Calibrating Western Philosophy for India

This book proposes a new way of reading modern Western philosophers in the Indian context. It questions the colonial methodology, or the practice of importing theories of Western philosophy, and shows how its unmediated applications are often incongruent, irrelevant, and unproductive in local frameworks. The author shows an alternative route to approaching philosophers from the West - Rousseau, Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari, and Bergson - by bending and reassembling aspects of their ideas and theories to relate with the diversity and complexity of Indian society. He also offers insights on the politics of non-being and negation from a neglected modern Indian philosopher, Vaddera Chandidas, as a step forward from the Western philosophers presented here. An intervention in philosophical research methodology, this volume will interest scholars and researchers of philosophy, Western philosophy, Indian philosophy, comparative studies, postcolonial studies, literature, cultural studies, and political philosophy.

A. Raghuramaraju is Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. His books include Debates in Indian Philosophy: Classical, Colonial and Contemporary (2006), Enduring Colonialism: Classical Presences and Modern Absences in Indian Philosophy (2009), Modernity in Indian Social Theory (2011), Philosophy and India: Ancestors, Outsiders and Predecessor (2013), and Modern Frames and Premodern Themes in Indian Philosophy: Border, Self and the Other (2017). He has edited Debating Gandhi: A Reader (2006), Debating Vivekananda: A Reader (2014), Ramchandra Gandhi: The Man and his Philosophy (2013), The Seven Sages: Selected Essays by Ramchandra Gandhi (2015), and Desire and Liberation by Vaddera Chandidas: Biography of a Text (2018). He also co-edited Grounding Morality: Freedom, Knowledge and Plurality of Cultures (2010).

Introduction 1. Rousseau: the founder of the institution of the old age home 2. Derrida and the two forms of the word: writing West and speaking India 3. Bending Deleuze and Guattari for India: major and minor literatures 4. From Bergson to Vaddera Chandidas: excavating the relation between non-being and permanence Conclusion Bibliography Index