On March 15-16, 2006, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted a conference of Indologists from the CIS countries, which was mainly organized by the Center for Indian Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Embassy of the Republic of India in the Russian Federation. The need for such a conference has been felt for a long time. The collapse of the USSR led to the almost complete cessation of scientific contacts between the once actively cooperating indologists of the former republics. Together, we managed to gather colleagues from Russian cities (and not only traditional indology centers - Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also such cities as Irkutsk, Lipetsk, Kislovodsk, Penza), Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

At the plenary session, which was opened by T. L. Shaumyan, Head of the Center for Indian Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, R. B. Rybakov, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, A. Thakur, Director of the J. Nehru Cultural Center of the Embassy of India, E. M. Chelyshev, Academician, M. S. Meyer, Rector of the ISAA at Moscow State University, M. H. Abuseitova (Kazakhstan), O. M. Lukash (Ukraine), A. N. Shamatov (Uzbekistan) and

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З. Ubaydulloev (Tajikistan). After that, 5 sections started their work, and a total of 64 reports were read.

At the meetings of the section "Domestic and Foreign Policy", which were held under the leadership of F. N. Yurlov and Z. V. Shishkin. Ubaydulloev, 15 reports were discussed, which were made by indologists from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Ukraine (in the discussion). When discussing India's domestic policy, a wide range of topical issues were considered. The discussion was initiated by E. N. Komarov (Moscow) with the report " Political Development of India. Historical background and regularities of democratization in a comparative perspective". The Indian experience of reforms and modernization was analyzed by F. N. Yurlov (Moscow) in the report "India: Democratic Evolutionary Modernization". Problems of the federal structure of India became the topic of the report of M. A. Pleshova (Moscow) "Evolution of Indian Federalism". New trends in inter-caste relations were analyzed by E. S. Yurlova (Moscow) in the report "New approaches to inter-caste relations in India". The problems of India's political culture attracted the attention of A. A. Kutsenko (Moscow), who made a report "Charisma as an element of India's political culture". Extremely dangerous for India separatist movements was devoted to the report of the SA. Baranova (Moscow) "Problems of research of autonomist and separatist movements in the north-east of India". The discussion highlighted the importance of the experience of India's democratic development and building a federal state, as well as the specifics of the country's political development, taking into account its cultural and historical traditions.

In the reports and discussions on foreign policy, general issues related to the growing role of India in Asia and the world in the context of globalization were considered, as well as the main directions of the country's foreign policy, taking into account the fundamental changes in the international arena at the beginning of the XXI century. A. M. Kassymov (Tashkent) made a summary report " Asia in the XXI century: challenges to the world and transformation." The growing importance of India in the Indian Ocean region was the subject of the report of N. B. Lebedeva (Moscow) "The Indian Ocean at the turn of the century-the place and role of India". T. G. Giyasov (Tashkent) addressed in his report "The influence of M. K. Gandhi and Gandhism on India's foreign policy" to the historical roots and ideological foundations of foreign policy S. M. Mirkasymov (Tashkent) focused on the main directions of the foreign policy course of modern India, namely: Lunev (Moscow) formulated the main objectives of India's foreign policy. Several reports were devoted to India's bilateral relations with Central Asian countries: S. F. Mazhitov (Alma Ata) "Kazakhstan and India: historical retrospectives and prospects", M. A. Olimov (Dushanbe)" Relations between Tajikistan and India at the present stage and their reflection in indological studies", activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Nuclear safety issues in the Asian region and the world were also considered. It was decided to discuss this topic separately at a special seminar.

The discussion at the section attracted the attention of postgraduates and students. Thus, two graduate students of MGIMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation made informative reports: Yu.E. Aryaeva - "Indian Secularism: unity in diversity" and E. S. Remizova - "The New Face of the Bharatiya Janata Party".

