Daya Krishna and Twentieth-Century Indian Philosophy: A New Way of Thinking about Art, Freedom, and Knowledge

Description

Daya Krishna and Twentieth-Century Indian Philosophy introduces contemporary Indian philosophy as a unique philosophical genre through the writings of one its most significant exponents, Daya Krishna (1924-2007). It surveys Daya Krishna's main intellectual projects: rereading classical Indian sources anew, his famous Samvad Project, and his attempt to formulate a new social and political theory for India. Conceived as a dialogue with Daya Krishna and contemporaries, including his interlocutors, Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, Badrinath Shukla, Ramchandra Gandhi, and Mukund Lath, this book is an engaging introduction to anyone interested in contemporary Indian philosophy and in the thought-provoking writings of Daya Krishna.

Daniel Raveh is Professor of Indian and Comparative Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

A compelling and gripping narration of Indian philosophy in the twentieth century. Like an artist handling lines and colours on a canvas, Raveh makes a concerted attempt to identify, classify and assemble the philosophical ideas of Daya Krishna, one of the most intriguing philosophers of contemporary India. * A. Raghuramaraju, Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, India * Aptly describable as the Socrates-Nagarjuna-Zhuangzi of the late twentieth century, Daya Krishna was an original thinker, an assiduous but irreverent interpreter of Indian and Western philosophy, and a contrarian teacher who taught all late twentieth century philosophers and intellectuals in India to think freely, fearlessly, about freedom. No one is better qualified than Daniel Raveh to introduce him, not just as an Indian or comparative philosopher, but as a philosopher. * Arindam Chakrabarti, Nirmal K. and Augustina Mattoo Endowed Chair in Classical Indic Humanities, Stony Brook University, USA * Daniel Raveh foregrounds the importance of Daya Krishna's thought through dialogue with other contemporary Indian philosophers. His book brings much-needed intellectual relief to many of us who feel intellectually trapped in the conceptual crossfire generated by philosophical essentialists both in India and the West. * Gopal Guru, Former Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India *