Between Tradition and Modernity - India's Search for Identity

Between Tradition and Modernity - India's Search for Identity

Product ID: 7816

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Author: Fred Dallmayr
G N Devy/
Editor(s): Fred Dallmayr / G N Devy
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 374
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170366992

Description

This anthology documents the search of Indian intellectuals, politicians and writers to forge an 'identity' in the twentieth century, and thereby gain a balance between the roots of their traditions and the onslaught of modernity.

While many nations and cultures across the globe have encountered colonialism, the editors of this volume believe that India has been particularly sensitive to preserving its traditions and cultural memories, which were severely tested by colonial domination. The book focuses on the existential dimension of this encounter and the West’s role as a catalyst in India’s process of self-scrutiny and search for self-rule and cultural identity.

The selections assembled here collectively argue for self-understanding and the realization of the nation’s identity as being intrinsic to the articulation of the relationship between self and other. To this extent, the story narrated here represents not so much a travelogue as a journey, reflecting the experiences of prominent Indian thinkers in their search for identity.

The first part of this volume brings together major voices in India’s struggle against colonialism, while the second part presents interpretive essays by intellectuals across various disciplines and interests. These essays offer appraisals of the legacy of the great nationalist leaders, of modernization and its discontents, of communal, ethnic, and interfaith relations, and of the future course of life in post-colonial India. Taken as a whole, the volume shows that the process of modernization and so-called development is really a struggle over the heart and soul of India.

Given its interdisciplinary character, hermeneutical approach and broad sweep, this anthology will be of interest to those engaged in the study of Indian politics, history, literature, philosophy and cultural studies, as well as the general readers.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE

COLONIALISM AND THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE

Swami Vivekananda - Modern India
Rabindranath Tagore - Nationalism in India
Sri Aurobindo - The Renaissance in India
Ananda K Coomaraswamy-They Vedanta and Western Tradition
Vinayak D Savarkar - Some of the Basic Principles and Tenets of the Hindu Movement
Jiddu Krishnamuturi - Freedom, On Nationalism
Manavendranath Roy - Anti-Imperialist Struggle in India, Preconditions of Indian Renaissance
B R Ambedkar- Gandhism: The Doom of the Untouchables
Muhammad Iqbal -The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Presidential Address
Abul Kalm Azad -Congress Presidential Speech

Mohandas Gandhi-Hindu Swaraj (Excerpts), Medium of Instruction, The Message of India
Jawaharlal Nehru -A Tryst with Destiny, Our Inheritance, India-Old and New, Synthesis is Our Tradition, National Solidarity

PART TWO

MODERNIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS

A K Saran - Gandhi’s Theory of Society and Our Times
Thomas Pantham-Understanding Nehru’s Political Ideology
Rajni Kothari-Ethical Imperatives
Ashis Nandy-Cultural Frames for social Transformation: A Credo
Romila Thapar-Tradition
Ranajit Guha-On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India
Sudhir Chandra -The Oppressive Present
Ramachandra Gandhi-The Swaraj of India
UR anantha Murthy-Why Not Worship in the Nude? Reflection of a Novelist in His Time
Nirmal Verma-India and Europe, Some Reflections on Self and Other
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan-Religion and Politics, A Silent Revolution
Susie Tharu and K Lalita -Women Writing in India

About the Editors