How did Gandhi draw on Indian and English thought to formulate his ideas?

Gandhi drew on the nonviolent Jaina and Vaishnava traditions of his native Gujarat when developing the idea of satya-graha. He first applied his methods of non-violent resistance in South Africa to defend the rights of the the Indian community there. Ahimsa - non-violence. Gandhi’s program of ahimsa may be said to have multiple origins, a mixture of Indian and Western thought influenced by Indian thought. In other words, there was mutual feedback. Also, fasting was seen in dharma texts as a restoration for sin and errors - Gandhi fasting was also intended as self-improvement too. Gandhi visualized a fundamental role for women as instruments of social change, and it might be that he took this idea of equal rights of men and women from England.

What do the Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj tell us about how Hinduism evolved in contact with Western thought?

 

Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj - Hindu reform movement. Roy - founder of Brahmo Samaj. He suggested that Indian society should follow the example of Western civilizations: he urges Hindus to learn maths, natural sciences, philosophy, chemistry. Doctrines of Brahmo Samaj:

1. Brahmo Samajists have no faith in any scripture as an authority

2. Brahmo Samajists denounce polytheism and idol-worship

3. Brahmo Samajists are against caste restrictions

4. Brahmo Samajists make faith in the doctrines of Karma and Rebirth optional

 

They tried to build a new world that would combine the best of Hindu and British values.

How did the British presence in India change relations between Hindus and Muslims?

Relationship before English: normal attitude with violence and peaceful moments

 

Relationship during and after English: Relations between Hindus and Muslims deteriorated: a Hindu myth about Islam emerged in the 19th century that Muhammad had been trained by the great Hindu yogi and that Mecca was originally a Shaiva center. This was the opposite attitude to pro-Muslim Hindu discourse. Under ‘neutral’ British rule, Hindus were giving vent ( выражать ) to resentment ( негодование ) they wouldn’t have expressed under the Mughals.

How did Indians and English react to “backward customs” like suttee and caste?

In 1870 a report told how at the Babri Mosque Hindus and Muslims were clashing, even though the British had put up a railing to separate the Hindu worshipers outside the temple from the Muslims within; investigation reveals that the British themselves had put up the railing and that there had been no history of clashes, but rather of mutual communal worship in an untroubled atmosphere

In other respects, too, relations between Hindus and Muslims deteriorated: a Hindu myth about Islam emerged in the 19th century (and is still current today, interestingly among neo-Hindu converts in Poland and other places) that Muhammad had been trained by the great Hindu yogi Gorakhnath: this was why the Muslim minaret tower and prayer niche so resembled the Shiva linga (phallus) and yoni (female reproductive organ) and that Mecca was originally a Shaiva center known as Makheshvara (Lord of the Sacrifice). This was the opposite attitude to pro-Muslim Hindu discourse under the Delhi Sultanate which for example parsed Muhammad’s name as Maha-muda, great seal/symbol. Of course, perhaps under ‘neutral’ British rule, Hindus were giving vent to resentment they wouldn’t have expressed under the Mughals.

What influence did India have on the Western imagination?

India had a great influence on the Western civilization because it had internalized the viewpoint of the West, valuing the same aspects of Indian culture which Westerners prized.

ENLIGHTENMENT

i. What different forms did the Enlightenment take in England, America, Scotland, France, Germany and Russia? What different roles did Reason and religion play?

mention: Kant, Adam Smith, Voltaire, John Wesley the Methodist, Catherine the Great of Russia, Edmund Burke, Tom Paine.

ii. How did science and business (the Joint Stock Company) influence the new political idea of        the Social Contract?

iii. For seminar teachers: What different form did the idea of the Social Contract take in the thought of Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau?

European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change. The Enlightenment produced numerous books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The Enlightenment ultimately gave way to 19th-century Romanticism.

 

⇐ Предыдущая12345678910Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: