The essential writings of Dharampal compiled and edited by his daughter Gita Dharampal

Recent history makes clear that the quantum leaps being made in technology are the leading edge of a groundswell of paradigm shifts taking place in science, politics, economics, social institutions, and the expression of cultural values. Indeed it is the simultaneity and interdependence of these changes occurring in every dimension of human experience and endeavor that makes the present so historically distinctive. The essays gathered here give voice to perspectives on the always improvised relationship between technology and cultural values from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Pacific. Contributors: Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas, Roger T. Ames,Yoko Arisaka, Carl Becker, Francesca Bray, James Buchanan, Arindam Chakrabarti, Frank W. Derringh, Rolf Elberfeld, Charles Ess, Andrew Feenberg, Susantha Goonatilake, H. Jiuan Heng, Peter Hershock, Thomas P. Kasulis, George Khushf, David Farrell Krell, Joel J. Kupperman, William R. LaFleur, Lois Ann Lorentzen, David Loy, Joseph Margolis, Hans-Georg Möller, Robert Cummings Neville, Peimin Ni, Monica Atieno Opole, Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ, Helen Petrovsky, Ramon Sentmartí, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Vasanthi Srinivasan, Marietta Stepaniants, Vyacheslav S. Stiopin, Henk ten Have, Paul B.Thompson, Mary Tiles, David B.Wong.

Culture of Memory in South Asia reconfigures European representations of India as a paradigmatic extension of a classical reading, which posits the relation between text and context in a determined way. It explores the South Asian cultural response to European “textual” inheritances. The main argument of this work is that the reflective and generative nodes of Indian cultural formations are located in the configurations of memory, the body and idiom (verbal and visual), where the body or the body complex becomes the performative effect and medium of articulated memories. This work advances its arguments by engaging with mnemocultures-cultures of memory that survive and proliferate in speech and gesture. Drawing on Sanskrit and Telugu reflective sources, this work emphasizes the need to engage with cultural memory and the compositional modes of Indian reflective traditions. This important and original work focuses on the ruptured and stigmatised resources of heterogeneous Indian traditions and calls for critical humanities that move beyond the colonially configured received traditions. Cultures of Memory suggests the possibilities of transcultural critical humanities research and teaching initiatives from the Indian context in today’s academy.

Asian science such as mathematics, Chinese printing, gunpowder and the compass, all contributed to the development of European science. During the last few centuries, however, scientific contributions with Asian roots have diminished and been marginalized and deligitimised. Yet the center of the world economy today is shifting to Asia with shifts in science and technology bound to follow. Toward a Global Science is driven by the proposition that pre-Renaissance acquisition of Asian knowledge did not exhaust Asian civilizationÕs potential contribution. There are many useful elements to modern science still lying hidden in Asian civilizational stores waiting to be Òmined.Ó The author gives details of recent contributions from South Asian medicine, mathematics, and psychology and explores how South Asian inputs can be useful in navigating the philosophical and ethical problems raised by two dominant technologies of the future, namely biotechnology and information technology. As an illustrative example, it describes how a fruitful marriage of one technologyÑvirtual realityÑwith South Asian philosophy can enliven both the technology as well as philosophy. It also examines how Asian positions could be used to feed some key contemporary philosophical discussions on science. Using a model of the civilizational construction of science, the book views science without Eurocentric blinders. It documents how science was built initially by transfers from non-European civilizations and why the given historiography of science has to be rethought. Throughout the book the author gives examples of Òparallels and antecedentsÓ between East and West in science and estimates the potential reservoir of Asian knowledge in each field. The book also deals with the many knotty problems in recovering science from past traditions. The author distinguishes between his secular efforts from religious and other attempts that claim the equivalence of all knowledge systems.

Publisher Description

Comprises contributed articles and discussion papers on Ayodhya after the demolition of the Babari Masjid on Dec. 6, 1992.