh Pant found the translation to be poor, as well.[26]

Targeting by the Hindu right

Truschke has been a prominent critic of Hindutva and its exclusionary ideology.[27] Due to her historical works and her choice of language, she has become a target of the Hindu right[20] and has been a frequent recipient of hate mail.[28] In 2021, Truschke, along with a group of other scholars, formed a collective to combat increasing harassment of South Asian scholars by people affiliated with Hindutva.[29][30] They launched the "Hindutva Harassment Field Manual," offering "resources" against "Hindu Rights assault."[31]

Truschke reports that she is frequently the target of antisemitic attacks,[32] although she is "not Jewish";[33] her family name is of Polish origin.

Aurangzeb

After publishing her monograph on Aurangzeb, Truschke was accused of whitewashing his alleged genocidal atrocities on Hindus and trolled by the Hindu right.[34][12][35] Wendy Doniger noted these to be ad-hominem attacks infused with Islamophobia and misogyny.[34]

Student petition

In 2021, a group of Hindu students at Rutgers University circulated a petition calling for the university to disallow Truschke from teaching a course on Hinduism, condemn her views, and create "a safe space for diaspora Hindus".[1][2] The petition alleged that Truschke held "inherently prejudiced views" on Hinduism and the Hindus.[1] Among the alleged reasons were Truschke's claiming that the Bhagavad Gita rationalizes mass slaughter,[1][a] linking Hindus with the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol,[1][b] whitewashing the "trauma" inflicted on Hindus by Aurangzeb,[1][c] and designing an undergraduate course to portray an "exotic-erotic-chauvinist-oppressive" view of Hindu India by relying on scholars like Wendy Doniger and focusing on the multiplicity of Ramayana among other errors of omission and commission.[2]

The university, while defending academic freedom and calling for an immediate end to hate speech directed at her, said that it was initiating a dialogue with the Hindu community to understand their concerns.[40][1] Days later, Rutgers faculty members from varied faith backgrounds (including Hinduism) drafted an open letter affirming faith in Truschke's scholarship, rejecting the leveled charges of "Hinduphobia", and applauding Rutgers' affirmation of academic liberty whilst upholding commitment to diversity. Among the signatories who expressed solidarity with those academics were Romila Thapar, Rajmohan Gandhi, Sheldon Pollock, Partha Chatterjee, and Suketu Mehta.[3]

Litigation

In May 2021, the Hindu American Foundation filed a libel suit against Truschke and representatives of several other organizations in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.[41][42] Truschke was represented by Cornell Law School's First Amendment Clinic and Davis Wright Tremaine. A year and a half later, Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the suit since HAF not only failed to establish any cause of action — even assuming that their allegations were factually accurate[d] — but also failed to evidence that the court had any personal jurisdiction over the defendants.[e][43]

A diverse group of intellectuals and academics—Akeel Bilgrami, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, Nandini Sundar, Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar, Sudipta Kaviraj, Sheldon Pollock, and Wendy Doniger among others—have condemned HAF's tactics as a strategic lawsuit against public participation to silence critics and push forward Hindutva.[42][44]

Personal life

Truschke has three children.[45]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Referring to Truschke (2020), The living Mahabharata:

    [T]he line between virtue and vice [ in Mahabharata], dharma and adharma, is often muddled [...] Krishna's discourse to Arjuna, known as the Bhagavadgita (‘Song of the Lord’), or Gita for short, is often read as a standalone work today, and revered by many across the world for its insights on morality and even nonviolence. In the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi understood the Gita to support nonviolent resistance to colonial oppression. In the Mahabharata's plot, however, the Bhagavadgita rationalises mass slaughter [...] The Pandavas win, but at a magnificent cost of human life. The epic compels readers to imagine that human cost by describing the battle in excruciating, bloody detail over tens of thousands of verses. The Pandavas kill multiple members of their own family along the way, including elders who ought to be revered. Their victory is further soured by a night raid in which, on the last night of the war, the few remaining Kauravas creep into the slumbering Pandava camp and kill nearly everyone, including all the victors’ sons."

