EDITORIAL NOTE
"Philosophy is a method of distinguishing fact from fallacies, sifting
truth as sacrosanct… it is a method of securitizing our otherwise
unexamined beliefs and practices in order to purge them of
falsehood and error.
"
When philosophy is defined as Love of Wisdom we have a phrase that may be used as
incorporating all of the branches. In the Love of Wisdom we may say that there is the
Vision of truth which we see and that gives us the impulse and the impetus to pursue
it; that there is the power of this Vision to dissolve those problems which give us
concern; and that there is the method or methodology by which we can convey this
Vision so as to make it convincing and persuasive.
In every original philosopher there is a barbaric and primitive conceit, a basic selfassurance, a faith in him. He is in the right and the world is wrong. He has this
attitude not only as regards the philosophers of the past but equally as much in
regards to his contemporaries. This quality is what makes of every philosopher a
critic and a fighter. This quality is what gives to every philosopher his own style.
Hence, every original philosophy is a critique and a challenge and unique and a
mystique. In other words, every original philosophy is an autobiography or a critique.
The philosophy is the man and the man is his philosophy. Who is Plato? The answer
is, his Book.
To philosophize is to express one's discontent with what is; to show that what was, or
what is, was and is in error; to seek to persuade or to prove that what one thinks and
believes is right and correct; and to show that if the world does not accept one's
thought and belief it will perish by some form of death, physical or intellectual.
Therefore, when Marx said that hitherto philosophers had sought to interpret the
world, but that now was the time to change the world, he was wrong in thinking that
he was the first philosopher whose wish it was to change the world. He was wrong in
the notion that philosophers merely wanted to interpret the world. All philosophers
want to change the world. Marx as an original philosopher believed that he was the
first to put philosophy straight. He was not the first, and, of course, he is not the last.
Philosophical interpretation is inherently a fighting stance for change. This is why the intellectual life in its true self can be nothing but revolutionary. It is tragic to the
intellectual life when ‘intellectuals’ forget this. Philosophy, therefore, is a
revolutionary enterprise
An authentic philosophy is a means by which the philosopher communicates to the
world that he is not empty of use and purpose and justification. The philosopher does
not use his philosophy as a means. The philosophizing is the ‘means’. Philosophy is
essential for an integral human development. It always recommends for at least a
little dosage of philosophical training for all, especially in all levels of our
educational sector. Philosophy trains the human mind to reason correctly and
rationally. And the proper training of human mind translates to human and societal
development. Hence Philosophy is a great impact to the hard reality of policy making
in the national constitution of India, which is within the ambits of law, the
preservation of life of individual in the State, the preservation of individual
autonomy, and the fair treatment of citizens.
We express our deep sense of gratitude and happiness to present the 13th issue of our
journal “Philosophical Papers: Journal of the Department of Philosophy” before the
philosophical community. The Department of Philosophy, University of North
Bengal is proud to express that it provides the philosophical fraternity with a space
for contributing papers. However, we regret the delay in publishing the present
volume. Besides regular academic activities, the Department is also engaged in
performing SAP (DRS-III) programmes under the guidance of Prof. Kantilal Das,
Coordinator of SAP in Philosophy. We thank all colleagues and esteemed members
of the Editorial Board for helping us to publish this volume. We are grateful to all the
contributors, our Honorable Vice-Chancellor, Registrar (Officiating) Finance Officer
(Officiating), University Grants Commission and the University Press, without whose
cooperation, this endeavour would not have seen the light of the day.
Moral theory deals with moral insight, and moral insight is the recognition of the
relationships available. This is a very disciplined and mundane conception. It makes
moral insight, and therefore moral theory, consists simply in the everyday workings
of the same ordinary. There is no more aura about the insight that determines what we
should do in this catastrophic life when the foundations are up-heaving and our twisted for eternity lies waiting to be fixed, than in that which determines whether
commercial conditions favor' heavy or light purchases. There is nothing more divine
or transcendental in resolving how to save our degraded neighbour than in the
resolving of a problem in Mathematics, or in the mastery of Mill's theory of
induction. Ranjana Mukherjee in Ethical Theory and Ordinary Moral Practice
emphasizes that moral theory is the analytic perception of the conditions and relations
in hand in a given act; it is the action in idea. It is the construction of the act in
thought against its outward construction. It is, therefore, the doing, the act itself, in its
emerging. So far are we from any divorce of moral theory and practice that theory is
the ideal act, and conduct is the executed insight.
