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(2015) Philosophy in colonial India, Dordrecht, Springer.
K. C. Bhattacharyya and Spivak on Kant
colonial and post-colonial perspectives, lessons, and prospects
Kanchana Mahadevan
pp. 137-163
This essay attempts to understand academic philosophy in colonial India as a harmonization of Indian and Western philosophical traditions. It also contrasts this period with the post-colonial skepticism toward Eurocentric attitudes of Western philosophy. In this endeavor, this essay takes the writings of K.C. Bhattacharyya as its point of departure to examine the Indian philosophical response to its Western counterpart. Bhattacharyya drew upon Kant and Śaṁkarāchārya, to arrive at his neo-Vedāntic philosophy of symbolic non-literal thought that prepares the human subject for spiritual awakening . The essay also examines Spivak's reading of Kant's humanism with respect to Bhattacharyya's assimilation of Vedānta with Kant. By way of conclusion, it is argued that despite some limits, the spirit of Bhattacharyya's " svarāj in ideas " is redeemable in his avowal of independent critical thinking beyond the glorification of the Indian past and the imitation of Western thought. Thus, Bhattacharyya anticipates Spivak's "planet thought," which overcomes the rigidity of comparative approaches.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-2223-1_8
Full citation:
Mahadevan, K. (2015)., K. C. Bhattacharyya and Spivak on Kant: colonial and post-colonial perspectives, lessons, and prospects, in S. Deshpande (ed.), Philosophy in colonial India, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 137-163.
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