    — [36]
    The philosophy of violence (and nonviolence), as espoused in Bhagavadgita and their appropriation into sociopolitical discourse has attracted significant scholarship. See Palshikar, Sanjay. "Evil and the Philosophy of Retribution: Modern Commentaries on the Bhagavad-Gītā". UK: Routledge (2014)
  2. ^ Truschke linked "Hindu Right folks" with the Capitol riots, not Hindus in general:

    I begin teaching History of South Asia II (Mughals to Modi) on Jan 19, one day before the inauguration.

    One of my opening images will be this [rioters and flags in front of the Capitol, including an Indian flag] from DC yesterday, with the opening question -- What do we need to know to explain why there is an Indian flag here?"

    [In a reply]: There were a number of Hindu Right folks there, including some who have attacked me in the past.

    — [37]
    A fact-check by Alt News corroborates Truschke's accusations:

    It turns out that they are actually inclined towards the Bharatiya Janata Party.

    — [38]
    In general, other scholars have noted the enmeshing of Hindu Nationalist diaspora with US-based Far Right.[39]
  3. ^ Referring to the conclusions of Truschke (2017), Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King
  4. ^ Judge Mehta rejected that HAF had provided any evidence to support that the defenders were acting with malice, which is integral to maintainability of a defamation suit.
  5. ^ HAF requested for a discovery to bolster its jurisdictional claims; Judge Mehta denied the request for being a "fishing expedition, [..] not made in good faith."

