Keletkutatás

Gandhi and the Constitution of independent India

Dezső Szenkovics — 2025-07-24

In 2022, the free and independent India celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of its establishment. An important cornerstone of this three-quarter century of sovereignty is the Constitution of India, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1950. This paper attempts to answer the question what the Constitution of India would have been like if it had been drafted by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi himself. I draw the answers to this question from Gandhi’s writings which reveal a considerable amount of the Mahatma’s thinking on issues such as the form of government, administrative models, rights, education and jurisdiction.

The role of the „diversity factor” in modern Indian culture and communication

Krisztina Dávid — 2025-07-24

Despite the advantages of geography, economy, and demographic profile, the international opinion is that independent India is a complex and chaotic country that poses difficult challenges for international diplomats and business personnel. One of the reasons is the thousand years of extreme diversity that has developed the subcontinent’s cognition differently from that of the Western cultures. India’s holistic mental approach resulted in a different mode of association in society, which defines the relationship between individuals differently from the individualism–collectivism continuum. The different types of association and cognition in Western cultures and India resulted in different communicational patterns.

„They returned home with their pictures”: The reception of the Indian artistic activity of Elizabeth Sass Brunner and Elizabeth Brunner in Hungary

Imre Lázár — 2025-07-24

Two Hungarian artists, Elizabeth Sass Brunner and her daughter, Elizabeth Brunner, left Hungary for India in 1929 to live – with brief interruptions – the rest of their lives there. They have become respected artists in the subcontinent, and their works are preserved in the most prestigious state collections. The Hungarian reception of their artistic activity there has varied over time, ranging from sensationalizing their successes in India to ridiculing their character, from being ignored for political-ideological reasons to being officially recognized and elevated to a cultural diplomatic role model. Despite the appreciative opinions of Indologists and several leading art historians, their work has not yet received the place it deserves in Hungarian art history writing to this day. This paper traces the changes of their image in the domestic media, books, and academic publications.

Punjabi nostalgia on the film screen

Júlia Szivák — 2025-07-24

The land of Punjab frequently appears in Bollywood movies as the longed-for world of the past. The study looks at the phenomenon of Punjabi nostalgia through film songs and analyses the reasons behind its usage, which the author finds in the traumatic historical past and in the exceptional successes of the Punjabi diaspora.

Taqīya in medieval Hungary? Crypto-Muslim tactical dissimulation in the age of the Árpád dynasty

Márton Pál Iványi — 2025-07-24

Medieval sources suggest that Ismaelites in Hungary, regardless of ethnic origin, may have practiced taqīya (religious dissimulation) for reasons of survival or well-being. Although primarily associated with Shī‘a Islam, taqīya reflects broader strategies for coping with persecution and exclusion. The origins of the Ismaelite group remain controversial: they may have been Turkish, Khwārezmian Khāliz, or Arab, arriving in waves from Central Asia, the Middle East, or the Balkans. The present study does not claim to provide definitive answers, but aims to outline interpretive possibilities and historical contexts based on key Hungarian and international sources. Its objective is to facilitate discussion on the Ismaelites and their medieval Islamic historical context.

When was the castle of Martonos built?

Géza Dávid — 2025-07-24

Reminiscences Of Old Mongolian Monks. Interviews About Mongolia’s Buddhist Monasteries In The Early 20th Century

Olivér Kápolnás — 2025-07-24

Conducted by Krisztina Teleki. (Budapest Monographs in East Asian Studies, 10.) Institute of East Asian Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 2022, 432 oldal