Summary
Contents
This collection analyzes and assesses the complexities of contemporary India's socio-economic reality from multiple perspectives. The contributors comprise eminent thinkers and grassroot activists from diverse fields like the judiciary, social development, environment, education, contemporary science, and art. Unlike the bulk of available literature on emerging India, which focuses mainly on the positives, these articles posit contrary views, necessary for a balanced, objective understanding of the issues.
The Other India: Realities of an Emerging Power talks of an India far removed from the India of glass and steel high-rises and air-conditioned schools; glistening malls and multiplexes; and fashion shows, Bollywood, and T20 cricket. It explores issues like the role of spirituality in social justice, conflicts associated with false religious identities including terrorism, the dangers of mindless destruction of nature and the consequent disempowerment of people dependent upon it, and so on. In this volume, dispassionate analysis of history and contemporary forces alternate with straight-from-the-heart narratives of grassroot activists. Candid despair shares space with encouraging stories of collective action bringing about real change.
This book will hold tremendous appeal for the general reader and will also be useful for academics and thinkers working in the fields of sociology, environment, education, human rights, law and justice, development issues, and politics.
Religion and Social Justice
Religion and Social Justice
The deception that has stalked the journey of religion through history is the canard that it is a means by which human beings can keep their gods well-humored and disposed favorably towards them. Religion became, on account of this mendacious myth, the art of supreme manipulation. There is no meaner form of manipulation than manipulating gods—the mother of all manipulations. This perversity rests on a cluster of perverse myths—that there are several gods and that they are in a state of perpetual competition, that they are, hence, partial to their followers and either apathetic or malignant towards those who follow other (or “strange”) gods and that gods, being thus disposed, are indifferent to the question of justice, ...