India, Europe and the Question of Cultural Difference: The Apeiron of Relations

This book explores the question of cultural difference and the idea of living with diversity in India and Europe, challenging European categories of learning and laying the groundwork for reorienting teaching and research in the humanities. It engages with the writings of Heidegger, Derrida, and Agamben from new vantage points of Sanskrit-Indian reflective traditions and challenges prevailing ideas about Indian art, literature, and culture.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 30 July 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive volume delves deeply into the realm of cultural difference and the concept of coexisting with diversity in the context of India and Europe. It examines various essential European categories of learning, including art, nature, the human, literature, relation, philosophy, and the humanities, and scrutinizes texts from the Sanskrit language (through Telugu resources) to argue that categories such as prakriti, loka, jati, dharma, karma, sahitya, kala, and others cannot be equated with conceptual formations like nature, world, caste, religion, (sanctioned) action, literature, and art, respectively. The book poses critical questions and unravels the efficacy of European concepts, theories, and interpretive frameworks in understanding Indian reflective traditions and cultural forms. It also establishes the foundation for reorienting teaching and research in universities in the humanities based on fundamental cultural differences. By engaging with major themes in the humanities discourse and their limitations, the work offers fresh perspectives from Sanskrit-Indian reflective traditions, challenging prevailing notions about Indian art, literature, and culture.

Published as part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this book is a vital resource for scholars and researchers in Indian languages and literature, comparative literature, art and aesthetics, postcolonial studies, cultural and heritage studies, philosophy, political philosophy, comparative philosophy, Sanskrit studies, India studies, South Asian studies, Global South studies, and education in the humanities/human sciences.

Weight: 484g
Dimension: 160 x 241 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367544607