Meera Nanda is an Indian writer, historian and philosopher of science. She is a John Templeton Foundation Fellow in Religion and Science (2005–2007), with a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an initial training in biology. In January 2009, she was made a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, in the Jawaharlal Nehru University for research in Science, Post-Modernism and Culture.
Background
She has authored several works on religion, most notably Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India (2004), and her 2009 book The God Market which examines how India is experiencing a rising tide of popular Hinduism, including Government of India financing of Hinduism despite the nation's secular characteristic. The book was also reviewed by William Dalrymple in Outlook Magazine.
Career
In January 2009, she was made a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, in the Jawaharlal Nehru University for research in Science, Post-Modernism and Culture. She has authored several works on religion, most notably Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India (2004), and her 2009 book The God Market which examines how India is experiencing a rising tide of popular Hinduism, including Government of India financing of Hinduism despite the nation's secular characteristic. The book was also reviewed by William Dalrymple in Outlook Magazine.
Criticisms have been leveled against Nanda by Swaminathan Venkataraman of the Hindu American Foundation in response to claims made by Nanda that Yoga has no link to Hinduism, such as her views being colored by her alleged hatred for Swami Vivekanada, and that Nanda fears "the emergence of an articulate, credible, and professional Hindu voice that is bringing authentic, apolitical Hindu perspectives into the public sphere"Historian of science N.S. Rajaram rebutted her charge that he had claimed that Swami Vivekananda had anticipated the findings of quantum physics and challenged her to cite a source. (The Hindu, May 29, 2004.) But the charge was picked up by other anti-Hindu critics, notably Alan Sokal in their polemical writings.