Author: Esther Bloch Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135182795 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
Critically assesses recent debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. Written by experts in their field, the chapters present historical and empirical arguments as well as theoretical reflections on the topic, offering new insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India.
Author: Andrew J. Nicholson Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231149875 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 282
Book Description
Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts—like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy—have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.
Author: Shashi Tharoor Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 1787380459 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 347
Book Description
Hinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion. Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.
Author: Sushama Londhe Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic books Languages : en Pages : 596
Book Description
Since times immemorial, India has been synonymous with spiritual knowledge and people have been drawn to her sacred land. Some were philosophers, poets, writers, historians, scientists and travelers. Some came to India; others read translations about her rich and imaginative literature and felt genuine enthusiasm for her. The fourth Caliph in the 7th century is reported to have said: The land where books were first written and from where wisdom and knowledge sprang is India. Despite the wars and imperialism, ancient India s spiritual influence and wisdom has had considerable impact on the West, especially on its imagination, science, and literature: English Romantic poetry in particular, Scientists, scholars, poets, writers and philosophers all have paid the highest compliment to India s wonderful metaphysical, religious, artistic, linguistic, and cultural genius by imitating and incorporating some of these ideas and theories into their own work.
Author: Brian A. Hatcher Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 113504631X Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 341
Book Description
Hinduism in the Modern World presents a new and unprecedented attempt to survey the nature, range, and significance of modern and contemporary Hinduism in South Asia and the global diaspora. Organized to reflect the direction of recent scholarly research, this volume breaks with earlier texts on this subject by seeking to overcome a misleading dichotomy between an elite, intellectualist "modern" Hinduism and the rest of what has so often been misleadingly termed "traditional" or "popular" Hinduism. Without neglecting the significance of modern reformist visions of Hinduism, this book reconceptualizes the meaning of "modern Hinduism" both by expanding its content and by situating its expression within a larger framework of history, ethnography, and contemporary critical theory. This volume equips undergraduate readers with the tools necessary to appreciate the richness and diversity of Hinduism as it has developed during the past two centuries.
Author: Mahatma Gandhi Publisher: ISBN: 9788123709277 Category : Hinduism Languages : en Pages : 119
Book Description
A selection of Gandhiji s articles drawn mainly from his contributions to young india, the Harijan and the Navjivan on Hinduism. Written on different occassions, these articles present a picture of hindu dharma I all its richness, comprehensiveness and sensitivity to the existential delimmas of human existence.
Author: William A. Galston Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521763745 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
This multiauthored book explores how many influential ethical traditions - secular and religious, Western and non-Western - wrestle with the moral dimensions of poverty and the needs of the poor. These traditions include Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, among the religious perspectives; classical liberalism, feminism, liberal-egalitarianism, and Marxism, among the secular; and natural law, which might be claimed by both. The basic questions addressed by each of these traditions are linked to several overarching themes: what poverty is, the particular vulnerabilities of high-risk groups, responsibility for the occurrence of poverty, preferred remedies, how responsibility for its alleviation is distributed, and priorities in the delivery of assistance. These essays are preceded by a background chapter on the types, scope, and causes of poverty in the modern world and some contemporary strategies for eliminating it. The volume concludes with Michael Walzer's broadly conceived commentary, which provides a direct comparison of the presented views and makes suggestions for further study and policy.
Author: Wendy Doniger Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9781594202056 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 808
Book Description
An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions, The Hindus elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds. The Hindus brings a fascinating multiplicity of actors and stories to the stage to show how brilliant and creative thinkers have kept Hinduism alive in ways that other scholars have not fully explored. In this unique and authoritative account, debates about Hindu traditions become platforms to consider history as a whole.
Author: Michael J. Altman Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190654929 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu is a groundbreaking analysis of American representations of religion in India before the turn of the twentieth century. Before Americans wrote about "Hinduism," they wrote about "heathenism," "the religion of the Hindoos," and "Brahmanism." Americans used the heathen, Hindoo, and Hindu as an other against which they represented themselves. The questions of American identity, classification, representation and the definition of "religion" that animated descriptions of heathens, Hindoos, and Hindus in the past still animate American debates today.
Author: Tanika Sarkar Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0197654223 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 266
Book Description
In the twenty-first century, there has been a seismic shift in Indian political, religious and social life. The country's guiding spirit was formerly a fusion of the anti-caste worldview of B.R. Ambedkar; the inclusive Hinduism of Mahatma Gandhi; and the agnostic secularism of Jawaharlal Nehru. Today, that fusion has given way to Hindutva. This now-dominant version of Hinduism blends the militant nationalism of V.D. Savarkar; the Brahmanical anti-minorityism of M.S. Golwalkar; and the global Islamophobia of India's ruling regime. It requires deep cultural analysis and historical understanding, as only the sharpest and most profoundly informed historian can provide. For two decades, Tanika Sarkar has forged a path through the alleys and byways of Hindutva. She has trawled through the writing and iconography of its organisations and institutions, including RSS schools and VHP temples. She has visited the offices and homes of Hindutva's votaries, interviewing men and women who believe fervently in their mission of Hinduising India. And she has contextualised this new ferment on the ground with her formidable archival knowledge of Hindutva's origins and development over 150 years, from Bankimchandra to the Babri mosque and beyond. This riveting book connects Hindu religious nationalism with the cultural politics of everyday India.
Author: Esther Bloch
Author: Andrew J. Nicholson
Author: Shashi Tharoor
Author: Sushama Londhe
Author: Brian A. Hatcher
Author: Mahatma Gandhi
Author: William A. Galston
Author: Wendy Doniger
Author: Michael J. Altman
Author: Tanika Sarkar