If we take any philosopher as a guru and we treat his works as gospel. If we make of
his teaching a religion complete with dogma and exegesis, we may become members
of the congregation of the faithful, but will not possess the openness of mind essential
for a critical understanding of the master's views. The true teachers help us to think
for ourselves in the new situations which arise. We would be unworthy disciples, if
we do not question and criticize them. They try to widen our knowledge and help us
to see clearly. The true teacher is like Krishna in the Bhagavadgitā who advises
Arjuna to think for himself and do as he chooses: yathā icchasi tathā kuru. Kalyan
Kumar Bagchi in On Interpreting Radhakrishnan, the Interpreter Today claims that
there is a longing in the human mind for eternal truths embodied in fixed formulas
which we need not discuss, modify or correct. We do crave for a constant rule of life,
a sure guide to heaven. Devotion to a master who lays down the law gives us rest,
confidence and security. We cannot, however, expect rational criticism from those
who have too much reverence for authority.
Rajiv Malhotra has worked vigorously for decades to counter the tsunami of
misconceptions about India and Hinduism propounded by Western academia. This
misinformation suffuses the media, fills our textbooks, is echoed by Westerninfluenced intellectuals in India and confounds the minds of Hindu youths in different
universities worldwide. What is the source of these ideas? Malhotra’s books Indra’s
Net and Being Different is about the ongoing battle over Hinduism’s positioning on
par with the world’s major religions. It rebuts an increasingly powerful academic school which posits that Hinduism, as such, has never existed. Hinduism today is
dismissed as a potent myth concocted by Swami Vivekananda. This idea brands
Vivekananda’s movement as neo-Hinduism, where ‘neo’ implies something not
genuine. Ashok Modak elaborates the contents of two books written by Rajiv
Malhotra as both the books highlight with apt evidences the distinctiveness of the
Hindu worldview. Both the books are one of the first attempts by an Indian
intellectual to challenge seriously the assumptions and presuppositions of the field of
India and South Asian studies, not only European and American scholarship on India
and South Asia, but also the neo-colonialist, postmodernist, and subaltern
ressentiment so typical of contemporary Indian intellectuals. His books are thoughtprovoking and well researched, representing decades of studying and defending
against the anti-Hindu assault. It provides a background that can be marshaled to
counter the tenacious misconceptions about India and Hinduism influencing global
media and public education from middle school to the University.
There is an abounding plurality and rich diversity of religions in the contemporary
world both in terms of religious beliefs and practices. And globalization is creating a
widespread awareness of this fact. Perhaps not surprisingly, along with the plethora
of religious diversity, conflict in the name of religion is also pervasive and
multifarious. From religious wars to individual acts of violence to verbal assault,
discord among religions is an unfortunate reality of the past and present. In response,
Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, has recently suggested that inter-religious
harmony can be achieved by developing understanding of other traditions and
appreciating the value inherent within each of them. In fact, it would behoove every
educated person to have at least a basic understanding of the major religions, for
ignorance in this domain tends to lead to suspicion, bigotry, and sometimes even
violence, whereas understanding can lead to respect, empathy, and perhaps even trust.
Rakesh Chandra in Some Reflections on Tenability of Pluralism, Transformation and
Trivialization of Religions tries to establish that one of the most popular views on
religious pluralism and coping with it is a view which differentiates non-public and
public culture of public practice advocating secularism in the realm and learning the
inward private domain of conviction for religion. The Concept of Matter as found in the Cārvāka, Vaiśeşika and Sāmkhya systems of
Indian Philosophy has got much affinities with that of Physics. Both the traditions
firmly believe that the matter has got some in-built power through which it can create
something without the help of any conscious principle. The Cārvākas believe that
there four material elements in this world called earth, water, light and air due the
combination of which a new entity called consciousness comes into being just as red
colour out of lime, nut etc. in a betel. Hence consciousness has no separate existence
rather than the four elements. Both the Vaiśeşikas and Quantum Physicists are of the
opinion that the initial origin of the world is possible due to the combination of two
atoms giving rise to a binary one (dvyaņuka). The in-built power within atoms helps
them for their auto-combination without the help of any conscious principle or Godparticle. Raghunath Ghosh in the Concept of Matter: A Physics-Philosophy
Interphase claims that when a hot metal, the Physicists observed, is found, it is
visible due to its visibility of the thermal radiation emitted by high temperature.
