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A fellow
philosophical traveler with Mahatma Gandhi, Sushil
Mittal is the (founding) Director
of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and tenured
Associate Professor of Hinduism in the Department of Philosophy and
Religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg,
Virginia.
He earned his B.A. from McGill
University in Montreal, M.A. from Carleton University in Ottawa,
and Ph.D. from University of Montreal. He has served on the
faculties of the University of Florida in Gainesville and Millikin
University in Decatur, Illinois.
His discipline by training is
cultural anthropology, but he is located in a department of
religion where he teaches Hinduism and Gandhian thought at several
levels as well as theories of religion. He has conducted archival
and field research in Canada, India, South Africa, and the United
States at intervals during the last decade and a half. The recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, his
publications include Development and Change in
India (1993), Surprising
Bedfellows: Hindus and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern
India (2003), The Hindu
World (2004), Religions of South
Asia: An Introduction (2006), and
Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods (2007). His current work-in-progress includes The
Living Hindu World, Encyclopedia
of Hindu Studies, and The Gandhi
Reader. He is the (founding) editor of
the International Journal of Hindu Studies (1997- ) and the International Journal of Gandhi
Studies (2008- ).
Dr. Mittal was born
in Canada (his "janma-bhumi") but has now dedicated himself to
working in the United States (his "karma-bhumi") and he looks to
India as the main source of his spiritual inspiration (his
"dharma-bhumi"). He and his wife, Ritu, have two children:
Aditi, 7, and Ankur, 9, who they hope will live in a better
organized and more peaceful world. For them, nothing symbolizes
that hope, or represents that reality, better than Mahatma
Gandhi.
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