The meeting participants suggested that indologists from other CIS countries, the Baltic States, and India should be invited to participate in similar conferences in the future; in order to develop indology, use the opportunity to create a Russian-Indian foundation for the development of Indological research in Russia. The Center for Indian Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences could become the coordinator of this foundation's activities.

The section" History and Public Thought", chaired by E. Yu. Vanina and A. V. Raikov, heard 16 reports delivered by indologists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Lipetsk, Penza, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Already at the stage of forming the program, the organizing committee adopted a broader interpretation of the very concept of "history", which makes it possible to include in the field of historians not only political events and socio-economic development of a given society, but also ideas, ideas, worldview and ethical attitudes characteristic of its various strata. An interdisciplinary approach, combining the efforts of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, source scientists, researchers of religion and philosophy, was applied in the preparation of the section program.

By topic, the section reports can be divided into three main groups.

The first category includes informational and review reports that were intended to summarize the development of a particular discipline, evaluate what was achieved, and outline new repechages.-

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tiv. Thus, M. F. Albedil (St. Petersburg) presented research on the anthropology and cultures of India, which is currently conducted by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. M. T. Stepanyants (Moscow) presented an overview of the study of the philosophical teachings of India at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The history of the study of Indian philosophy in Ukraine was the topic of the report of Y. Y. Zavgorodny (Kiev). Three reports of this group were devoted directly to history: L. B. Alaev (Moscow) summed up the study of the ancient, medieval, modern and modern history of India over the past decade and a half and presented to his colleagues a list of scientific publications on the history of India for the specified period. A. A. Vigasin (Moscow) described the program of teaching Indian history at the Institute of Countries Asia and Africa at Moscow State University. Two more reports, which had an informational and review nature, were devoted to source studies: T. N. Zagorodnikova (Moscow) made a report on the study and publication in the USSR/In addition to the collection of archival materials on the history of Russian-Indian relations, Dmitry Lelyukhin (Moscow) familiarized the audience with the work of the Internet resource "Indian Epigraphy" created by him.

The second group includes reports, the content of which is related to new directions and methodologies in the study of the history and culture of India. E. Y. Karachkova (Moscow) devoted her report to ethnohistory , a popular research method in world indology that combines the approaches of history and anthropology. The topic of the report by I. P. Glushkova (Moscow) was the study of the history and culture of India at the regional level - this area, which modern Indology recognizes as the most promising, has unfortunately not yet taken its rightful place in domestic research. I. T. Prokofieva (Moscow) continued the same topic on the specific material of regional self-consciousness of Bengalis.

The third group combined reports on specific problems of Indian history - from ancient times to independence (the development of independent India was considered at the sessions of the sections "Domestic and Foreign Policy" and"Socio-economic issues"). Two reports were based on the analysis of ancient and early medieval texts:" Arthashastra " by Kautilya (D. Mazhidenova, Kazakhstan) and notes of Chinese pilgrims visiting India (N. V. Alexandrova, Moscow). Two reports dealt with the problems of modern history, admittedly the most poorly studied in modern Russian Indology. T. P. Kalyanova (Irkutsk) analyzed the ideological and political approaches of the British East India Company to the training of personnel of the colonial apparatus (the first third of the 19th century). The report was based on the little-known work of T. R. Malthus. T. G. Skorokhodov A. V. Raikov (Lipetsk) presented a report on the so - called Bengali Renaissance, an era of cultural upsurge in Bengal in the second half of the XIX-early XX centuries. Japan's plans to create a "Great East Asian Sphere of Co-prosperity", in which India was assigned a key role. The topic of L. A. Chereshneva's report (Lipetsk) was the political struggle between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League during the partition of British India.

