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

161 Pages·2017·0.563 MB·English

by  A. Raghuramaraju

Modern Frames and Premodern
Themes in Indian Philosophy
This book presents a fascinating examination of modern Indian philosophi-
cal 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 focusses on the nature and compulsions
of the colonised self, and its response to the body of unfamiliar and some-
times 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 theo-
ries of self, the incompatibility between the slavery of self and svaraj in
ideas, how the premodern 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
coedited 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.

Modern Frames and
Premodern Themes in
Indian Philosophy
Border, Self and the Other
A. Raghuramaraju
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 A. Raghuramaraju
The right of A. Raghuramaraju to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-28408-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20650-9 (ebk)
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Dedicated to
Laxmi Narayan Kadekar
my any time mentor,
for his wise counselling that restored stability to my gaze
which is essential to undertake works like this.

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
PART I
Self and other 9
1 Slavery of the spirit and svaraj in Krishna Chandra
Bhattacharyya 11
2 Other in the relation between Swami Vivekananda
and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 32
3 Other in the relation between Mahatma Gandhi
and Bhagavad Gita 56
4 The colonised self’s climb towards svaraj: revisiting
the debate between Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev
Rabindranath Tagore 76
PART II
Border 89
5 A thin border between the premodern and the
modern in India 91
6 Modern democracy and premodern people 104
viii Contents
7 Social space and time: calibrating radical ideals in
a reformist model 121
Conclusion 132
References 135
Index 141
Preface
Two tasks of the present study are to lay bare the nature of debate and to
understand, through the concept of debate, modern Indian thinkers and
social reality. Border and the other, in addition to the self, constitute three
structural aspects of a debate. In a debate, the participant knows what his
or her position is, knows the position of the other who is the opponent and,
more importantly, knows how to relate his or her position to the position of
the other. The last task requires the cognitive competence of both transla-
tion and critical comparison. At times, one wins a debate not only because
one’s position is stronger, but also because one knows about the position of
the other better than the upholder.1 Logic and argumentation are aspects of
a debate. Debate is a more structured form of inquiry than dialogue.
Structured forms of debates in Indian philosophy can be traced to the
post-Buddha period. The Vedas are aphoristic in nature; the Upanishads
are devoted more to the search for truth. Sometimes, the seeker of truth
did speak, but it was more in the form of self-expression – like the joy
of realising the truth – rather than communication. Though the rishis
were heard by the disciples who followed them, some of that was meant
to be communicated while some were in a debating mode. The main
purpose of their activity was seeking after truth rather than communica-
tion or debate. Difference, which is the necessary requirement for debate,
was less during the pre-Buddhist time, particularly in the Vedas and the
Upanishads, as their preoccupation was more with the search for truth.
This, however, takes a different turn with the advent of the Buddha who
rejected the Vedas and Upanishads in a radical way. This sowed the seed
for the rise of a new mode of philosophising in India, namely, debates.
There were instances like Badarayana compiling Upanishads under one
place in his Vedanta Sutra. The compiler discusses other philosophical
schools. Buddha radically rejected the earlier forms of philosophy, par-
ticularly those of the Vedas and Upanishads, except some form of Kapila’s
Samkhya, or what is known as classical Samkhya.2 This seems to have