Vineeth Radhakrishnan’s research while affiliated with Vellore Institute of Technology University and other places

Holocaust education in India has been overlooked for reasons ranging from the perception of the Holocaust as a European event to the simultaneous historical occurrence of Indian Independence in the 1940s. The study aims to address the existing gap in research on Holocaust education in the South of India by analysing the status of Holocaust education in the state of Kerala and providing feasible suggestions for improvement. The Cochin Jews were the oldest Jewish settlers in India dating back to 10th century CE. The Jewish settlement in Kerala resonates with the history, architecture and cultural arts of the state. As an integral part of the state’s history, teaching Jewish history and the Holocaust is inevitable for a comprehensive understanding of the periodical development of the state. Presently, the Jewish community in Kerala is on the brink of fading into history. The purposeful teaching of the Jewish settlement and the Holocaust would protect Jewish history of the state from historical erasure. The research attempts to study the Jewish presence and Holocaust teaching within school syllabi across Kerala. The paper analyses the history textbooks of the Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) syllabi for classes IX or X. The study uses ten guidelines of Holocaust education devised by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) for the textual analysis of the history chapters introducing the Holocaust in the primary texts. The study concludes that the NCERT textbook provides a more comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust compared to the Kerala SCERT or ICSE textbook.

The environmental crisis, fuelled by rapid urbanization, technology, and changing lifestyles, threatens humanity. Children's disconnection from nature negatively impacts their physical, mental, and environmental well-being, increasing their risk of psychological distress, including elevated stress levels, impaired emotional stability and cognitive function, diminished social interactions, and increased susceptibility to anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, and reduced overall life satisfaction. Consequently, environmental risks have impact on the health and development of the children from early childhood to adolescence and then to adult life. The research article aims at diminished nature connection in children and the emergence of psychological distress. This interdisciplinary research, blending ecology and psychology, uses ecocritical lenses—biophilia (love for nature and living things), topophilia (love for particular place or environment), and ecophilia (love for nature itself) —to explore how diminished nature connection impacts children's well-being. The findings emphasize the importance of reconnecting children with nature and fostering ecospirituality for their well-being and a sustainable future. This research concludes that fostering ecophilia enhances children's cognitive function, environmental awareness, and stewardship, while also promoting ecospirituality.•Human-nature interactions are key learnings for children. •This research aims to integrate ecology and psychology fostering interdisciplinary approach.

In an era marked by the rise of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, this paper embraces a multidisciplinary approach by utilizing quantum mechanics to critically examine human consciousness through the literary text The Pregnant King (2008). The myth of Yuvaneshva, whose feminine nature is regarded as taboo, is analysed through the lens of quantum mechanical principles. Specifically, Yuvaneshva’s psyche is interpreted via the concepts of the double slit experiment, quantum entanglement, quantum actuality and potentiality, and wave-particle duality, which serve as methodologies to explore the Anima’s struggle. This study integrates Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and Roland Barthes’ theory of myth within a quantum framework to analyse the formation of meaning, leading to hyperreality and depicting the Self’s struggle within this hyperreal context. By positioning these theories within quantum logic, the paper examines the Self-Other duality (akin to wave-particle duality) and how the collective unconscious reshapes the nature of the Self through quantum principles. This approach elucidates the concept of truth in terms of quantum actuality and potentiality, scrutinizing the ambiguous nature of the Self and how socially constructed ideologies (collective unconscious) obscure personal truth through hyperreal social constructs. Furthermore, it proposes a multidisciplinary method for the study of myths, thereby bridging the traditionally perceived gap between science and literature. By adopting an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, this method fosters collaboration between science and literature, paving the way for future research and promoting various multidisciplinary approaches.

The article seeks to develop a theoretical analysis and interpretation of the role of nostalgia in German Holocaust memoirs. The intervention of advertising by appropriating nostalgia into marketing has led to an effacement of ‘algia’ or the pain that nostalgia implicates. The modern perception of nostalgia as a positive emotion has affected the idea of yoking nostalgia to traumatic experiences. The current paper analyses whether nostalgia plays a conspicuous role in the trauma narratives of Holocaust survivors. The paper is divided into three sections: first, an overview of the term ‘nostalgia’ through the ages is attempted to comprehend the problem of attaching nostalgia to trauma narratives. Second, textual analysis of The Boy on the Wooden Box (2013) by Leon Leyson and I will Plant you a Lilac Tree (2005) by Laura Hillman is undertaken to establish the presence of nostalgia in the narratives. Third, the major uses of nostalgia in the select texts are condensed into five categories: nostalgia functions as a tool of Ideological State Apparatus (ISA), relieves survival anxiety, improves resolute decisions, aids in preserving nostalgic objects and operates as an intermediary between individual and collective memories in the primary texts. Svetlana Boym’s binary classification of nostalgia is applied to the texts to provide an insight into the nature of nostalgia invoked. The study concludes that restorative nostalgia disrupts progress but augments the nostalgic individual’s determination to survive and recreate the perfect past. Reflective nostalgia provides the awareness that the past is irrevocable, and that change is inevitable.