Dr. N. Muthu MohanCentre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Nanak Dev UniversityAmritsar

Mail: m_uthumohan@yahoo.co.in

1. Existentialism

2. Structuralism and Semiotics

3. Post Structuralism and Postmodernism

4. Post Colonialism

5. Hermeneutics

NB: Oriented mostly on Language, Culture,

Texts and their Interpretations

Example: Post-War Period

1.“Post” means After, Beyond. “Post” also

means continuity and implications

2. Post Colonialism means after colonialism

but also means the implications of

colonialism

3. Continuity and Discontinuity as its two

Constituents

1 Direct Territorial colonialism may be over. Countries are politically Independent

2. But Colonialism has also ruled the countries through cultural and Epistemological means

3. Decolonizing the Culture and the Epistemological frames is the main task of Post Colonialism

1.Post Colonialism is the First School of Philosophy where many scholars from Asia, Africa and Latin America are involved

2. Most of the Authors of Post Colonialism are the Diaspora Intellectuals

3. Franz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, GayatriSpivak etc

4. Writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi WaThiong’o

1. Orientalism - Edward Said

2. Subaltern Studies - Ranajit Guha and

Others

3. Antonio Gramsci - An Italian Marxist

4. Michael Foucault - A Post Modernist

1. Occident/Orient. Departments of Oriental Studies in the Western Universities -Production of Knowledge and Western Epistemological frames about Oriental countries, peoples and cultures

2. The Attitude: Civilizing Mission of the Europe

3. Colonial Power and Knowledge Production: Two Foundations of Imperial Authority

1. Criticized the Marxist Theory of Basis and Superstructure and Reduction of Social phenomena into Economic Basis

2. Emphasized on Cultural Politics

3. The Ruling Class establishes its Hegemony upon other Social Groups through Cultural means. Hegemony is Dominance through consent.

1. Going Beyond the Marxist concept of Class and Class struggles

2. Subaltern Groups of people are peasants, oppressed castes, tribes and other marginalized groups who are not recognized as classes in Marxist language

3. Subaltern Resistances are mostly through cultural means-Autonomous Resistances

1 Unity of Colonial Power and Knowledge Production

2. Apart from Coercive Politics, Resorting to Cultural Politics

3. Getting the Consent of the Groups and Establishing the Hegemony

4. Universalizing the Specific European Concepts and Making them into cultural meta-narratives

1. Hegel: Master – Slave Dialectics

2. Binary Relations where Oppositions aloneexist. Reversing the Binary. It is anAbsolutism

3. Hybridity, Mimesis, Mimicry, Imitating theMaster and Complicity of the Native Groups.Fanon: Black Skins , White Masks

4. The Nationalist Elite and the DerivativeDiscourses

1. Hegemony is from Above and Autonomy is from Below

2. Hegemony: Complicity of Colonial Intellectuals and Nationalist Elite

3. Autonomy of Resistances: Can the Subaltern Speak? Can the Empire Write Back? Autonomous Agencies. Contestant Discourses

1. It was a period of Protestant Christianity

making its Theology

2. Basic Features of Protestant Christianity:

One, Its Reformism and Rationality.

Second, Moral and Individualistic

Religiosity

1. Philosophy of Spirit

2. Philosophy of Spirit through History

3. Africa does not have a History?

4. History started in the East but did not grow there, passed over to the West to achieve its matured state!

5. Unity of Religion (Spirit), Philosophy (Reason), History and Nation-State

1. Textual Construction of Religions

2. Western Concepts such as Religion, Spiritualism, Theology, Transcendence, Metaphysics, Self, Monotheism, Mysticism etc were introduced into Religious studies

2. Unity of Philosophy, Religion and History

3. German Orientalists had a Special Interest in the Making of Eastern Religions from a Protestant Theological Angle going beyond the Jews, Greeks and Catholics

1. First Half of 19th Century: Buddhism is the Religion of the Entire East.

2. Birth Place of Buddha? Origin of Buddhism? Hinduism – Part of Buddhism? Boundaries of Buddhism?

3. Discovery of Pali Texts. Construction of Textual Buddhism. Place of Sri Lankan Nationalist Elite. Evgene Burnouf, Anagarika Dhammabala and H.C. Olcott

4. Elimination of Spirit Worships (Nagas, Yakshas etc) and Canonization of Buddhist Texts

1. Apart from Pali (Southern) Texts, Mahavamsa became the Canon for Sri Lankan Buddhists.

2. Mahavamsa (6th C.) on Buddha’s visit to Sri Lanka, his blessing of a Sri Lankan Kingdom and the Covenant between Buddha and the Sri Lankans?

3. Hegel’s Paradigm of Spirit, Reason, History and Nation-State

1. Gananath Obeyeyasekara: It is Protestant (Modern) Buddhism

2. Urban Buddhism against Rural (Peasant) Buddhism

3. Buddhism is Rational, Reformist and Moralistic. It is Protestant in relation to Catholic Hinduism

4. Dukkha –Suffering is a common ground with Christianity

5. Buddhism contains a Universal Religious Paradigm?

1.Anagarika Dhammabala and Col. Olcott:

Modern Protestant and Nationalist

2. Ayothee Dasa Pandithar’s Buddhism:

Subaltern Buddhism, Traditional

3. Ambedkar’s Buddhism: Modern, however,

Why did he resort to a Traditional Form?

1.Looking into the Pre Colonial Buddhism

2. Buddhism should address the Post

Independent Tasks

3. Buddhism must Express itself in its Own

Terms

Thank You