'The Heathen in his Blindness...'
'The Heathen in his Blindness...'

Author: S.N. Balagangadhara

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-08-14

Total Pages: 579

ISBN-13: 9004378863

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Today, most intellectuals agree that (a) Christianity has profoundly influenced western culture; (b) members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently; (c) the empirical and theoretical study of both culture and religion emerged within the West. The present study argues that these truisms have implications for the conceptualization of religion and culture. More specifically, the thesis is that non-western cultures and religions differ from the descriptions prevalent in the West, and it is also explained why this has been the case. The author proposes novel analyses of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India, and the nature of cultural differences. Religion is important to the West because the constitution and the identity of western culture is tied to the dynamic of Christianity as a religion.

"The Heathen in His Blindness"--

Author: S. N. Balagangadhara

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 586

ISBN-13: 9789004099432

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This book provides novel analyses of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India and the nature of cultural differences. It also shows how the dynamic of Christianity as a religion has brought forth the western culture.

Cultures Differ Differently
Cultures Differ Differently

Author: S. N. Balagangadhara

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1000477738

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This volume brings together a collection of essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S.N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. These essays illustrate how ‘decolonisation of social sciences’ is a cognitive task and offer novel hypotheses about human beings and society. They demonstrate the implications of cultural difference in the study of domains such as psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology, and philosophy. The book addresses new questions in the study of Western and Indian culture and social sciences, and discusses themes like selfless morality and the moral self; knowledge and action; critical representations of Indian traditions and classical literature; law, religion and culture; translation and interpretations; and varna and social systems. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this interdisciplinary volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, religious studies, postcolonial studies, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, literature, comparative studies and Global South studies.

Reconceptualizing India Studies
Reconceptualizing India Studies

Author: Balagangadhara,

Publisher: OUP India

Published: 2012-09-06

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0198082967

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This book presents a radical analysis of postcolonial studies as a discipline and modern India as a domain of study. It discusses wide variety of issues such as different definitions of culture, colonialism, secularism, and orientalist discourse.

Technological Forms and Ecological Communication
Technological Forms and Ecological Communication

Author: Piyush Mathur

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2017-09-25

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1498520480

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Investigating the phenomena of technology, science, technique, and mass communication, Piyush Mathur contends that the enterprise of science communication may be misleading vis-à-vis technology—if in part because it frequently coextends with a flawed, but dominant, notion of science that presumptuously implicates technology anyway. Grappling with what authentically constitutes science and the prospective effects of its realization on a global future of mass communication, Mathur explores how various technological forms play specifically into ecologically sensitive mass communication. The result is an eco-communicative theory of technology that includes its classification based upon a set of qualitative principles and a profile of the notion of development. On the whole, though, Technological Forms and Ecological Communication: A Theoretical Heuristic brings the fields of philosophy and history of science, philosophy and sociology of technology, communication studies, and development studies into conversation with one another.

Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem?
Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem?

Author: S. N. Balagangadhara

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2015-02-27

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781508578376

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Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? traces the history of western encounters with other cultures on two occasions: the 'pagans' of Greece and Rome and the 'heathens' in India. The West has produced many descriptions of other cultures. A close examination of these descriptions reveals that these descriptions tell us more about western culture than about the cultures the West has attempted to describe. This over-arching theme is developed by examining one element in western culture, viz., religion. This book argues that religion is not a cultural universal and the belief that all cultures have religion is an assumption on the part of all scholars of religion. The reason for this is that western culture has been shaped by religion so that members of this culture are conceptually compelled to describe other cultures from within the framework of religion. From Biblical scholarship to the Enlightenment, from the Reformation to the Romantics, from believers to atheists, the cognitive scheme is the same - one that has been set in place by the experiential framework of Christianity. It is through this framework that all other cultures have been studied so far. Is it any wonder that members of such a culture saw religion wherever they went? By means of methodical arguments and lucid explanations this book demonstrates that religion is not a cultural universal and explains why it is believed to be so. Scholars in the field of religious and cultural studies will find this work illuminating, original, and deeply compelling.

What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?
What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?

Author: S.N. Balagangadhara, Sarika Rao

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2021-09-04

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1685097723

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Why ask this question today? After all, a lot is written about India, her culture, her past, her society, the psychology and sociology of individuals and groups. Why is that not enough? It is because what we have learnt so far is either false or fragmentary. If Indian culture is not a slightly inferior, slightly idiosyncratic variant of Western culture, as the received view has it for a very long time, what else is it? Research into culture and cultural differences gives novel and surprising answers. Written for an intelligent but lay public, this book shares the results of 40 years of scientific investigations in the research programme Comparative Science of Cultures. It transcends the political distinction between ‘the right’ and ‘the left’ by looking deeper into ideas on human beings, society, culture, experience, the past, impact of colonialism etc. Today, the question ‘What does it mean to be ‘Indian’?’ is both important and difficult to answer. Is there something ‘Indian’ about this culture that goes beyond the differences between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Jains? What does it überhaupt mean to belong to Indian culture?

Face Cards
Face Cards

Author: Carolyn Wells

Publisher: Al-Mashreq eBookstore

Published: 2024-09-12

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0400740567

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Face Cards by Carolyn Wells is a dazzling detective novel that plunges readers into the glamorous yet perilous world of high society. When a renowned socialite is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the case unfolds like a high-stakes game of cards, with each player hiding a crucial piece of the puzzle. Amateur sleuths and seasoned investigators alike are drawn into a whirlwind of deception, hidden motives, and shocking revelations. With every chapter, the stakes rise and the true nature of the suspects is revealed. Will the killer be unmasked before the final card is played? Immerse yourself in this enthralling mystery where the truth is as elusive as a winning hand.