Senior Spotlight: Independent Studies, Ansh More: Aeneid and The Bhagavad Gita

Riverdale Review: Please briefly discuss the subject of your independent study. 

Ansh More: My independent study focused on comparing the political reception of the Aeneid in the British colonial movement to the political reception of the Bhagavad Gita in the Indian Independence Movement and discussing the paradigms of receiving both texts and how they compared and contrasted in both cultures.

RR: During which semester did you choose to do your independent study and who is your faculty advisor? 

AM: The first semester with Mr. Qureshi and Dr. Bernstein.

RR: Why did you choose to spend additional time studying this topic? 

AM: I’ve been studying classics since the beginning of middle school and I love the Aeneid and I’m obviously very familiar with the Bhagavad Gita because it’s an important text in my faith... I did my term paper on The Négritude movement thinking about post-colonial theory and anti-colonial theory and whatnot…I think that topic was really appealing, thinking about identity in a post-colonial context. And I also really wanted to connect that sort of, historical, more theoretical, philosophical exploration to thinking about why these texts that I’ve been looking at in their original language actually matter and…what the effect they’ve had in the real world [has been]. So it allowed me to bring classical study to life in a new way, thinking about how it really had concrete political implications and connect that to my own experience. I’m thinking about my own life, like my own family ancestral story, and how these texts have shaped it. 

RR: What was the goal of your study, and did you achieve this? 

AM: I think my goal was to establish a comparison, thinking about how the traditions of receiving the Aeneid in Britain compared to the traditions of receiving the Gita in India. And we went [on] just an exploration, not necessarily looking for an answer, but we created these kinds of paradigms to think about the question and to think about reception. And I think we had accomplished what we set out to do in that respect.