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The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests of Western society. Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own "alternative sciences" as a step towards "mental decolonization". These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study, Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism. At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology, Nanda argues, lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as "difference" by postmodernists, however, has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The "Vedic sciences" currently endorsed in Indian schools, colleges, and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity. By denouncing science and secularization, the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls "reactionary modernism." In contrast, Nanda points to the Dalit, or untouchable, movement as a true example of an "alternative science" that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.
The period from 1872-1947 witnessed the rise of many movements in Bengal, where those who were considered lower castes were mobilised to protest against the inequality and injustice meted out to them in various fields, including religion, politics and education. The focus of their struggle was the social injustice within the Hindu caste hierarchy. Unlike in south and western India where caste movements were often associated with anti-Brahmanical movements, in Bengal it was upgradation of caste from Sudra to Kshatriya varna. The main focus of the study is the Kshatriyaization movement of Rajbansis, the Matua movement of Namasudras, and the colonial policy of ‘Protective Discrimination’ and its impact. It studies the attempt by Rajbansi community to establish themselves as Kshatriyas in the first half of the twentieth century, though the movement started in the late nineteenth century itself. It also includes their struggle against the Brahmanical dominance and the elites of their own community. Alongside the Kshatriyaization movement, a parallel movement for the social uplift started among the Namasudra community, which later spread to northern Bengal. Their struggle actually began from the time of the first Census in 1872, when the census authorities classified the Namasudras as Chandals in the census report. The Namasudra protest movement, hereafter, developed through a different channel provided by a Vaishnava religious sect named Matua, started under a Namasudra leader Harichand Thakur. This book is essential for those wishing to understand the socio-religious movement of the Namasudra and the Rajbansi communities in their historical context. Print edition not for sale in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The articles in this survey of the Indo-Aryan controversy address questions such as: are the Indo-Aryans insiders or outsiders?
Narendra Modi’s energetic personal diplomacy and promise to make India a ‘leading power’ surprised many analysts. Most had predicted that his government would concentrate on domestic issues, on the growth and development demanded by Indian voters, and that he lacked necessary experience in international relations. Instead, Modi’s first term saw a concerted attempt to reinvent Indian foreign policy by replacing inherited understandings of its place in the world with one drawn largely from Hindu nationalist ideology. Following Modi’s re-election in 2019, this book explores the drivers of this reinvention, arguing it arose from a combination of elite conviction and electoral calculation, and the impact it has had on India’s international relations.
The book questions patriarchy and the associated feminine power struggle. It traverses through the characters of the mythological Draupadi of the epic Mahabharat - seeing this epic through the eyes of Draupadi - and a Naxalite girl who was named after this mythological character who broke all typical stereotyped thoughts, convictions and conditioning. This book deals with gender stereotyping and breaking the bondages arising out of conditioning thereof. The detailed research done is bound to draw the attention of any reader towards the ease with which one accepts the indoctrination of stereotypical views, particularly of the feminine form as a norm. In this mundane world, where the dominating position in all subtleties is held by the MAN-kind, this book lucidly addresses questions related to feminine stereotyping. It also intrigues the reader regarding identities arising out of such conditioning.
Given India’s growing power and aspirations in world politics, there has been increasing interest among practitioners and scholars of international relations (IR) in how India views the world. This book offers the first systematic investigation of the world order models in India’s foreign policy discourse. By examining how the signifier ‘world order’ is endowed with meaning in the discourse, it moves beyond Western-centric IR and sheds light on how a state located outside the Western ‘core’ conceptualizes world order. Drawing on poststructuralism and discourse theory, the book proposes a novel analytical framework for studying foreign policy discourses and understanding the changes and continuities in India’s post-cold war foreign policy. It shows that foreign policy and world order have been crucial sites for the (re)production of India’s identity by drawing a political frontier between the Self and a set of Others and placing India into a system of differences that constitutes ‘what India is’. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Indian foreign policy, foreign policy analysis, South Asian studies, IR and IR theory, international political thought and global order studies.
Many of you may think that it is all matter of past. It happened then but it would not happen now. Have you also heard that history repeats itself? Do you believe in it? Have you studied history honestly enough? Have you had honest guides as your teachers and professors who systematically demonstrated to you whether history repeats itself or not?
The Vedic-Puranic literature as well as archaeological, geological, historical, linguistic, and literary accounts have been reviewed to establish the various cultures that evolved in ancient India from about 3500 BCE to the Mahabharata War (1450 BCE). The book describes various misconceptions, e.g., the myth about an Aryan invasion. The following markers are used to establish the dates and geographical locations of various cultures: (i) The rise in sea levels due to melting of land-based snow after the last Ice Age. (ii) Migration of the Dravidian people from the lost continent of Kumari Kandam that submerged under the Indian Ocean. (iii) The dates for the start of farming, use of kiln-baked bricks, domestication of horses, and metal working in the Indian subcontinent. (iv) The dates when Sarasvati River dried up and the Mahabharata War occurred. The book notes that asva-containing or rath-containing names could not have existed before horses were domesticated or chariots were in use. The book also notes that Mathura Krsna is different from Dwarka Krsna; the two are separated by more then 1000 years. During Mathura Krsna’s time, conflicts were settled by hand-to-hand combat or with the use of a mace. In contrast, during Dwarka Krsna’s time, metal arms were used.