Modern Frames and Premodern Themes in Indian Philosophy ─ Border, Self and the Other

This book presents a fascinating examination of modern Indian philosophical thought from the margins. It considers the subject from two perspectives — how it has been understood beyond India and how Indian thinkers have treated Western ideas in the context of Indian society. The book discusses the concepts of the self, the other and the border that underline various debates on modernity. In this framework, it proposes the notion of the other as an enabler in taking cue from the lives of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. It focuses on the nature and compulsions of the colonised self and its response to the body of unfamiliar and sometimes oppressive ideas. The study traces these themes with allusion to the works of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon and Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya and the Bhagavad Gita. The author exposes the limitations in existing theories of self, the incompatibility between the slavery of self and svaraj in ideas, how the pre-modern village intersects modern city and democracy, the radical challenges that confront society with its accumulated social evils, inequality, hierarchy, and the need for reform and non-violence.

This engaging work will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Indian philosophy, social and political philosophy, Indian political theory, postcolonialism and South Asian studies.

A. Raghuramaraju is Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad, India. He was UGC Principal Investigator for Philosophy for e-PG Pathshala. Among his publications are Debates in Indian Philosophy: Classical, Colonial and Contemporary (2006) and Enduring Colonialism: Classical Presences and Modern Absences in Indian Philosophy (2009). He has edited Ramchandra Gandhi: The Man and His Philosophy (2013) and co-edited Grounding Morality: Freedom, Knowledge and Plurality of Cultures (2010). He is also the General Editor of Porugununchi Teluguloki, a series of Telugu translations of books on post-independent India.