[Published in Economic and Political Weekly, 38: 4611-17] Colonial Experience of Indian Intellectuals Opposing factions in the Orientalist-Anglicist controversy in the 19th century shared a common understanding of Indian religion…
Read more1. When we go-about with our fellow human beings, we need to possess some or another idea about the nature of ourselves and our fellow human beings. (Call it, for…
Read moreColonialism has been one of the most significant phenomena in the history of humankind in the last three hundred years or so. Its importance can hardly be overstated. Yet, as…
Read more1. As Indians, if we have to access the Indian traditions we need two things: (a) it must be possible for us to access them; (b) we must know how…
Read more“How do we understand the idea that an enlightened person has no wants?” Before we understand what the idea says, it would be good to find out what it does…
Read more1. How the Indians learn whatever they learn will be in accordance with their ways of going-about in the world. That is to say, the configuration of learning determines how…
Read more1. I have come to accept that the most interesting facts that a theory explains are those of the theory itself. Furthermore, a ‘theory’, which collects all kinds of facts…
Read more1. Many are concerned that English translations of some words from native languages distort their meaning. If we restrict ourselves to terms like ‘Deva’, ‘Dharma’ and such like, the worry…
Read moreI do not have a theory of meaning. I do not know which of the many fragmentary theories of meaning I should choose from and why. Even though I acknowledge…
Read moreColonial consciousness incorporates the following element: in making statements about the colonized, the colonizer thinks that he is describing the colonizer. The latter, for his part, takes such statements as…
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