Dialogues with and within Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Omtale

Presenting dialogues with and within contemporary Indian philosophy, the volume offers the reader a book on dialogue that is itself dialogical in form and method. Undertaking a rigorous examination of concepts that have become deeply compromised in contemporary discourse (dialogue, freedom, and nonviolence), the book foregrounds translation as both conceptual framework and communicative practice. Contemporary Indian philosophy is a unique philosophical genre which corresponds simultaneously with classical Indian sources and with Western materials old and new. Exploring this, the book introduces and engages the work of three contemporary Indian philosophers: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, Ramchandra Gandhi, and Mukund Lath, and places their thought in conversation with Sri Aurobindo, Saadat Hasan Manto, Mahasweta Devi, Martin Buber, and Ben-Ami Scharfstein. This philosophical inquiry extends beyond textual analysis to include visual artworks by Tyeb Mehta, Anish Kapoor, and Zarina Hashmi. Through these works, the book explores the interrelated concepts of home and the unhomely, which represent a contemporary expression of the enduring question of self-identity. Ultimately, the book offers a philosophical journey between thinking traditions, languages, literary texts, and works of art. In bringing different voices into conversation, the book asks how we might think together without erasing difference, and whether, and how, dialogue can become, against all odds, a space of nonviolence. Arguing that translation forms the fundamental structure of dialogue, this book will be an essential volume for scholars and postgraduate students in Indian philosophy, translation studies, postcolonial studies, and comparative literature.