Vincent P. Pecora
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198852148
- eISBN:
- 9780191886669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852148.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Ashis Nandy, an Indian psychologist and cultural critic of the post-1945 era, has spent his career largely re-imagining “Indic civilization” as a Gandhi-inspired rejection of Western civilization and ...
More
Ashis Nandy, an Indian psychologist and cultural critic of the post-1945 era, has spent his career largely re-imagining “Indic civilization” as a Gandhi-inspired rejection of Western civilization and especially Western modernity. Very much like Brunner in his rewriting of German civilization, Nandy returns us to pre-nation-state Indian literary and religious texts, the interpretation of which he reconstructs in order to rescue the texts from modern revisionism that has been shaped by the “muscular Christianity” of the Raj. Further, Nandy understands Indic culture, reaching from Afghanistan to Vietnam, as a diversified yet unified entity, comprising a host of territories within one, supra-national civilization. In this sense, Nandy’s work echoes that of Brunner on the authentic, pre-nation-state German Reich, complete with its array of Volksgemeinschaften. But Nandy’s thinking is also reflected in the modern Hindutva movement of present-day India.Less
Ashis Nandy, an Indian psychologist and cultural critic of the post-1945 era, has spent his career largely re-imagining “Indic civilization” as a Gandhi-inspired rejection of Western civilization and especially Western modernity. Very much like Brunner in his rewriting of German civilization, Nandy returns us to pre-nation-state Indian literary and religious texts, the interpretation of which he reconstructs in order to rescue the texts from modern revisionism that has been shaped by the “muscular Christianity” of the Raj. Further, Nandy understands Indic culture, reaching from Afghanistan to Vietnam, as a diversified yet unified entity, comprising a host of territories within one, supra-national civilization. In this sense, Nandy’s work echoes that of Brunner on the authentic, pre-nation-state German Reich, complete with its array of Volksgemeinschaften. But Nandy’s thinking is also reflected in the modern Hindutva movement of present-day India.
Nathan Katz
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520213234
- eISBN:
- 9780520920729
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520213234.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This introductory study of three Indian-Jewish communities—Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi Jews—helps in the understanding of both Judaic and Indic civilizations, and the nature of communal ...
More
This introductory study of three Indian-Jewish communities—Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi Jews—helps in the understanding of both Judaic and Indic civilizations, and the nature of communal continuity. Thinking about these three communities' history, social organization, and religious life deepens the understanding of both India and Israel. The Bene Israel lost all of the intellectual equipment in their legendary shipwreck, and as a result tumbled more deeply into assimilation. The identities of the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis evolved more rapidly and within the purview of relatively modern history. The three very different communities of Jews in India had one determining factor in common: the absence of indigenous anti-Semitism. Jewish identity in India is substantial in contemporary discussions about continuity within the Jewish world. Today, only the Bene Israel community of Bombay remains vital among the three communities.Less
This introductory study of three Indian-Jewish communities—Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi Jews—helps in the understanding of both Judaic and Indic civilizations, and the nature of communal continuity. Thinking about these three communities' history, social organization, and religious life deepens the understanding of both India and Israel. The Bene Israel lost all of the intellectual equipment in their legendary shipwreck, and as a result tumbled more deeply into assimilation. The identities of the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis evolved more rapidly and within the purview of relatively modern history. The three very different communities of Jews in India had one determining factor in common: the absence of indigenous anti-Semitism. Jewish identity in India is substantial in contemporary discussions about continuity within the Jewish world. Today, only the Bene Israel community of Bombay remains vital among the three communities.
Vinay Lal (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199499069
- eISBN:
- 9780190990428
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199499069.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, Indian History
India and Civilizational Futures is the second volume to emerge from the deliberations of the Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics, a group comprised largely of Indian scholars, writers, ...
More
India and Civilizational Futures is the second volume to emerge from the deliberations of the Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics, a group comprised largely of Indian scholars, writers, and intellectuals that was formed in late 2010 with the intent of considering how the intellectual and cultural resources of Indic civilization, and more broadly the Global South, might be deployed to introduce incommensurability and greater plurality into the world of modern knowledge systems. The members and friends of the Collective are animated by various passions: though some are interested in the decolonization of the university and in exploring other sites of learning, and others wish to put into serious question the most familiar categories that have informed humanistic inquiry and social science research, they are united both in their quest to engender an ecological plurality of knowledges and reinitiate metaphysics into the discourses of politics. The contributors to this volume offer perspectives on India’s past and intellectual traditions that suggest how we might liberate ourselves from the straightjackets of history, development, normal politics, the nation-state, and what globally passes for ‘common sense’ in various spheres of life and thought. While some papers engage with a few figures who have been critical in shaping India’s intellectual life, such as Kabir, Narayana Guru, Ambedkar, Tagore, and Gandhi, others bring into the limelight equally compelling if somewhat neglected figures such as Rahul Sankrityayan, M.G. Ranade, and T.R.V. Murti. Conceptual chapters on intercommunality, South Asian ideas of hospitality, and mnemocultural modes of learning complete the volume.Less
India and Civilizational Futures is the second volume to emerge from the deliberations of the Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics, a group comprised largely of Indian scholars, writers, and intellectuals that was formed in late 2010 with the intent of considering how the intellectual and cultural resources of Indic civilization, and more broadly the Global South, might be deployed to introduce incommensurability and greater plurality into the world of modern knowledge systems. The members and friends of the Collective are animated by various passions: though some are interested in the decolonization of the university and in exploring other sites of learning, and others wish to put into serious question the most familiar categories that have informed humanistic inquiry and social science research, they are united both in their quest to engender an ecological plurality of knowledges and reinitiate metaphysics into the discourses of politics. The contributors to this volume offer perspectives on India’s past and intellectual traditions that suggest how we might liberate ourselves from the straightjackets of history, development, normal politics, the nation-state, and what globally passes for ‘common sense’ in various spheres of life and thought. While some papers engage with a few figures who have been critical in shaping India’s intellectual life, such as Kabir, Narayana Guru, Ambedkar, Tagore, and Gandhi, others bring into the limelight equally compelling if somewhat neglected figures such as Rahul Sankrityayan, M.G. Ranade, and T.R.V. Murti. Conceptual chapters on intercommunality, South Asian ideas of hospitality, and mnemocultural modes of learning complete the volume.
