Arpita Mitra teaches at the Department of History, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Prior to this, she has taught at Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, India. She has a PhD in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2015-2017). She specializes in intellectual and religious history and has worked at the interstices of history, philosophy and religious studies. Her research interests are Ramakrishna-Vivekananda studies; Vedanta; history of Hinduism; historical geography of India; Sister Nivedita; history writing in colonial India; and Indian nationalist thought and movement.
This paper is about a particular construction of nationalism at the hands of Romesh Chunder Dutt ... more This paper is about a particular construction of nationalism at the hands of Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909), the well-known exponent of ‘economic nationalism’, in colonial Bengal from 1870 onwards till his death in 1909. In this construction of nationalism, which today scholars would best describe as ‘cultural nationalism’, the categories ‘Hindu’ and ‘national’ converged and became conflated. Through a discussion of Dutt’s ‘literary patriotism’, the paper seeks to answer why it was so in the case of someone like R C Dutt, and what implications we can draw from this regarding our understanding of colonial Indian nationalism and its origins. With reference to Dutt, Sudhir Chandra pointed out that the neat distinction that we draw between ‘economic nationalism’ and ‘cultural nationalism’ is fallacious. The paper reiterates and reinforces this argument by showing how cultural and political nationalisms were enmeshed together in the case of R C Dutt. Furthermore, the glorious past that Dutt reconstructed through his literary patriotism could not but be a Hindu past; he was not a vilifier of Muslims, but somehow he shelved the question of the place of Muslims in his construction of Indian nationhood.
Soft Power has never before been explicitly stated as part of India's foreign policy, like it has... more Soft Power has never before been explicitly stated as part of India's foreign policy, like it has been done in the last few years. However, much remains to be done to transform India's capacities into capabilities for an effective soft power exercise, and to be able to employ such soft power as a veritable instrument of influence. This article discusses the civilisational asset that India possesses and its potential for enhancing soft power, that is, India's historical and civilisational ties with, and the cultural footprints thereof, in different parts of the world, especially Asia. It is argued in this article that there is an intrinsic value in underscoring this aspect of India's contribution to the world for reasons that go beyond the narrow interests of a single nation. The current 'Neighbourhood First' policy of the Indian government makes room for an effective utilisation of this asset, if the discourse around it is framed carefully. The purpose of this article is threefold: to highlight the importance of this particular soft power asset of India; to address the critique of this approach in a constructive way; and to suggest a way forward in terms of concrete policy recommendations.
There has been a long-standing academic debate on the religious orientation of Sri Ramakrishna Pa... more There has been a long-standing academic debate on the religious orientation of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), one of the leading religious figures of modern India. In the light of his teachings, it is possible to accept that Ramakrishna's ideas were Vedantic, albeit not in a sectarian or exclusive way. This article explores the question of where exactly to place him in the chequered history of Vedantic ideas. It points out that Ramakrishna repeatedly referred to different states of consciousness while explaining the difference in the attitudes towards the Divine. This is the basis of his harmonization of the different streams within Vedanta. Again, it is also the basis of his understanding of the place of sakti. He demonstrated that, as long as one has I-consciousness, one is operating within the jurisdiction of sakti, and has to accept sakti as real. On the other hand, in the state of samadhi, which is the only state in which the I-consciosuness disappears, there is neither One nor many. The article also shows that, while Ramakrishna accepted all of the different views within Vedanta, he was probably not as distant from the Advaita Vedanta philosopher Adi Samkara as he has been made out to be.
Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Volume 10: “Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics”, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and Andrew Lynch, Leiden: Brill, 2019
Rita Banerjee (ed.), Cultural Histories of India: Subaltern Representations, Peripheral Genres and Alternate Historiography, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2020
A little-known aspect of Sister Nivedita’s (1867–1911) work in and for India was her efforts towa... more A little-known aspect of Sister Nivedita’s (1867–1911) work in and for India was her efforts toward the cause of (re-)writing Indian history. She conceptualized new theoretical frameworks for writing a history of India that would capture the diversity of Indian histories and cultures. In re-conceptualizing Indian history, she was influenced by the sociological methods of the Scottish sociologist, biologist, and town-planner, Sir Patrick Geddes (1854–1932). The primacy of place in determining history, the concept of synthesis and of sequence, the idea of the evolution of the city as “a sort of lotus, divided into numbered whorls” – are key Geddesian concept-tools that Nivedita adopted. She developed an understanding of the Indian past–present–future through the prism of synthesis; and in so doing, she produced a history of India that differed both from the British imperialist idea of India as congeries of many nations, as well as the idea of India as a predominantly Hindu nation. She argued that it would be erroneous to read Indian history as a record of the struggle between Hindus and Muslims. Place and synthesis also came together to produce the idea of Indian nationality in her works.
Definition: The category of reason is used in Hindu spirituality and philosophy in different sens... more Definition: The category of reason is used in Hindu spirituality and philosophy in different senses. One can discern two broad usages: one, as a faculty of the mind, that is, as an instrument of philosophical reflection and, two, as logic, that is, an instrument of argumentation. There is no exact Sanskrit synonym for the word " reason. " The term buddhi is often used to denote reason as a faculty of the mind, and words like manana and vicāra are used to denote the act of reflection or contemplation. Anumāna is inference; it is one of the six pramāṇas or valid means of knowledge and is accepted by all the six schools of Hindu philosophy (dars´ana). The word Nyāya, after which is named one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy , means logic. Tarka and yukti are also words used to denote logic. These different words are used to denote different dimensions of reason.
