Bøker av Bidyut Chakrabarty

This book presents a comprehensive portrait of how Indians conceived of the idea of India. It highlights the diverse traditions and intellectual threads that contributed to the making of vibrant a democracy.The book: Examines the different ideas of India through 14 eminent Indian thinkers: Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Dayanand Saraswati, V.D. Savarkar, Savitribai Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, and M.A. Jinnah; Highlights how ancient and modern intellectual discourses coalesced with the aspirations of ordinary Indians under the yoke of colonialism; Challenges colonial constructs and linear approaches to studying India. Accessibly written, this book is essential reading for students and researchers of Indian political thought, modern history, political science, and South Asian studies.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) represented an ideational universe in which universal humanism was one of the most significant pillars. In conventional terms, Tagore is conceived as a poet which is, in reality, a partial description of the role he discharged in favour of his distinct politico-ideological priorities. He was a visionary who always privileged humanity above all. 'That Treasured Port': Rabindranath Tagore's Ideational Challenges demonstrates how a perusal of his enormous oeuvre reveals that while expressing his preference for a poetic voice, he also articulated his particular mode of thinking which was attuned not only to the contemporary context but much beyond. His views were thus transcendental since he dealt with issues which are useful to safeguard humanity, regardless of class, colour and creed. What deserves attention is his ability to understand the prevailing socio-economic and politico-cultural reality from the point of a distinct perception which was based on both-Western as well as indigenous discourses. Tagore evolved his conceptual parameters not merely on the basis of India's intellectual wisdom but also on the basis of the ideas he derived from the Enlightenment values; this reinforces the argument that the bard was open to multiple politico-ideological influences which, he found, were pivotal to the process of conceptualizing a collective well-being. One must not however forget that Tagore was not alone in his pursuit; it was complemented by his equally sensitive colleagues such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, among others.

Humanizing Humanity is distinctively framed advocacy of the ways in which the concept of humanity has been defended by various ideologues of India like Tagore, Gandhi, and Ambedkar. By grounding itself in the epistemology of intellectual history, the book delineates how these three major thinkers visualised the ways in which society can be better humanized. Such a process of humanization for these thinkers forms the bedrock of the trajectory in which humanity may be preserved, amidst intense authoritarianism and the violent quest for power by a small minority in the society. The book is an attempt at exploring the strands of inter-textuality that exist when Tagore, Gandhi and Ambedkar's thinking is situated in the ontic and epistemic context of a few humans' tendency to destroy humanity and the efforts of another section to create conditions for its preservation. Bidyut Chakrabarty does this by comparing the ways in which the Federalist Papers of the United States of America and the Indian Constitution manifest as quintessential texts that uphold the principles of liberty, equality, justice, and the protection of the weaker sections of society from structured strands of domination and exploitation.

This book elaborates the politico-ideological viewpoints of Aurobindo, as displayed when he reigned as one of the major nationalist leaders defining Indian nationalism. Bidyut Chakrabarty examines Aurobindo's politico-ideological ideas during the period (1893-1910) when he was an active participant in the 'New Nationalist' or 'Democratic Nationalist' campaign, which started with the bifurcation of the Indian National Congress between the Moderates and Extremists (also known as the Revolutionary Nationalists) in its 1907 annual session, held at Surat.Chapters cover Aurobindo's distinctive ideas of nationalism, which he evolved in collaboration with his colleagues, especially Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal), and how he redefined the practice of nationalism. The book also demonstrates that unlike his predecessors, the Moderates, Aurobindo set out many strategies - including boycott and passive resistance - to execute the distinctive plan he designed to attain his politico-ideological goal. Other topics include the relatively less discussed aspect of Aurobindo's socio-political ideas, namely his unique model of education as an antidote to many of the crippling socio-cultural prejudices, and the importance of Bhagavad Gita in shaping Aurobindo's politico-ideological priorities.

Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi constitute the key pillars of Indian nationalist thought. In this book Bidyut Chakrabarty demonstrates how Tagore and Gandhi drew on each other as they articulated their unique mode of thinking, which led to an innovative discourse. Tagore and Gandhi agreed on many ideas but also had serious differences on quite a few, for instance, on whether to support the British during the Boer War.Confluence of Thought brings out the compatibility as well as the differences in their thoughts by asserting that both of them, despite their differences in approach, are essentially informed and shaped by Western and indigenous discourses as well as by colonial rule.The chapters in the volume dwell on their views on nationalism, civilisation, religion, rural construction and religion. These ideas and arguments moulded the freedom struggle and shaped the future of a free India.

Rabindranath Tagore's Ideational Challenges is an analytical attempt to show that Rabindranath Tagore in his own unique style raised some troublesome sociocultural issues that constrained the attainment of the politico-ideological objectives that the nationalists espoused. His creative texts were not merely literary articulation of the issues but were powerful responses to the prevalent conceptual parameters on which humanity rested. Although the poet did not appear to have made such a claim, his writings dealt with politico-ideologically innovative ideas about human diversity that naturally fl­ourished in the Indian subcontinent. By approaching the pertinent sociocultural and politico-ideological issues from a literary perspective, the poet seemingly refashioned the dominant views on humanity.The selected novels and short stories in this book represent a distinct voice explicit in the politico-ideological message. Keeping this in view, each chapter is an articulation of the views that Rabindranath championed while contributing to ushering in a new vision based on his perception of well-entrenched sociocultural values of the time.

This book presents a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the socio-political, socio-economical and ideological preferences of Rabindranath Tagore, with emphasis on nationalistic, inclusive and gender development ideas.

A comprehensive analysis of election data, drawing out trends and reconceptualizing Indian democracy in theoretical terms.

This is the first book which takes into account, Jinnah, Savarkar and Ambedkar, three notable personalities of the twentieth century solely with the purpose of analyzing their conflict with Gandhi.

Contour of Freedom. This book is a balanced account of the complex processes that finally culminated in the fragmentation of South Asia following decolonization.

This book is a balanced account of the complex processes that finally culminated in the fragmentation of South Asia following decolonization.