Author: Richard Lannoy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 466
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195650778
Description
As an introduction to India it far surpasses anything currently available. The author has lived, studied, and worked in India over a period of twenty years. A marvelous book.
The Speaking Tree is an analytical study of Indian culture and society, with the chief aim of identifying the origins of the nation's contemporary problems. Though generally manifested in urgent economic terms, these have their root causes in the historical development of India's system of values and thought, as reflected in its cultural and social organization.
This study examines India's capacity fir innovation and creativity, its receptivity to change in social and family relations, and the ability to utilize human, technical and physical resources for social reconstruction. The complexity of India's task is on a scale unprecedented at any previous period in its history, and can be accomplished only if its people themselves have the capacity for change n- and the will to take decisive action.
MEDIA COMMENT
. . . No enumeration of topics can convey the interest if this ambitious attempt at a synoptic understanding of Indian culture. A remarkably subtle and thought-provoking work. - - Foreign Affairs
Contents
Preface
Note on the Illustrations
A Note on the Transcription of Indian Words
PART ONE
THEH AESTHETIC FACTOR IN INDIAN HISTORY
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE : SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND ART FORMS
Aryan and non-Aryan
The Universal Empire
CHAPTER TWO : ART AND SOCIETY
The Art of other-mindedness
Visionary art
CHAPTER THREE : THE ART OF THE CAVE SANCTUARIES
The Social Background
The Retreat to the Forest
The Ajanta frescoes
Sanskrit drama and the art of fresco
CHAPTER FOUR : THE HINDU TEMPLE
The Brahman ascendancy
Erotic Art
CHAPTER FIVE : TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
The Muslim Period
Synaesthesia in the Modern World
PART TWO
THE FAMILY SYSTEM
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE : The Child
The joint Family
Infancy
The Pre-school Child
Father and Son
CHAPTER TWO : FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
The status of Women
Mother and Son
Family and Society
CHAPTER THREE : SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Asceticism, and Orgiasticism
The Kama Sutra
Marital Relations
CHAPTER FOUR : CHANGE IN THE FAMILY SYSTEM
The Impact of Urbanism
The Nuclear Family
The Younger Generation
PART THREE
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE : THE CASTE SYSTEM
Caste and Common sense
Hierarchy
Status and Power
Purity and Pollution
CHAPTER TWO : THE ORGANIZATION OF CASTES
The Jajmani System
The Little Community
CHAPTER THREE : THE ANTIPODES
Conservation of Primitive traits
Dual Organization
CHAPTER FOUR : TRIBAL SOCIETY
Historical Background
Tribal Culture
Tribal Influences in Caste Society
CHAPTER FIVE : FISSION AND FUSION
The Cultural Media
Festivals, Play and conflict
Religious rapture and possession
Emotional Religiosity of Bhakti sects
Mystical renunciation
CHAPTER SIX : THE SOCIAL ORDER AND THE IDEA OF A STATE
The Brahman
The King
The People
Feudalism
The Social order
The Muslim Invasion
CHAPTER SEVEN : ECONOMIC CHANGE AND THE MIDDLE CLASSES
Historical Background
Formation of new classes during British rule
CHAPTER EIGHT : RECENT CHANGES IN SOCIETY
Reformism and nationalism
Change in the Case system
Co-existence of Two Institutional Systems
PART FOUR
VALUE SYSTEMS AND ATTITUDES
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE : INDIAN THOUGHT
Three Elements of Continuity
The Word
Unitary though
Rebirth and Causality
The Terror of Time
CHAPTER TWO : THE ETHICAL DILEMMA
Dharma in the Epics
The Bhagavad Gita
The Arthashastra and the cult of power
the Dharma of Crisis
Two ethical Experiments
Aesthetic pessimism
PART FIVE
SACRED AUTHORITY AND THE SECULAR STATE
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE : SACRED AUTHORITY
The Guru-Shishya Relationship
Narcissus and the Nirvana Principle
The guru's magic circle
A strategy of desperation
CHAPTER TWO : GANDHI : STRENGTH MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS
Individuation
The Gandhian dialectic
Creative disequilibrium
Centroversion
Stable socio-economic equilibrium
The Weapons of stupefaction
Anarchist political philosophy
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index