VARANASI, Aug. 14 -- Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice chancellor, Prof Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, recently described Draupadi from the Mahabharata as the 'first feminist'. "So, I would not like anybody who says that feminism began with Simone de Beauvoir (French existentialist philosopher, writer and feminist activist). I would say Indian feminism has nothing to do with patriarchy," she said during her address as the keynote speaker at a three-day international conference that began on August 10 at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). "We have transcended patriarchy. Why? Draupadi is the first feminist. Please look at all the questions she asked her husband. Nobody would ask those questions even today," she added. The theme of the conference was "Indian Knowledge Traditions and the Thought of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay: Global Perspectives and Contemporary Relevance". "...I want to talk to you on how you are going to take IKS as a global narrative beyond branding towards an intellectual presence. Interconnecting IKS should never be a PR or public relations exercise, nor should it become propaganda. Its purpose is much deeper. For centuries, India's contributions to philosophy, mathematics and others should come out," she further said. "We have to go to a state where Oxford, Harvard, Heidelberg, and Cape Town teach Indian thinkers alongside Plato, Confucius and Comte. Panini is studied alongside Chomsky, Kautilya alongside Machiavelli, Charvaka alongside Hippocrates, Aryabhatta alongside Newton, Abhinavgupta alongside Aristotle, great Buddhist logic alongside analytical philosophy, and Sangam literature alongside Homer and Virgil." Prof Pandit added. On the Indian Knowledge System, she said: "IKS is not anti-west. It is against intellectual monopolies. So we are against wokeism and others who say that they are the only intellectual tradition that can be there. We say that there are other traditions and one of them is emerging Indian Knowledge System, which doesn't believe in left and right because it is holistic. Perhaps greatest misunderstanding surrounding IKS is that it seeks to reject western knowledge." On Indian civilisation, she said, "Please remember the Mughals did not civilise us. We are older than all civilizations in the world. Today carbon dating has taken place in the world. You believe in science. There are two places called Kalibangan and Rakhigarhi which have proved that this civilization is 10,000 years old. We civilised them. They were picking up stones when we were very civilised."...