School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Research Publications
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ItemDisenchantment of Secularism: The West and India(Springer, 2014)This Chapter is an exercise in comparative secularism. In this chapter I will be concerned basically with a critique of Western conceptions of secularism, beginning with Hegel’s invention of a particular reading of secularism that, through imperialist literature, gave a preeminent direction to the ideology of the less-religiously orientated Indian nationalists during their drawn-out independence struggle. My main concern will be to contrast the Western debates on ‘the secular’, particularly in its recent permutations or attempted revisions as a response to the crisis of modernity, with the current Indian debates —where ‘ the secular; has all but been hijacked by the Hindu Right —and to show—reversing Hegel’s trajectory—what impact the latter could have on the former. There is some evidence of this already occurring, particularly in Charles Taylor’s work and travels wherein he does make some gestures towards looking at non-Western experiences of secularism (which is taken more or less to be synonymous with secularization). There are severe limitations to this overture however, and the chapter hopes to sound a word of caution on the kind of excitement over which Taylor seems to have become something of a celebrity in the academe. Even more disappointingly, one does not find a similar emphatic approach or opening to non-Western experiences and rethinking of the secular in the works of other modernists; and I point to Habermas and Žižek as my examples, who I touch on, albeit very briefly. This lack or lacuna makes both the discourse of modernity and the supplementary critique of secularism much the poorer for it.
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ItemDharma in the Hindu Epics(NYU Press, 2015-11-06)Bringing together ideas, issues, and debates salient to modern Indian studies, this volume charts the social, cultural, political, and economic processes at work in the Indian subcontinent.
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ItemNegation (abhava), non-existents, and a distinctive pramana in the Nyaya-mimamsa(Springer International Publishing, 2015)The chapter examines the three types of negation described in the Mimamsa school in their treatment of the kinds of permissible, prohibited, and excluded (vipratipratisedha, nisedha, pratisedha) sacrifices that are otherwise enjoined as injunctions (vidhis) in the Vedic passages. The paribhasa ('metalanguage') rules becomes instructive with the development of grammar for its application to more secular speech. To give one prominent example, the injunction, 'he shall eat' is denoted by N[F(x)], where F(x) denotes 'he eats' (and modally, 'it is necessary that he eats'). Now a prohibition (nisedha) or negation of this injunctive sentence, if it is as injunction, is symbolized by N[¬F(x)], not by (¬N)([F(x)]) or (¬N[F(x)]). Hence it is signified by the sentence 'she shall not-eat'. N[¬F(x)] belongs to the paryudasa or exclusionary negation, where a noun (as distinct from a verb-form) is negated; its other form being N[F(¬x)]. The second part explains the distinct pramana or mode of knowing absence as abhava (and its variation, anupalabdhi), i.e. non-perception or the cognition of absence. The uniquely Mimamsa position - as distinct from the Nyaya's - is that every thing is counternegatively marked by its own prior and future non-existence, and so when something, x, that was there, is cognized as being 'absent', this really is a perception of its 'non-existent' other, and 'non-existence' is arguably a real universal. This view makes way for a Meinongian knowing of non-existent objects.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAdvaita Vedānta and the Mind Extension Hypothesis(Imprint Academic, 2015)
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ItemPhilosophical orientalism in comparative philosophy of religion: Hegel to Habermas (& Zîzêk)(Peridicals of Federal University of Paraíba, 2015-07-31)The paper examines how “natural” philosophical theology is developed in Hegel from a comparative perspective when Hegel charts a history or rather epistemological diagram of world theologies, and locates within this idiosyncratic matrix the respective theologies and cultures of Western, Eastern and other civilizations. The paper demonstrates how Hegel’s thinking and trajectory has had an indelible impact in the Philosophy of Religion discourse, particularly where there is both a silence on and attempted inclusion, or systematic exclusion, of the comparable and incomparable theological cultures other than of the West. For example, the influence on Habermas who attempts to come to terms with religion in his otherwise secular-Enlightenment (neo-Kantian) philosophy bereft of metaphysics and theophilosophy. How this discourse fares in the perspectives also of Heidegger, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Zîzêk on world theologies is visited toward showing how tragically ill the closed fields of philosophical studies in the West augurs for religious cultures and philosophies of the West’s others that Hegel along with other 19th century philosophes had placed outside the bounds of rational significance or Vernunft. Keywords: Orientalism, philosophy of religion, Hegel, Habermas
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ItemEmotions in Indian Thought-Systems An Introduction(Routledge India, 2015-02-18)A stimulating account of the wide range of approaches towards conceptualising emotions in classical Indian philosophical–religious traditions, such as those of the Upanishads, Vaishnava Tantrism, Bhakti movement, Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, ...
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ItemEmotions in Indian Thought-Systems(Routledge India, 2015-02-18)A stimulating account of the wide range of approaches towards conceptualising emotions in classical Indian philosophical–religious traditions, such as those of the Upanishads, Vaishnava Tantrism, Bhakti movement, Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, ...
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ItemA Critique of Economic Reason: Between Tradition and Postcoloniality(University of Hawaii Press, 2015-01-01)Papers from the 10th East-West Philosophers Conference, held in Honolulu, May 16-24, 2011.
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ItemThe Indian Diaspora: Hindus and Sikhs in Australia(DKPrintworld, 2015)"Since the late 1990s, the Indian community in Australia has grown faster than any other immigrant community. The Indian Diaspora has made substantial contributions to the multi-ethnic and multi-religious diversity within Australia. The growth of Hinduism and Sikhism through gurus, temples, yoga and rituals of many kind has brought new colours, images, customs and practices to the profile of Australian religion, and the Australian landscape more widely. At the same time, Hinduism and Sikhism have themselves been transformed as Hindus and Sikhs from different parts of India as well as Fiji, Malaysia and other parts of the world have come together to establish a pan-Indian ethos. Hindus and Sikhs here have also interacted with other sectors of the Australian population and with religions from the Western world. This is the theme of this book."--Publisher.
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ItemGlobalization, Transnationalism, Gender and Ecological Engagements(Serial Publications, 2015)