This book explores the location of spirituality and mysticism in modern Indian religious and intellectual life. It examines select personalities and their ideas since the early twentieth century, their role in the interwoven spheres of socio-religious and political thought, and in burgeoning spiritual imaginaries, often at the intersection of academic and public discourse. As part of a global ecumene connected by affective bonds, these spiritual cosmopolitans often defied binary frameworks (East/ West; imperial core/ periphery; colonizer/ colonized), and in the upshot reappraised and recast the very concept of religion in response to overarching ‘this-worldly’ exigencies.
Table of Content
1 Mystics, scholars, and spiritual cosmopolitans in modern South Asia: An introduction.- 2 The quest for ‘medieval mysticism’ and Vaiṣṇava Vedānta: The Tagore-Sen-Underhill circle and the Chicago moment of Mahanambrata Brahmachari.- 3 Islam, yoga, and sāmyavāda: Allama Iqbal and Kazi Nazrul Islam on nationalism, metaphysics, and existence.- 4 Theosophists, yogīs, and pacifism in troubled times: Bhagavan Das, Nicholas Roerich, and Gopinath Kaviraj on humanity and realms of transcendence.- 5 Pilgrims and their cosmopolitan itineraries: The many worlds of Subhas Chandra Bose, Dilip Kumar Roy, and Yogi Krishnaprem.- 6 From interwar idealism through ‘perennial philosophy’: Concluding reflections.
About the author
Soumen Mukherjee teaches History at Presidency University in Kolkata. He is the author of Ismailism and Islam in Modern South Asia: Community and Identity in the Age of Religious Internationals (2017).
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