Everything else is also glowing with thermal radiation as well, but less brightly and at
larger wave-lengths than human eye can detect. Such phenomenon is called Black
Body Radiation. The Sāmkhya believes in such type of in-built power in each and
every object. The Samkhya described sattva as mass, rajas as energy and tamas as a
balancing factor, which is also endorsed by the Physicists. In case of leadership an
individual can be a leader per excellence if he believes in such in-built power on
himself and can lead (not mislead) others in the true sense of the term to be conscious
about such power in them so that they do not feel any negative states of mind like
inferiority complex, self-negating attitudes etc. If such in-built power is admitted, an
individual becomes a true leader by arousing their power already within them as
Naciketa was aroused by the Mantra- uttiṣţhata jāgrata prāpya varānnivodhata
(Arise, awake, stop not until the goal is reached). The human body has got such inbuilt power by virtue of being matter (Prakŗti) but not as a part of Spirit (Ātman).
What is the meaning of silence? As defined by Foucault, this question is ill-posed, for
there are many silences and they can have many meanings. Depending on the
specifics of the case, the significance of a silence may range from an obvious
meaning to utter nonsensicality. Foucault urges us to think of silences as situated
speech acts that can only be understood in their particularity, that is, as they function in particular socio-historical contexts and within particular discursive practices. This
insight, it is argued, is elaborated in an interesting way in Wittgenstein’s philosophy
of language. One of Wittgenstein’s life-long philosophical preoccupations was to
elucidate the limits of intelligibility, to provide an account of language that could
shed light on the boundaries between what can and cannot be said. Kantilal Das in
Wittgenstein on Philosophy of Silence tries to establish this point.
The very subject matter of ‘meaning of life’ is philosophically interesting in its own
right. Questions about meaning of life lead to puzzles about how we know things, i.e.
the existence of an afterlife and the nature of nirvāṇa. Important questions are also
raised about the nature of reality - whether God exists and whether there is a spiritual
realm beyond the physical world. Perhaps, it is impossible to generalize intelligently
about human life, because in order to do so we would have to step outside it. And this
would be like trying to leap out of our skins, surely only someone outside human
existence altogether, like God, would be able to survey it as a whole and see whether
it added up? The case is akin to Nietzsche’s argument in The Twilight of the Idols that
life cannot be judged either valuable or valueless in itself, since the criteria we would
have to appeal to in order to establish this would themselves be part of life. But this is
surely questionable. We do not need to stand outside human existence in order to
make meaningful comments about it. It is true that nobody has ever actually seen any
society as a whole, but we can make reasonable inferences from the bits of reality that
we are familiar with to the bits that we aren't. It is not a matter of seeing it all, just a
matter of seeing enough to sort out what seems typical from what does not. Jyotsna
Saha in Some Reflections the Meaning of Life claims that creativity, love, authenticity
may enable people to live meaningful lives in the face of discontent and suffering.
Bala Ganapathi in his contribution analyzes the place of guru in bridging the idea and
the praxis in the Hindu tradition. After analyzing various conceptions of gurus in
Hindu tradition such as - the one who imparts knowledge of Vedas, Nyāyaśāstras,
Armory etc; the one who guides rulers; the one who lives in forests and clarifies
perceived conflicts of dharma by the common people; and the one who has
established dhārmic traditions to be followed by future generations. He argues that
the guru’s role as interpreter of dharma is crucial for the sustenance and development of both moral and social order of the human beings especially in the present time. He
makes an attempt to look at the tradition to analyze the role played by various kinds
of gurus in interpreting the dharma to the context and guiding the people, in the
course of discussion of his submission.
The modern society is facing tremendous values crisis today and so many
unsatisfactory incidences have arisen due to crisis of value and character. Question
may be raised what is the remedy of all these ills? There is a great need to equip the
present education, being imparted to children, with values of life in order to make
them good human beings. Values bring quality and meaning to life and give a person
his identity and character. The most valuable human possessions are health, harmony,
happiness, wisdom and above all character reflecting ethical and human values. When
these values are manifested in one’s thoughts, speech and actions, he could be called
an enlightened person. Vivekananda observed, “Education is not the amount of
information that is put in your brain and runt riots there, we want that education by
which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded by
which one can stand on one’s own feet”. Nirmal Kumar Roy in Value
Education as a Means to Resolve Social Crisis tries to prove that value education
helps in resolving the problems which are available in our Śāstras.