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Historian Audrey Truschke faces threats, Rutgers University extends support to her". Scroll.in. 9 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Chung, Victoria; Yeasky, Joanne (11 March 2021). "Rutgers professor faces open letter accusing her of Hinduphobia". The Daily Targum.
    Read with the linked letter: "Open Letter to Rutgers Administration from Concerned Hindu Students and Allies".
  3. ^ a b "Rutgers Faculty Extends 'Unreserved Support' to Professor Audrey Truschke". The Wire. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  4. ^ a b Venugopal, Arun (2021-07-21). "At Rutgers, and Beyond, Scholars Are Under Attack For Their Critique of India's Far-Right Government". Gothamist.
  5. ^ a b c d "Audrey Truschke | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Academia.edu". rutgers.academia.edu. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Audrey Truschke". Rutgers SASN. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  7. ^ Fani, Aria (4 March 2019). "Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court". Iranian Studies. 52 (1–2): 231–237. doi:10.1080/00210862.2019.1590819. ISSN 0021-0862. S2CID 167120313.
  8. ^ Smith, Edmond (2017). "Review of 'Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court'". Reviews in History. School of Advanced Study, University of London. doi:10.14296/RiH/2014/2122. ISSN 1749-8155.
  9. ^
  10. ^ Zia, Shaharyar (August 2020). "Aurangzeb". Reading Religion (book review). American Academy of Religion. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  11. ^ a b Faruqui, Munis D. (6 March 2019). "Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King. By Audrey Truschke". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 87 (1): 299–303. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfy040. ISSN 0002-7189.
  12. ^ a b Mondini, Sara (October 2018). "Audrey Truschke: Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King. xiii, 136 pp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978 1 5036 0257 1". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 81 (3): 555–557. doi:10.1017/S0041977X18001179. ISSN 0041-977X. S2CID 187354883.
  13. ^ Reyes, María Fernanda Ramírez; Becerril, Maribel Elliet Alvarado (2019). "Audrey Truschke (2017). Aurangzeb. The life and legacy of India's most controversial king. Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 152 pp". Estudios de Asia y Africa (in Spanish). 54 (1 (168)): 185–190. doi:10.24201/eaa.v54i1.2420. ISSN 0185-0164. JSTOR 26542051. S2CID 239532632.
  14. ^ "Reviews of The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule". Columbia University Press (publisher's blurb). 5 January 2021. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30.
  15. ^ "The Ramayana of Hamida Banu Begum, Queen Mother of Mughal India". en.silvanaeditoriale.it. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  16. ^ "John F. Richards Prize Recipients | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  17. ^ Luongo, Nora (15 May 2020). "SASN Faculty and Staff Honored for their Exceptional Contributions". Rutgers SASN.
  18. ^ "Dr. Audrey Truschke on Twitter: "For anyone unfamiliar with these episodes..." Twitter. 2018-04-19. Archived from the original on 2021-05-20.
  19. ^ "Dr. Audrey Truschke on Twitter: "Re #RamayanaGate over here..." Twitter. 2018-04-20. Archived from the original on 2021-09-20.
  20. ^ a b Pallavi Pundir (16 August 2018). "Audrey Truschke on Why She Won't Quit Social Media, Despite Being Trolled by the Hindu Right - VICE". VICE News.
  21. ^ a b "Author Audrey Truschke's Hyderabad event cancelled allegedly due to RSS, BJP protests". The News Minute. 8 August 2018.
  22. ^ Bhattacharya, A. K. (25 May 2018). "Was Rama's putting Sita through 'agni pariksha' a 'misogynistic' act?". Business Standard India. (Subscription required.)
  23. ^ a b Truschke, Audrey (29 April 2018). "The Many Criticisms of Rama and the 'Anger' of the Hindu Right". The Wire. Archived from the original on 2018-04-29.
  24. ^ a b c Reddy, Srinivas (9 July 2018). "What does Sita really say in Valmiki's Ramayana?". The Caravan.
  25. ^ Agrawal, Purushottam (4 May 2018). "Lost in translation". India Today. Archived from the original on 2018-05-09.
  26. ^ Pant, Pushpesh (27 April 2018). "Ram to Aurangzeb: Audrey Truschke and the Art of Taking Liberties". TheQuint.
  27. ^ Vadukut, Sidin (14 October 2017). "Audrey Truschke | The historian who engages". Mint.
  28. ^ "Hate Male". The Revealer. 2020-07-14.
  29. ^ Priyali Prakash (10 July 2021), ‘Targeted by hate’: Audrey Truschke on why she helped write a ‘Hindutva Harassment Field Manual’, Scroll.in
  30. ^ "Hindutva's threat to academic freedom". Washington Post. 7 July 2021. ISSN 0190-8286.
  31. ^ South Asia Scholar Activist Collective, Hindutva Harassment Field Manual, Wikidata Q108732338
  32. ^ Manimugdha S Sharma (August 19, 2018). "Audrey, Audrey, quite contrary: The historian everyone loves to hate". Times of India.
  33. ^ Andrew Cockburn (October 2024). "The Hindutva Lobby: How Hindu nationalism spreads in America". Harper's.
  34. ^ a b Harikrishnan, Charmy (28 August 2017). "The ring changed Dushyanta from a lying cad to an honourable man: Wendy Doniger". The Economic Times.
  35. ^ "Audrey Truschke, "Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most…". New Books Network. 2020-09-04.
  36. ^ Audrey Truschke (2020), The living Mahabharata, Aeon
  37. ^ "Dr. Audrey Truschke on Twitter: "@Yael_Rice There were a number of Hindu Right folks there". 2021-01-07. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02.
  38. ^ Mohammed Zubair (9 Jan 2021), Fact check: Were the men who waved the Indian flag at the Capitol supporters of the Congress party?, Scroll.in
  39. ^ Leidig, Eviane; Ganesh, Bharath; Bright, Jonathan (January 2022). "New forms of cultural nationalism? American and British Indians in the Trump and Brexit Twittersphere". Nations and Nationalism. 28 (1): 302–321. doi:10.1111/nana.12781. hdl:11250/3053021. ISSN 1354-5078. S2CID 244443494.
  40. ^ Vikram Zutshi, The curious case of controversial historian Audrey Truschke, The Hindu, 12 March 2021.
  41. ^ "Hindu American Foundation files defamation suit against Hindu rights nonprofit". Religion News Service. 20 May 2021.
  42. ^ a b Sircar, Anisha (24 May 2021). "Explained: The Hindu American Foundation's defamation case against Hindus for Human Rights founders". Scroll.in.
  43. ^ Scroll Staff (2022-12-21). "US court dismisses Hindutva group's defamation case against academic Audrey Truschke, four activists". Scroll.in.
  44. ^ "Over 300 Writers, Academics and Scholars Repudiate HAF's Attempt to Silence Hindus for Human Rights". Hindus for Human Rights. 20 May 2021.
  45. ^ "Pedagogy & the Pandemic: Professor Audrey Truschke Meets the Moment". Rutgers SASN. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
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