At the section" Culture and Religion " under the chairmanship of V. V. Vertogradova, six reports were heard. The first speaker at the meeting was a guest of the conference, Professor T. K. Venkatasubramanian of Delhi University, with a report "Popular Culture in India: Case Studies of Ramlila and Diglossia in Tamil" ("Folk Culture in India: A Study of Ramlila and Diglossia in Tamil"). On the example of the religious holiday of Ramlila, the problems of language behavior and folk culture among Tamils were investigated. E. G. Vyrshchikov (Moscow) considered the problems of studying Proto-Indian images. The ancient civilization of the Indus Valley continues to be one of the most controversial topics in modern Indology, which made the report particularly relevant. Subject of the BB message. Vertogradovoy ( Moscow) - color theory in ancient India. T. E. Morozova (Moscow) highlighted the problems and prospects of studying the Indian musical tradition. S. I. Potabenko (Moscow) presented an information and synthesis report that analyzed the current state of research on Indian art in the CIS countries. N. A. Zheleznova (Moscow) addressed the problem of schisms in the history of the Jain tradition.

All the reports read at the section were characterized by the desire to go beyond the narrow thematic specialization (religious studies, art history) to a broader level of cultural generalizations. The section had a lively and fruitful discussion on key issues of Indian culture.

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The sessions of the section "Languages and Literature of India" were chaired by A. N. Shamatov and Ya. V. Vasilkov. Approximately half of the reports read out were devoted to the current state of Russian indological philology and pressing problems of its various branches. Thus, the joint report of Y. V. Vasilkov and N. V. Gurov (St. Petersburg State University) "Studying the languages and culture of India in St. Petersburg" spoke about the achievements of the St. Petersburg Indological school. The fundamental role of such prominent figures as academicians I. P. Minaev, F. I. Shcherbatskoy, S. F. Oldenburg, A. P. Barannikov, and the scientific achievements of their students were noted. The speakers highlighted the activities of scientists in collecting and researching manuscripts, the collection of which in St. Petersburg is of indisputable value. The activities of the Department of Indology of the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg University were presented in detail. In turn, the Head of the Department of Indian Philology at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, B. A. Zakharyin, spoke about the work of his Moscow colleagues and the most important points of the general program of teaching students Indian languages and literature. He also introduced students to his scientific work in the field of traditional Indian linguistic tradition.

Two reports were devoted to Buddhist studies. D. I. Zhutaev (Moscow) in his report "Mechanisms of transmission of sacred text in schools of early Buddhism (towards a problem statement)" discussed the main factors of generation, functioning and transmission of early Buddhist texts (oral origin, existence, recording, etc.), or, using the author's terminology, about E. P. Ostrovskaya (St. Petersburg) read out the report "Abhidharmakosha "(Encyclopedia of Buddhist Philosophy)prepared together with V. I. Rudym Vasubandhu as a monument of Sanskrit literature". She shared with her colleagues the experience of working on one of the most significant monuments of Buddhist religious and philosophical thought, spoke about the joint work with V. I. Rudy on translating and studying its text, and about the problems that arose in this regard. It is worth noting here that scientists have already published a translation into Russian of three of the nine sections of the monument, providing it with detailed comments and a thorough study.

S. V. Pakhomov (St. Petersburg) in his report "Specifics of Tantric literature" made an attempt to characterize the main features of such a complex and contradictory phenomenon as Tantrism and, in particular, proposed a set of criteria for the sacredness of a teaching or text (eternity, revelation, authority, esotericity, divinity, etc.).

The morning session began with "Reflections on the Literature of Modern India" suggested by the ML. Salganik (Moscow). The main thesis was that at present, Indian writers are beginning to feel constrained by the confines of their national literatures and languages. They are looking for ways of expression that would allow them to reach the world literary level. This explains the growing interest of Indian writers in the English language, and the emergence of truly major writers who are somehow connected with the Indian region (Salman Rushdie, Naipaul, Arundhati Roy, etc.). Not all of those present agreed with the polemical assessments of M. L. Salganik, and a small discussion about the problems and tasks followed contemporary Indian literature.