Indian society is rather a complex one, because of its construction of a hierarchical
social order on the basis of class, caste and gender. If one wants to know the conflicts
which women face today in Indian civilization then one has to investigate the
traditional position of women in early Indian society. Historian Romilla Thapar
contends that “events concerning the more remote periods often take the form of a
myth. Myth is in a sense prototype history since it is a selection of ideas composed in
narrative form for the purpose of giving significance to an important past”. Amal
Kumar Harh in The Concept of Woman in Indian and Western Tradition finds that
this is a contentious debate on the historical background of women and it is very
difficult to come up with any specific or clear conclusion.
Due to their natural sociability, men have eventually gathered in a politically
organized community. Once realized, this association is required to demonstrate its
superiority and this thing can be established by means of its ability to perform the functions for which it was “invented.” Aristotle lays the basis for both the theory of
good governance and the ways to achieve it. The purpose of a regime that is
undertaken by good governance should be the happiness of the members of the
political community. Kautilya’s Arthaŝāstra in 4th century B.C. is one of the most
influential treatises in Political Science in the Indian Civilization. He deals with all
aspects of governance in a monarchical state. Kautilya’s goal was to turn Magadha
and his Mauryan masters into the supreme power in the kingdom. The relative
attention paid to different subjects by Kautilya also sheds light on his appreciation of
the relationship between governance and the power of the state in relation to other
states. Samar Kumar Mondal in Aristotle and Kautilya on the Concept of Good
Governance and Welfare State has made an attempt to compare good governance and
welfare state as propounded by Aristotle with Kautilya.
It can be suggested that Wittgenstein’s discussion about aspect-perception can shed
light on philosophical methods. Aspect-perception is a way Wittgenstein has of
calling attention to what interests us, to our voicing of what we take to be important.
One may assert that we may use aspect-perception to reevaluate our interest in things;
specifically, our ways of conceptualizing them. Aspect-seeing is essentially reflecting
on how we make sense of things - capture them in thought and language. It thus,
enables a special kind of philosophical investigation. Anirban Mukherjee in Aspect
Perception as a Case of Interpretation intends to give a reading of Wittgenstein’s
discussions on aspect perception that understands interpretation as being central to it
and to show that perception is always aspect perception.
There is a new trend of explaining the relation between the colonizer and the
colonized in terms of body and soul, universal and particular which was actually
began with Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Anand Math in 1882 and Krishna Charita
in 1886. Later on, this trend was taken to its idealistic heights by Aurobindo Ghosh in
the early twentieth century. Aurobindo considered patriotism as pure Shakti and
suggested that the perfect sense of self-abandonment which Chaitanya felt for Hari
must be felt by Bengal for the mother India. Bipinchandra called anti-colonial
struggle a spiritual movement. This spiritualism was considered essential by
Aurobindo Ghosh as people in Indian were forming themselves into a nation and it was essential to keep this nation forming from the gross taint of Western materialism.
Laxmikanta Padhi in Bipinchandra’s thought on Hinduism, Tradition and Modernity
tries to emphasize that while discussing Hinduism’s superiority and its rationality,
Bipinchandra undertakes a rehabilitation of those aspects of Hinduism which he had
previously condemned. According to Bipinchandra, the elaborate and stringent rituals
and disciplines of traditional Hinduism had ‘a distinct ethical value’.
When conflict arises “people seek security in increasingly smaller and narrower
identity groups. This is why the lines of contemporary armed conflict are
increasingly drawn along ethnic, religious, or regional affiliations rather than along
ideological or class lines.” After the gradual loss of significance as the result of
modernization and individualization, the West has experienced a growing influence
of religions on the public sphere. Not only Christianity, but also Islam, Hinduism and
Buddhism play a role in the public debates in general and in political decisions in
particular. The turning point on the global scene was, of course, 11th September,
2001, which marked the entrance of religious fundamentalism in both politics and
rhetoric. Conflict is a normal, natural part of human relationships. In and of itself,
conflict is not necessarily a negative idea. When handled constructively it can help
people to stand up for themselves and others, and work together to achieve a mutually
satisfactory solution. But if conflict is handled poorly it can cause anger, hurt,
divisiveness and more serious problems. Varbi Roy in Gandhian Perspective of
Conflict Resolution discusses how to deal with conflict from Gandhiji’s view keeping
in mind that the very objective of Satyagraha is to convert the opponent.
