Reappraising Modern Indian Thought

Reappraising Modern Indian Thought: Themes and Thinkers is a lucid and comprehensive account of the thread of socio-political thought of major Indian thinkers over the decades. In contrast to the existing texts on the subject, it explores the social and political conditions that formed the basis of political thinking of the thinkers in the past two centuries. The book begins with a detailed discussion on the development and articulation of socio-political thought that have evolved in modern India. It then goes to give a comprehensive coverage and makes an analysis of great thinkers of modern India, namely Rabindranath Tagore, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghose, Abul Kalam Azad, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Syed Ahmed Khan, and Muhammad Iqbal. Divided into four thematic sections; Ideal-Humanist Thought, Militant-Extremist Thought, Cultural–Revivalist Thought and Radical-Pragmatist Thought — the chapters on such thinkers not only talks about their lives and times but also discusses and examines the contributions of those to contemporary period. This multi-authored compendium has contributions from professionals and experts of the subject from different premier universities of India and it will be an indispensable and immensely helpful basic text to students, researchers, academicians as well as for general readers across India and also abroad who will take interest to develop a critical understanding of the modern Indian thinkers on the issues such as colonialism, India’s freedom struggle, nationalism, nation building, economic reconstruction, education, democracy, secularism, socialism, integral and universal humanism.

This book presents a comprehensive account of the socio-political thought of prominent modern Indian thinkers. It offers a clear understanding of the basic concepts and their contributions on contemporary issues. Key features: Explores the nature, scope, relevance, context, and theoretical approaches of modern Indian thought and overviews its development through an in-depth study of the lives and ideas of major thinkers. Examines critical themes such as nationalism, swaraj, democracy and state, liberalism, revolution, socialism, constitutionalism, secularism, satyāgraha, swadeshi, nationbuilding, humanism, ethics in politics, democratic decentralisation, religion and politics, social transformation and emancipation, and social and gender justice under sections on liberal-reformist, moderate-Gandhian, and leftist-socialist thought. Brings together insightful essays on Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dayānanda Saraswati, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Pandita Ramabai, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Ram Manohar Lohia, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Vinoba Bhave, Acharya Narendra Deva, Manabendra Nath Roy, and Jayaprakash Narayan. Traces different perspectives on the way India’s composite cultures, traditions, and conditions inf luenced the evolution of their thought and legacy. With its accessible style, this book will be useful to teachers, students, and scholars of political science, modern Indian political thought, modern Indian history, and political philosophy. It will also interest those associated with exclusion studies, political sociology, sociology, and South Asian studies.

Presents the fundamental ideas of Indian thinkers that have shaped the mind of Indian from 1770 to the post-modern era in the middle of 20th century in India. Lists the most Indian influential figures in the field of philosophy, political theory, activicism such as Rabindranath Tagore, Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

The Book Covers University Syllabi In Political Science In The Papers Of Hindu Polity, Indian Political Thought And Modern Indian Political Thought Etc. Divided Into Three Parts The Ancient, The Modern And The Contemporary, This Book Analyses Indian Political Thought From Manu To M.N. Roy. In Order To Keep It Brief And Precise Only Selected Thinkers Have Been Included While Those Of Only Historical Importance Have Been Left Out. The Method Followed Is Construction Through Criticism So That Besides Knowing The Thought Of Eminent Indian Political Thinkers, The Reader May Develop An Insight Into Political Processes, Their Causes And Consequences. While Matter Has Been Drawn From Authentic Sources, It Has Been Narrated In Simple Language. A Balanced Holistic Approach Has Been Maintained In Controversial Matters.The Authors Have Left No Stone Unturned To Make This Book An Ideal Textbook For Students And Reference Book For Teachers.

This work is a systematic study of Bal Gangadhar Tilak's thought, focusing on his views on 'communal' relations within the Indian polity, on caste and reform in Hindu society, and on political ethics regarding violence and non-cooperation. The Thought of Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopts a contextualist approach, situating his ideas in local Maharashtrian as well as pan-Indian and global cultural-intellectual contexts. The approach blends Tilak's quotidian journalism and speeches alongside his canonical texts on Aryan history and on the Bhagavad Gita. The work marks a departure from current interpretations, emphatically arguing that he is misappropriated and/or misunderstood as a proto-Hindutva thinker. Instead, he is revealed to be a radical liberal who supports counter-autocratic violence, a majoritarian pluralist in terms of intercommunity relations, a self-strengthening reformer who focuses on masculinity, and a Brahmin supremacist who is committed to reshaping India for the challenges of modernity. This book lays emphasis on his remarkable recognition as the nation's 'founding father' and particularly demonstrates how this later appropriation by Gandhi was contested by those celebrating Tilak's approach to contest him during the crucial mid-1920s period when he was indelibly linked to re-emerging Hindutva. More recently, growing ahistorical demi-official insistence on his social progressivism illustrates a change in India's public culture, as does the use of popular or even legal pressure to de-legitimize perennial criticism of Tilak's socio-political positions.

Part of the PHISPC series on modern Indian history, this volume provides an overview of the history of social, economic, and political thought prior to the development of disciplinary categories in social sciences.