The topic of modernity was continued by G. V. Strelkova (Moscow), who read the report "Hindi Literature: new heroes, new opportunities". Agreeing with the fact that there are natural changes in Indian literatures (in Hindi literature, in particular), new authors and new problems appear, the speaker complained that the study of modern Indian literature in Russia is not going through the best of times. She recalled the many and varied studies of the 1960s and 1980s and noted that now such works appear quite rarely. At the end of the speech, however, there was a certain optimistic note related to the fact that there are still young people who have decided to devote themselves to Indology.

This topic was supported from a different angle by A. M. Dubyansky (Moscow), who, referring to the ISAA Department of Indian Philology at Moscow State University, spoke about the important role of student term papers and theses. Some of them are of serious scientific interest and are used fruitfully by subsequent generations of students. This information was a kind of insert in the report "Problems of studying Dravidian literatures", in which the author outlined two points: one - the state of affairs in Russian Dravidia, which at present should be called nothing but alarming. The lack of replacement for a few Dravidian scholars casts doubt on the existence of this indological discipline in the future. The other is purely scientific-

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The main problem associated with the general objectives of the study of Indian literature is the problem of the correlation of southern and northern literary traditions. Without its solution, the speaker stressed, it is difficult to imagine the development of the literary process in India.

L. A. Vasilyeva (Moscow) also spoke about the lack of scientific personnel in her report "Problems of studying Urdu literature". In terms of literary studies proper, the problem of dividing the corpus of Urdu literature between two states - India and Pakistan-seems to be one of the most important for her. It creates difficulties not only for literary critics, but sometimes for writers themselves (for example, in the question of self-identification). It is also connected with the problem of the literature of the Urdu-speaking diaspora, which is very extensive and numerous. Finally, there is the most important problem of the origin of Urdu literature, related to the problem of the formation of a literary language, about which researchers have not yet come to a consensus.

In his report "Indological Literary studies in post-Soviet Russia" S. D. Serebryany (Moscow) tried to identify new trends in the work of modern indologists and noted that almost all of them are now moving away from purely literary methods and tend to research in line with other disciplines-history, religious studies, ethnography, philosophy. This thesis, however, met with objections from the audience. In the discussion that followed, examples of recent works that are indological literary studies without reservations were given.

At the last afternoon session of the section, problems of linguistics were discussed. V. P. Liperovsky (Moscow) spoke about studying the Hindi language at the Institute of Oriental Studies, A. A. Sigorsky (Moscow) made a report on the topic: "The evolution of literary and spoken languages in the Hindi area on the example of case systems development". A. N. Shamatov (Tashkent) outlined the development of Indological research in Germany. The report was accompanied by a slide show.

The topic of the reports presented at the section "Social and economic problems" was focused on two main groups of problems.

The first is the main socio-economic problems of India, the unresolved nature of which threatens the further development, stability and even integrity of the country.

The second is the problem of economic relations between India and Russia, which are at an extremely low level.

The first group of problems was inherited from deformed evolution in colonial conditions. During the years of independence, some progress was made on this path, but in general, these problems still remain unresolved, and the process of globalization, India's transition to an export-oriented strategy and the expansion of freedom of market relations in the economy have given these problems new complications and urgency.

One of the most acute problems in India is food. During the years of independence, India achieved - at the current level of consumption (determined by the preservation of huge areas of poverty) - almost complete food security (grain imports account for only 5% of consumption). However, now the food problem is getting worse again. Against the background of the exhaustion of opportunities for expanding arable land and the reduction of water resources for irrigation, the huge population growth with a continuing predominant share of the rural population creates increasing difficulties in the country's food supply. Improving the living standards of the poorest segments of the population, which is one of the main goals of government policy in India, further increases the demand for food. This demand can increase many times if such an increase leads to the transition of a significant part of the mainly vegetarian population to an increase in meat consumption, which accordingly increases the demand for grain for the feed base of livestock production.