Nivedita’s life was short, but full and busy one. She lived in the great time of the
National Revival in India. India was the theme of her writings and for that she made a
deep study of Indian literature, philosophy, mythology and history. Her mind was
therefore amply furnished with rich facts. Combined with her comprehensive mind
was a remarkable largeness of heart and deep insight of love. This helped her to
interpret in an extraordinary and inexplicable manner Indian religion and thought, art
and literature, custom and tradition. Her interpretations nourished the imagination and
exalted the spirit of the people of this land, generally and lastingly, then, as they do
now. Mamata Kundu in Sister Nivedita: a Dedicative Soul of Creative Culture attempts to establish Nivedita’s comprehensive mind with her remarkable largeness
of heart and deep insight of love.
The beginning of a new century is a good time to look back on past constructions of
canons, traditions and critical practices in order to anticipate some of their future
developments. To some thinkers Post-colonialism, with its emancipatory conceptual
overtones, only obscures analysis of globalization”. Post-colonialism - which was
first nurtured in literary studies, which was so important a feature of the 1980s and
1990s - intellectual landscape seems to be less able to deal at least on its own terms
with the increasingly urgent issues surrounding globalization. The most trenchant
criticism of postcolonial thought came form Neo-Marxist critics, who accused
postcolonial criticism of being no more than ideological reflection of capitalism.
Mukul S. K. in Anita Desai’s Voices in the City: a Discourse of the Postcolonial
Modernity tries to claim that Desai’s tries to measure the epochal changes the
postmodern brought over the human race and its habitats. According to him she
captures the real colors of human psyche that get distorted and vandalized in the
postmodern era and observes the human hearts very neatly at a very close distance.
Philosophers claim that a universal involves three notions i.e. a) by definition,
“universal” must apply to multiple things, b) they are abstract rather than concrete,
and c) they are general truths rather than specific. Alok Kumar Khatua Śāntarakṣita
and Kamalaśīla on the Problem of Universals tries to claim that the universal
(sāmānya) is the fourth category which is also known as class, genus, etc. It is by
nature eternal and inherence in all its particulars. The general cognition of things as
‘cow’, ‘jar’, ‘red’, etc. necessarily proves the existence of universals as real as the
common or general properties of particulars. According to Khatua, the realist argues
that the universal must be regarded as the common characteristic of the particulars in
which it inheres.
Thoughts are essentially structured and this is agreed by almost everybody who finds
it useful to talk about thoughts. Consequently, any account of the nature of thoughts
must incorporate an account of their structure. Frege’s is the most comprehensive and
worked-out account of the nature of thoughts, but recent work has cast doubt on
whether he can be credited with a coherent conception of how they are structured. In an extremely interesting series of exchanges David Bell and Michael Dummett have
investigated Frege’s views on the relation between thoughts and the concepts of
which they are composed. Both authors have identified tensions in Frege’s views in
this important area and proposed emendations to smooth out the apparent
inconsistencies. Reshmee Sarkar in Fregean Reflection on Thought claims that the
difficulties stem from Frege’s simultaneously holding both that the structure of a
thought is isomorphic to the structure of a sentence and that two structurally different
sentences can express the same thought.
The Gītā is a Dharmic scripture contains a conversation between Arjuna and his
Krishna on a variety of philosophical issues. The Gītā upholds the essence and the
philosophical tradition of the Upaniṣadas. However, unlike the rigorous monism of
the Upaniṣadas, the Gītā also integrates dualism and theism. The Gītā’s call for
selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian independence movement including
Gandhi, who referred to the Gītā as his ‘spiritual dictionary’. Sandipa Ghosh in
Ethical Philosophy of the Gītā claims that the message of Gītā is that either you can
perform your actions with attachment thinking that you are the doer or you can
perform the same without attachment by thinking that God/ Nature is performing the
actions. This unattached performance of actions has been called yogya or karmayoga
in the Gītā which not only fulfills all desires but also transforms us and make us one
with God which was never before in the modern society.
The world is now reduced to a ‘Global Village’ and all kinds of objects of desires
cater human beings with their varieties of attraction. As scientific and technological
advancements are growing and form a strong position, more signs of progress are
gradually visible in the area of human life. With the help of advanced technologies,
like, biotechnology, medical science, genetic engineering, Nano-science and so on,
enhanced human beings are progressing in a random speed by changing the biological
nature of humans. This enhancement of technology eventually takes humans to a new
sphere of trans-humanism and post-humanism. Becoming a trans-human and a posthuman, is nothing but a technological up gradation of a human body by means of
inputting technological systems within the biological structure. Human beings after
attaining the trans-human and post-human personality can overcome all kinds of
human limitations. But this changed body brings a huge moral controversy against enhancement project. Human enhancement technology faces continuous criticisms
from bio-liberalism and many other moral theories. Priyanka Basak and Debika Saha
in Transcending the Concept of Morality from Human to the Post-human claims that
most importantly enhancement of technology does not dehumanize human natures
and values; rather it opens a wide range of surviving strategy with an extensive use of
advanced science and technology along with human natural values.
