Contemporary Indian Philosophy

Contemporary Indian Philosophy has arisen in awareness of the need to reconcile the forces of tradition with those of modernity. It is not merely repetitive. It is not merely repetitive. There is, in it, a definite attempt to construct a system.

It develops under the conviction that the basic aim of Philosophy is to cultivate a world-view. This requires an awareness of the existential condition of life as also the consciousness of life's ultimate ideal, viz., redemption, not only of the individual, but of the total human race. It emphasises the ultimacy of spiritual values; yet it demonstrates that the roots of spiritual life lie in conditions that are essentially existential.

The present study seeks to high-light these aspects of Contemporary Indian Philosophy. It is an attempt to re-think, in an academic manner, the thoughts of the contemporary thinkers, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, S. Radhakrishnan, and Mohammad Iqbal. Different aspects of their thoughts have been systematised, categorised and placed under suitable philosophical heads in this work.

About the Author:

The late Shri Basant Kumar Lal was recently Professor of Philosophy at Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, India. He has written extensively on Philosophy of Religion, metaphysics, Epistemology, Social and Political Thought and History of Philosophy.

Reviews:

"The work reviewed shows how the contemporary Indian thinkers are struggling with the old problems of the ancient Indian Philosophy, for example, the concepts of karma, rebirth, immortality and salvation, in a manner quite different from that of the thinkers of ancient Indian. In the present author's opinion, the philosophers of twentieth-century India are relating these notions to actual life and experience. Taking examples from real life, they are succeeding to some extent in reducing their abstractness. The book consists of seven chapters. Each chapter is introduced by a brief biography of the respective philosopher. Appended are a Bibliography and an Index of Names and Terms. This competently-written book considerably adds to our better perception and knowledge of the Indian philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries." --Sv Archiv Orientalni 52, 1984

"This work is a good survey of the thinkers presented. The author has given a good account of each and a brief bibliography for each at the end of the book. The volume could serve as a good introductory text for a course on modern Indian thought and is recommended to the student in Indian thought." --L. Thomas O' Neil, South Asia Review, August, 1979