India's food problem is also of great global importance. The transformation of India into a massive food importer (along with a similar increase in food imports to China) in the context of lagging global food production can lead to deep shocks in the global grain market with unpredictable consequences. This determined the great importance and relevance of the topic of the report of V. G. Rastiannikov (Moscow) "Natural resources and food security of India - a review of prospects".

The problem of developing agriculture, on which the majority of India's population depends, is closely linked to another extremely important and complex problem inherited from the colonial period - the problem of mass poverty. This is the subject of the report by A.M. Goryacheva (Moscow) "Conceptual and methodological problems of poverty in India". Main area

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poverty reduction is a rural area where the majority of the country's population lives. But in India, a new great danger is growing. The country is experiencing rapid rates of urbanization, mass migration of the population from the countryside to the city. The huge scale of urban population growth and limited employment potential in cities create extremely severe environmental, economic and social problems that threaten social and political upheavals. E. A. Bragina (Moscow) spoke about the potential of small-scale production and services in solving urban employment problems.

Unevenness of the natural resource potential of different states, increasing anthropogenic loads on the habitat, its degradation, and the preservation of traditional farming methods create complex environmental problems and hinder further socio-economic development. Solving these problems requires an approach based on the principle of regional zoning. N. N. Alekseeva (Moscow) addressed this issue in her report "Geoecological zoning of India".

Due to the peculiarities of evolution under colonial conditions, the extreme unevenness of the levels of socio-economic development of various territories of India under the conditions of its federal structure not only hinders the overall socio-economic development of the country, but also threatens its integrity. This topic is covered by the report of G. V. Sdasyuk (Moscow) "Regional problems of the Indian economy and regional planning".

When considering the second group of issues related to economic cooperation between India and Russia, two aspects of this cooperation attracted the attention of the speakers: the state of foreign economic relations between the two countries and the possibility of using the Indian experience of subordinating the market mechanism to the tasks of socio-economic development in Russia. One of the possible areas of such cooperation, according to M. Kh. K. Batchaev (Kislovodsk), is credit and financial support for the development of agriculture (the experience of India and the possibilities of its use in Russia). The collapse of the Soviet Union and a sharp decline in the role of the state in many areas of the economy, including in the sphere of Russian-Indian foreign economic relations, led to their weakening. New approaches to reconstructing relationships in this environment are required. Fifth-year student of the Geography Department of Moscow State University A. S. Bugrov (Moscow) addressed these issues in the report "State, problems and coverage in the literature of Russian-Indian economic cooperation". Possible directions of Russian-Indian cooperation in solving global problems were investigated by A.V. Akimov (Moscow). The study of Indian experience in implementing market reforms and the possibilities of using it in Russia is of great interest and importance. This was stated by O. V. Malyarov (Moscow) in the report " The role of the State in the transition economy. The importance of the Indian experience for Russia". In addition to the announced speakers, A. M. Medovoy (Moscow) took an active part in the discussion of the problems presented in the report.

The work of the conference showed that, despite numerous difficulties, indologists of the CIS countries continue to study current problems of the history, culture, literature, languages, politics, and economy of India. The main obstacle is the small number of historians (as well as indologists in general), their isolation from each other, from the country under study and from the centers of world Indology. Many colleagues, especially in provincial cities of Russia and CIS countries, experience a real "scientific hunger": there is no access to sources and modern research literature, there is not even information about what colleagues are doing in other cities, which inevitably affects the level of research, both factual and methodological. Problems of teaching indological subjects in higher education institutions occupied an important place at the meetings, and new courses developed by indological teachers were presented in a number of speeches. Almost every report provoked questions and comments from the audience, which often turned into a lively discussion. The conference provided participants with opportunities not only to make presentations and participate in discussions, but also to have professional and friendly communication. Guests and hosts, meeting after a long separation, remembered teachers and friends, years of joint study and work, greedily snapping up each other's publications, which was especially helped by the book exhibition organized in the Indology Office of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And everyone expressed their gratitude to the Indian Embassy in Russia for its many-sided and selfless assistance.

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