Voluntary service is a distinct human characteristic. It is a socio-psychological bridge
connecting the self and the individual consciousness to the collective consciousness
of the community. On the one hand, it is an expression of free will of an individual,
while on the other; it is an expression of a certain set of values imbibed from society
values that enable an individual to locate her or himself in relation to others.
According to Vivekananda, “ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have
to give; it will come back to you - but do not think of that now, it will come back
multiplied a thousand fold - but the attention must not be on that. Yet have the power
to give; so give willingly. If you wish to help a man, never think what that man’s
attitude should be towards you”. Purnima Das in Indian Perspective on the
Philosophy of Voluntary Service tries to establish that for an inclusive society, it is
important to channel energies of all sections of the society to contribute to community
building and agues for equality in terms of voluntary service and stresses the need to
develop co-partnership by facilitating persons with disabilities to volunteer in the
community.
Immanuel Kant, being a critical philosopher, treats his moral philosophy too
critically. According to him, moral standards should be rational in nature. His aim
was to establish a fundamental principle for human life, so that people can act or
judge their actions by means of that principle. This moral standard should be
dependent fully on internal sanctions, i.e. on our will, and this will should be
necessarily autonomous. Kant holds that moral philosophy should not only be
autonomous and rational in nature, it should be a priori, through which the aims of
moral philosophy can be achieved. This a priori method leads Kant’s moral
philosophy to an enlightened path of ‘good will’. He argues, good will is good in
itself. It is an unconditional good. If a person acts his actions on the basis of good
will, it definitely leads him to become a morally good person and his actions will be considered as morally worthy. Kant’s good will positively traces the concept of ‘duty
for duty sake’. This thought signifies, an action would be morally worthy, if and only
if, one’s action is confirmed by the good will and good will in return is motivated by
the duty. Gambhir D. Subbba and Debika Saha in Kant’s Moral Philosophy: Aims,
Methods and some Core Concepts opine that according to Kant, an action will be
judged as morally good, not depending on its results, but purely on the motive of
leading an action by good will and duty for duty’s sake. Duty for duty’s sake leads
Kantian moral philosophy to the categorical imperative, which is a maxim,
unconditional and uncaused, guided by autonomy of will. This categorical imperative
has achieved the height of being a universal principle of his moral philosophy.
It is said that Ludwig Wittgenstein admired St. Augustine. And indeed, references to
this Church father can be found in his work frequently. If we are right, this is quite
remarkable for a philosopher who can be considered as the founder of the analytic
philosophical tradition. Since the question that arises is whether Wittgenstein would
in the end believe Augustine’s theology makes sense. It may be doubted whether
Wittgenstein conceived such language as meaningful. After all, his best-known
statement is undoubtedly ‘what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence’
and agnostics and atheists have used it to stress that we cannot and should not speak
about God. Anup Deka in Wittgenstein on Religion and Meaning of Life stresses the
view that religious allegories are not instances of nonsense, but as pictures that have a
particular use, and hence a sense, within a believer’s life.
Many people think that Ambedkar was the maker of Indian Constitution or was a
Dalit Icon. But it escapes the attention of many that Ambedkar was a visionary, who
was ahead of his times. Today’s India is built up, on the contributions of this great
Statesman and his foresighted approach. India’s journey since independence has seen
many successes. The greatest challenge for our founding fathers was to come up with
a viable system of governance of the vast country with its peculiarities, languages,
religious, geographical and cultural diversity. The biggest and the most complex issue
of exclusion of significant segment of population of the nation, in political, social and
economic sectors, were a single most complex and daunting challenge. It was done
through a unique and comprehensive policy of affirmative action, through the
Constitution, to empower members of the communities which were socially excluded and bring them, into the national mainstream, through the relentless efforts of
Ambedkar as suggested by Rakhi Debnath and Debika Saha in Ambedkar’s
Postmodern Vision.
NIRMAL KUMAR ROY
AND
LAXMIKANTA PADHI