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Summary of
Being Different: An Indian Challenge To Western Universalism |
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About the Book
India is more than a nation state. It is also a unique civilization with
philosophies and cosmologies that are markedly distinct from the
dominant culture of our times – the West. India’s spiritual traditions
spring from dharma which has no exact equivalent in Western frameworks.
Unfortunately, in the rush to celebrate the growing popularity of India
on the world stage, its civilizational matrix is being co-opted into
Western universalism, thereby diluting its distinctiveness and
potential.
In Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western
Universalism, thinker and philosopher Rajiv Malhotra addresses the
challenge of a direct and honest engagement on differences by reversing
the gaze, repositioning India from being the observed to the observer
and looking at the West from the dharmic point of view. In doing so, he
challenges many hitherto unexamined beliefs that both sides hold about
themselves and each other. He highlights that while unique historical
revelations are the basis for Western religions, dharma emphasizes
self-realization in the body here and now. He also points out the
integral unity that underpins dharma’s metaphysics and contrasts this
with Western thought and history as a synthetic unity.
Erudite
and engaging, Being Different critiques fashionable reductive
translations and analyses the West’s anxiety over difference and
fixation for order which contrast with the creative role of chaos in
dharma. It concludes with a rebuttal of Western claims of universalism,
while recommending a multi-civilizational worldview.
About The Author
Rajiv Malhotra
is an Indian–American researcher and public intellectual on current
affairs, world religions, cross-cultural encounters and science. A
scientist by training, he was previously a senior corporate executive,
strategic consultant and entrepreneur in information technology and
media. He is the author of Breaking India (Amaryllis, 2011), was the
chief protagonist in Invading the Sacred (Rupa & Co.), and is an
active writer and speaker. He is chairman of the Board of Governors of
the India Studies programme at the University of Massachusetts,
Dartmouth.
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Details of Book :
Being Different: An Indian Challenge To Western Universalism |
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| Book |
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Being Different: An Indian Challenge To Western Universalism |
| Author |
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Malhotra Rajiv |
| ISBN |
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9350291908
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ISBN-13 |
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9789350291900 |
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Publisher |
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Harper Collins |
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Edition |
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Indian Edition |
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Binding |
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Hardcover |
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Publishing Date |
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2011 |
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Number of Pages |
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488 |
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Language |
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English |
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