Indianizing India: Thinkers Whose Ideas Shaped a Nation

✍ Scribed by Bidyut Chakrabarty

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 570
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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 democracy.

The book:

• Examines the different ideas of India through 14 eminent Indian thinkers: Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Dayanand Saraswati, VD Savarkar, Savitribai Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, BR Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani and MA 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.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
I
Indianization: what does it mean?
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
Notes
Part I: An Initiative
Chapter 1: Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883): Setting out the tenor of the argument
Unfolding of the argument
Indianizing India
Indianizing India: practice-based inputs
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 2: VD Savarkar (1883–1966): Repositioning an indigenous mode of thinking
Unique ideational priorities
Conceptualizing India
Indianizing India
Hindutva project
Concluding observations
Notes
Part II: An Articulation
Chapter 3: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948): Reigniting nationalism with a creatively blending ideational vision
Foundational ideas
Critical texts
Loyalist or a devout trustee of constitutional-liberalism
Gandhi’s ‘liberal’ dilemma
Gandhi’s introspection
Philosophical foundations
Indian philosophical influences
Purushartha as critical to humanity
Importance of Gita for humanity
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 4: Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) and Indianization of India
Upbringing of Nehru
Historical roots
Nationalist mission
A humanist Nehru
Objective resolutions
Internationalization of India
Idealizing derivative modes of development
A reluctant democrat
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 5: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1858–1958): An apostle of an awakened India
Conceptualizing India
Elimination of discrimination
Religious tilt
Ideating India
Secular India
Rationalist India
Azad’s nationalism
Critical estimate
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 6: MA Jinnah (1876–1948): Redesigning nationalism
Unfolding of a vision with multiple possibilities
The 1916 Lucknow Pact
The institutional manifestation
Reconceptualizing India
BR Ambedkar’s influence on Jinnah in his conceptualization of India
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 7: BR Ambedkar (1891–1956): Voicing the voiceless
Two complementary roles
Equality and fraternity as inimical to dehumanization
Hindu alternative to Pakistan
Core points
Securing for the untouchables their legitimate due
Caste and Indianization
Concluding observations
Notes
Part III: A Defence
Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941): Reemphasizing a socio-culturally charged voice
Setting out a perspective
Rabindranath Tagore’s intervention
Retrieving humanism in India’s civilizational ethos
Processes of Indianization
Tagore’s unique intervention
Phases of transformation
Foundational conceptual pillars
Articulation of his model
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 9: Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950): Reinvention of Indian socio-cultural and intellectual traditions
Articulating an ideational universe
Indigenizing the public discourses
Contemporary inputs
Creative initiatives
Reengagement with the available ‘nationalistic’ literature
Aurobindo: indigenous influences
Conceptualizing nationalism
‘The Bourgeois and the Samurai’
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 10: Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945?): Reformulating the nationalist language
Ideational visions
Fundamental pillars of Indianizing India
Bose and his idea of future of India
Bose and Indianizing Indias
Rabindranath Tagore and Bose’s idea of Indianization
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 11: Nazrul Islam (1899–1976): Charting a new roadmap
Emergence of a rebel
A rebellious soul
Unfolding of a voice
Contextual influences
An explanatory model
Conceptualizing humanity
Situating Nazrul’s ideational vision
Articulation of a voice
Socially charged political views
As an organizer
Critics of Nazrul
Concluding observations
Notes
Part IV: A Design
Chapter 12: Sarala Devi Chaudhurani (1872–1945): Ideating India with a gender lens
Unfolding of a voice
Core ideas of Indianizing India
Indian scene
Inspirational inputs
Her India
The model
Sarala Devi’s Memoirs – Jivaner Jhara Pata (The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi)
Contact with the outside world
Formal introduction of nationalism
Festivals and connectivity
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 13: Pandita Ramabai (1858–1922): Recreating a space for gender parity
Unfolding of an ideational voice
Mukti of women
Conversion to Christianity and Western myopia
Idea of India
Concluding observations
Notes
Chapter 14: Savitribai Phule (1831–1897): Crystallizing a feminist–nationalist voice
Introducing Savitribai
Savitribai and Jotirao: Conceiving India
Satyashodhak Samaj
India in writings of Savitribai
Reflections on caste
Women, education and self-reliance
Concluding observations
Notes
Conclusion
I
II
III
IV
V
Notes
Bibliography
Bibliographical notes
Select bibliography
Index