1st Edition
Liberalism and its Encounters in India Some Interdisciplinary Approaches
This book explores the future of liberalism in India. It moves away from traditional approaches and draws upon resources from other disciplines – those subjects which some might think don’t strictly fall under political science or theory – like anthropology, literature, philosophy — to critically engage with the condition of late capitalist modernity in India.
The essays in the volume trace liberalism's journey through modern Indian history to give us a new standpoint to understand current debates and also point to some internal contradictions of Indian liberalism.
The volume will be of importance to scholars and researchers of political science, especially political theory, and South Asian studies.
Introduction
R. Krishnaswamy and Atreyee Majumder
1. Making Histories of Indian Liberalism, Philosophical Comparatism and the Pos--Comparative Turn
Denys P. Leighton
2. Infinite Praise: Beyond the constituted finitude of life and liberty
Soumyabrata Choudhury
3. Gandhi and the Re-Orientation of Modern Political Theory
R. Krishnaswamy
4. Freedom, Self and Truth: The ‘liberty’ in liberalism
Lakshmi Arya Thathachar
5. Across Identities: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the United Bengal Movement of 1946
Sucharita Sen
6. Liberal Secularity and the Indian State: Notes on the Sabrimala Judgment
Vishnnupad
7. Secularism and its Theological Interior: An Anthropologist’s demand on Faith
Atreyee Majumder
Biography
R. Krishnaswamy is Associate Professor and Co-Director for the Centre for Social and Political Research. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Delhi, India. He works on issues related to the philosophy of mind, and language. One of his current interests is researching issues like normativity of language, use-theory of meaning and other related problems in philosophy of language. He has also published works in political/social philosophy. His recent book Wittgenstein and the Nature of Violence (2020) explores what role linguistic behaviour plays in how we engage with each other on the political and the social plane. His forthcoming book The Language of Recognition: The Norms of Intersubjective Engagement explores whether our rational capacity to use language can create a viable discourse-theoretic model towards recognising our innate need for social recognition.
Atreyee Majumder is an Anthropologist. She earned her doctoral degree from Yale University (2014). She has been a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto (2016-18). Her doctoral work on industrial decline and spatial life in eastern India culminated in her first book Time, Space, and Capital in India: Longing and Belonging in an Urban-Industrial Hinterland (2018). Her current research agenda is located at the intersection of anthropology, theology, and the philosophy of religion, specifically concerned with the devotional practice of Bhakti. She is currently Associate Professor (Social Sciences) at the National Law School of India University, India.
