https://vashisht.institute/ Critical theory spanning comparative religion, film and media theory, legal thought, and political economy. Essays, named series, frameworks, and instruments. en Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://vashisht.institute/essays/what-they-called-themselves ICS-2026-001 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht History is written by the inheritors. The Zoroastrians built the theological infrastructure of Western civilization and were written out of the credits. Comparative Religion The Erased Foundation · I ICS-2026-001 VK Singh Vashisht. “What They Called Themselves.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/what-they-called-themselves. ICS-2026-001. https://vashisht.institute/essays/sanskrit-mirror ICS-2026-002 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht The same civilization produced the Rigveda and the Gathas. They are not two traditions that happened to share vocabulary. Comparative Religion The Erased Foundation · II ICS-2026-002 VK Singh Vashisht. “The Sanskrit Mirror.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/sanskrit-mirror. ICS-2026-002. https://vashisht.institute/essays/and-then-came-nanak ICS-2026-003 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht The Rigveda opens: 'Neither being nor non-being existed.' Three thousand years later, Guru Nanak opens the Guru Granth Sahib with two characters: Ik Onkar. One Reality. Indic Religion & Philosophy The Erased Foundation · III ICS-2026-003 VK Singh Vashisht. “And Then Came Nanak.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/and-then-came-nanak. ICS-2026-003. https://vashisht.institute/essays/they-scheduled-the-cure ICS-2026-005 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht In the winter of 1934, a hopeless drunk named Bill Wilson was admitted to Towns Hospital in New York City. He had been there before — twice — and had failed to stay sober each time. Political Economy Managed Suffering · I ICS-2026-005 VK Singh Vashisht. “They Scheduled the Cure.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/they-scheduled-the-cure. ICS-2026-005. https://vashisht.institute/essays/no-key-to-the-house ICS-2026-006 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht In Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd (2006), there is an exchange that functions as the quietest act of violence in American cinema. Joseph Palmi, a Mafia figure played by Joe Pesci, asks Edward Wilson, the CIA architect played by Matt Damon, what the WASPs have. Film & Media Theory SICI ICS-2026-006 VK Singh Vashisht. “No Key to the House.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/no-key-to-the-house. ICS-2026-006. https://vashisht.institute/essays/the-cows-lament ICS-2026-007 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht The same cry. Separated by geography, by millennia, by the full width of the Indo-Iranian civilizational split — and yet structurally identical. Comparative Religion The Erased Foundation · V ICS-2026-007 VK Singh Vashisht. “The Cow's Lament.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/the-cows-lament. ICS-2026-007. https://vashisht.institute/essays/what-grows-in-the-dung ICS-2026-008 Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht The previous essay in this series established that Yasna 29 and Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.1 preserve two branches of a single Proto-Indo-Iranian narrative template: a sacred bovine, embodying a suffering world, appeals to divinity, which responds by sending a protector. The structural argument was textual. Consciousness & Epistemology The Erased Foundation · VI ICS-2026-008 VK Singh Vashisht. “What Grows in the Dung.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, September 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/what-grows-in-the-dung. ICS-2026-008. https://vashisht.institute/essays/zoroastrian-rulers ICS-2026-004 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT VK Singh Vashisht The founding names of Western civilization's first imperial dynasty were not Greek transliterations. They were Avestan — drawn from the same linguistic substrate as Sanskrit, carrying cosmological meaning that the renaming actively suppressed. Indic Religion & Philosophy The Erased Foundation ICS-2026-004 VK Singh Vashisht. “Zoroastrian Rulers and the Naming Erasure.” VK Singh Vashisht Institute for Critical Studies, March 2026. vashisht.institute/essays/zoroastrian-rulers. ICS-2026-004.