01602nam a2200157Ia 450000500170000000800410001702000180005808200190007610000170009524501010011226000450021330000100025852011330026865000130140165000300141420261027120724.0260608s9999||||xx |||||||||||||| ||und||  a9788188789528  223a294.33 NAN  aNanda ,Meera 0aBreaking the spell of Sharna and other essaysb: A case for Indian Enlightenmentc/ Meera Nanda   aNew Delhib: Three Essays Press c,2002  a183p.  aIn four celebrated and controversial essays Meera Nanda connects religious fundamentalism with fascism and talks about the responsibility of intellectuals. She examines the link between Hindutva and reactionary modernism, argues for linking rationalism and science for the cause of social justice and provides a detailed critique of anti-rationalist and anti-secularist currents dominant in several academic and research circles in India. This little book is a timely reminder to all those who believe in the necessity of intellectual and moral intervention in the present affairs of society and culture.

Whereas the Hindu right is busy claiming the products of modern science and technology as a part of its own heritage, the postmodernist and postcolonial intellectuals have sought to insulate non-Western cultures from modern science, which they see as alien and oppressive. The essays in the book simultaneously defend the enterprise of modern science and secularism and call for deploying scientific knowledge as a cultural weapon against the neo-traditionalist as well as reactionary modernist understanding of the world.  aReligion  aReligions of Indic origin