Hegel in Mumbai

Bombay called me back in November this year! This happy, sleepless city, not shy about its love. 

During the weekend at Mumbai LitFest 2017 - Tata Literature Live! Hegel’s India was caught lazing among 'Award-Winning Books' at Landmark at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point!

Limelight and citylights. Bridges and dreams. Sea and sky. Flight and height. Turns and curves. Taxis and walks. Sleep and wake. Slow and fast. Hues and night.

Hegel’s India - In Marx and Philosophy Review of Books!

‘Not only have Rathore and Mohapatra carefully collated Hegel’s writings on India, including translations of hitherto unfamiliar texts, in their brilliant reinterpretation of these writings, provide a justification, which is both sympathetic and critical, of Hegel’s engagement with India . . . Intellectuals and activists challenging entrenched casteism and the upsurge of Hindu fundamentalism in India will be eternally grateful for Hegel’s India.'

A lucid and humbling review of the book! 

Read the full review here.

Karthick Ram Manoharan, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, 15 December 2017

Hegel’s Gita – A Philosopher Haunted by Indian Spirit

An excerpt from Hegel’s India: A Reinterpretation, about Hegel’s little known writings on the Bhagavad Gita.

By Aakash Singh Rathore and Rimina Mohapatra 

Published in The Wire, 4 November 2017

It is little known that the great teacher of Karl Marx, German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, wrote extensively on the Gita. Hegel’s long two-part essay entitled, “On the Episode of the Mahabharata Known by the Name Bhagavad-Gita by Wilhelm von Humboldt” is a detailed critique of not only the Indological work of Humboldt, but also of the philosophical foundations and teachings of the Gita itself.

Read more here.

Hegel's India nominated for the 

TATA LITERATURE LIVE! AWARDS 2017

Book of the Year (non-fiction)!

Sharing space with these stars:

NONFICTION: Pankaj Mishra, Shashi Tharoor, Meena Menon, Arun Shourie, Milan Vaishnav

FICTION: Arundhati Roy, Anees Salim, Sujit Saraf, Shahnaz Bashir, Easterine Kire, Meena Kandasamy

Stunned and thrilled, goosebumps!

#tataliteraturelive #tatalitlive #litlive
http://www.tatalitlive.in/exhibitors/book-of-the-year/

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'The Land of Desire' -- A Review of 'Hegel’s India: A Reinterpretation, with Texts'

An extract:

'Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s sustained engagement with India has always been something of a puzzle. His views on India, “the land of desire,” cannot, despite interpretive acrobatics, be described as anything but hostile. Yet, there is a seriousness of purpose in his engagement . . .  the useful introduction by Aakash Singh Rathore and Rimina Mohapatra to their usable anthology of Hegel’s writings on India does not dissent from this explanation, but hints that there must be something more to the matter. After all, Hegel is constantly revising the material he incorporates on India, whether it is in his lecture cycles on history and religion or the material in his encyclopaedia. There is also the palpable intensity of engagement that comes through in all the writings collected in this volume . . . It is wonderful to have access to these writings in one volume. The introduction gives a tour d’horizon of the sources Hegel consulted and the interpretive controversies surrounding his work on India . . . But reading Hegel is always challenging. If the difficulties are great, so are the stakes. Even in his most prejudiced criticism, he could shine a light on unusual questions.' 

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, 'The Land of Desire', 11 February 2017, The Indian Express

The distinctiveness of German Indology – and its expression in German philosophy

On one side, posturing against his intellectual rivals (that is, the German romantics, great champions of Indian wisdom) Hegel treated Indian thought with acerbic contempt, riding roughshod over the subtle distinctions which, during cooler and more contemplative moments, he himself took great pains to tease out, articulate, and explore. 

See more here