Priesthood is the mainstay of all major religions. Religious Practices are the prerogative of the ordained ministers or those considered of a priestly class/community. Being Priest in India is an exploration into the contours of 'self-understanding' that revolves around Roman Catholic Priesthood exercised in Indian culture specific context. The integration of a philosophical and theological understanding of 'being priest' with the context-specific realities - cultural diversity, income disparity, and community consciousness leading to stratification along ethnic, linguistic and regional identities. The work is intended as a personal manifesto of a choice one makes to 'serve society' to create harmony by widening the notion of 'being human'. In times of 'boundary demarcations' between communities, the project of creating Basic Human Communities is the call/duty/responsibility that challenges a priest.
"The Political Transition From Rule By The Mulsim Mughal Dynasty To British Colonial Rule Led To A Basic Religious Reorientation Among Indian Muslims. At This Time Of Transformation In The Early Nineteenth Century, A Key Muslim Movement Called The Tariqah-I-Muhammadiyah Or Muhammadi Movement, Also Referred To As The Mujahidin Or Indian Wahabi Movement, Gathered Force In Northwest India. Although The Muhammadi Reformers Gained Recognition By Waging A Jihad (Holy War), A Much Familiar And Feared Word Today, The Jihad Was Only One Manifestation Of A Fundamental Change In Religious Thought And Organization. Using Muhammadi Sources As Well As The Contemporary Accounts Of The Movement By Muslim And British Observers, This Incisive Study Makes An Important Comment On The Historical Interaction Of Social And Religious Forces In The Nineteenth Century In The Indian Subcontinent. While Basing Itself On A Sufi World-View, Organization And Concepts Inspired By The Intellectual System Of The Eighteenth-Century Theologian, Shah Wali Allah, The Tariqah-I Muhammadiyah Put Forth A Reformist Program Attacking The Prevalent Practices At The Tombs Of Saints And Mystics, And Belief In Any Mediation Between Man And God. Widespread Muhammadi Preaching And Religious Literature In The Popular Urdu Language Presented The Divine Law To All Classes Of Indian Muslims For The First Time. The Muhammadi Were Also Among The First Mulsims Anywhere To Use The Printing Press To Spread Their Fundamentalist Message. In Proclaiming Religious Purification And Revival As Well As Holy War To The Indian Masses During A Time Of Rapid Historical Change, The Muhammadi Reformers Helped To Shape A New Individual And Communal Identity And Also Initiated A Process Of Islamic Reform In India. Pearson’S Major Contribution In This Important Volume Is To Show How The Intellectual History Associated With Shah Wali Allah Was Transformed In The Nineteenth Century To An Activist, Organized ‘Mass Movement’ That Drew Upon Techniques And Technologies, Notably Printing And Popular Preaching, Introduced To India By British Officials And Christian Missionaries."
Written by a highly regarded scholar in the field, this book represents the first published study on the Greek kingdoms of Bactria and India that treats them as Hellenistic states. Referring to classical Western and Indian sources, as well as numismatics, the author gives a multi-faceted account of their dynastic rule and conquest. The book begins with an overview of the Seleucid settlement, providing a background to the relations between Greeks and Asiatics after the death of Alexander the Great. Covering the period from 206 to 145 BCE, the book analyses the reigns of Euthydemus I, Demetrius I and Menander I, and explains how they accomplished Alexander’s dream of co-operation instead of domination in the eastern provinces. Tarn’s work examines this little-discussed topic, and presents it to the reader in a clear and accessible style, making this a great scholarly contribution that remains unsurpassed in breadth and depth. The second edition, originally published in 1951, includes an Addendum explaining the further discoveries since the work was first published in 1938.
Set in British India of the 1920s, Waiting for Swaraj follows the cadence and tempo of the lives of the intrepid revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republican Association and the Hindustan Republican Socialist Association who challenged the British Raj. It seeks to comprehend the revolutionaries' self-conception - what did it mean to be a revolutionary? How did a revolutionary live out the vision of revolution, what was their everyday like, did life in revolution transform an individual, what was their truth and how was it different from that of the others? The book locates the essence of being a revolutionary not just in the spectacular moments when the revolutionaries threw a bomb or carried out a political assassination, but in the everyday conversations, banter, anecdotes, and in the stray fragments of the life in underground. It demonstrates how 'waiting' was the crucible that forged a revolutionary.
This edition of Indian Government and Politics has been very thoroughly revised and recast. The politics of the country has moved so fast that such an exercise becomes absolutely essential. Most of the chapters have been done up afresh: new material has been added and old arrangement has been recast. The author has attempted to bring the book fully upto date, so that it could be used by teachers and students with great profit.