This paper is about a particular construction of nationalism at the hands of Romesh Chunder Dutt ... more This paper is about a particular construction of nationalism at the hands of Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909), the well-known exponent of ‘economic nationalism’, in colonial Bengal from 1870 onwards till his death in 1909. In this construction of nationalism, which today scholars would best describe as ‘cultural nationalism’, the categories ‘Hindu’ and ‘national’ converged and became conflated. Through a discussion of Dutt’s ‘literary patriotism’, the paper seeks to answer why it was so in the case of someone like R C Dutt, and what implications we can draw from this regarding our understanding of colonial Indian nationalism and its origins. With reference to Dutt, Sudhir Chandra pointed out that the neat distinction that we draw between ‘economic nationalism’ and ‘cultural nationalism’ is fallacious. The paper reiterates and reinforces this argument by showing how cultural and political nationalisms were enmeshed together in the case of R C Dutt. Furthermore, the glorious past that Dutt reconstructed through his literary patriotism could not but be a Hindu past; he was not a vilifier of Muslims, but somehow he shelved the question of the place of Muslims in his construction of Indian nationhood.
Soft Power has never before been explicitly stated as part of India's foreign policy, like it has... more Soft Power has never before been explicitly stated as part of India's foreign policy, like it has been done in the last few years. However, much remains to be done to transform India's capacities into capabilities for an effective soft power exercise, and to be able to employ such soft power as a veritable instrument of influence. This article discusses the civilisational asset that India possesses and its potential for enhancing soft power, that is, India's historical and civilisational ties with, and the cultural footprints thereof, in different parts of the world, especially Asia. It is argued in this article that there is an intrinsic value in underscoring this aspect of India's contribution to the world for reasons that go beyond the narrow interests of a single nation. The current 'Neighbourhood First' policy of the Indian government makes room for an effective utilisation of this asset, if the discourse around it is framed carefully. The purpose of this article is threefold: to highlight the importance of this particular soft power asset of India; to address the critique of this approach in a constructive way; and to suggest a way forward in terms of concrete policy recommendations.
There has been a long-standing academic debate on the religious orientation of Sri Ramakrishna Pa... more There has been a long-standing academic debate on the religious orientation of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), one of the leading religious figures of modern India. In the light of his teachings, it is possible to accept that Ramakrishna's ideas were Vedantic, albeit not in a sectarian or exclusive way. This article explores the question of where exactly to place him in the chequered history of Vedantic ideas. It points out that Ramakrishna repeatedly referred to different states of consciousness while explaining the difference in the attitudes towards the Divine. This is the basis of his harmonization of the different streams within Vedanta. Again, it is also the basis of his understanding of the place of sakti. He demonstrated that, as long as one has I-consciousness, one is operating within the jurisdiction of sakti, and has to accept sakti as real. On the other hand, in the state of samadhi, which is the only state in which the I-consciosuness disappears, there is neither One nor many. The article also shows that, while Ramakrishna accepted all of the different views within Vedanta, he was probably not as distant from the Advaita Vedanta philosopher Adi Samkara as he has been made out to be.
Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Volume 10: “Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics”, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and Andrew Lynch, Leiden: Brill, 2019
Rita Banerjee (ed.), Cultural Histories of India: Subaltern Representations, Peripheral Genres and Alternate Historiography, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2020
A little-known aspect of Sister Nivedita’s (1867–1911) work in and for India was her efforts towa... more A little-known aspect of Sister Nivedita’s (1867–1911) work in and for India was her efforts toward the cause of (re-)writing Indian history. She conceptualized new theoretical frameworks for writing a history of India that would capture the diversity of Indian histories and cultures. In re-conceptualizing Indian history, she was influenced by the sociological methods of the Scottish sociologist, biologist, and town-planner, Sir Patrick Geddes (1854–1932). The primacy of place in determining history, the concept of synthesis and of sequence, the idea of the evolution of the city as “a sort of lotus, divided into numbered whorls” – are key Geddesian concept-tools that Nivedita adopted. She developed an understanding of the Indian past–present–future through the prism of synthesis; and in so doing, she produced a history of India that differed both from the British imperialist idea of India as congeries of many nations, as well as the idea of India as a predominantly Hindu nation. She argued that it would be erroneous to read Indian history as a record of the struggle between Hindus and Muslims. Place and synthesis also came together to produce the idea of Indian nationality in her works.
Definition: The category of reason is used in Hindu spirituality and philosophy in different sens... more Definition: The category of reason is used in Hindu spirituality and philosophy in different senses. One can discern two broad usages: one, as a faculty of the mind, that is, as an instrument of philosophical reflection and, two, as logic, that is, an instrument of argumentation. There is no exact Sanskrit synonym for the word " reason. " The term buddhi is often used to denote reason as a faculty of the mind, and words like manana and vicāra are used to denote the act of reflection or contemplation. Anumāna is inference; it is one of the six pramāṇas or valid means of knowledge and is accepted by all the six schools of Hindu philosophy (dars´ana). The word Nyāya, after which is named one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy , means logic. Tarka and yukti are also words used to denote logic. These different words are used to denote different dimensions of reason.
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