INDIA, THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE WORLD

This essay considers the relationship between the Bhagavad Gita as a transnational text and its changing role in Indian political thought. Indian liberals used it to mark out the boundaries between the public sphere they desired and a reformed Hinduism. Indian intellectuals also used the image of Kr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inModern intellectual history Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 275 - 295
Main Author BAYLY, C. A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.08.2010
Subjects
American literature
British & Irish literature
English literature
Hinduism
Intellectuals
Isherwood, Christopher (1904-1986)
Liberalism
Philosophy
Politics
India
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Summary:This essay considers the relationship between the Bhagavad Gita as a transnational text and its changing role in Indian political thought. Indian liberals used it to mark out the boundaries between the public sphere they desired and a reformed Hinduism. Indian intellectuals also used the image of Krishna to construct an all-wise founder figure for the new India. Meanwhile, in the transnational sphere of debate, the Gita came to represent India itself in the works of theosophists, spiritual relativists and a variety of intellectual radicals, who approved of the text's ambivalent view of the relationship between political action and the World Spirit. After the First World War, Indian liberals, notably Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher and later India's second president, used Krishna's words to urge a new and humane international politics infused with the ideal of “detached action”.
ISSN:1479-2443
1479-2451
DOI:10.1017/S1479244310000077