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020			_a9788188789528
082			_223 _a294.33 NAN
100			_aNanda ,Meera
245		0	_aBreaking the spell of Sharna and other essays _b: A case for Indian Enlightenment _c/ Meera Nanda
260			_aNew Delhi _b: Three Essays Press  _c,2002
300			_a183p.
520			_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.
650			_aReligion
650			_aReligions of Indic origin
942			_cRBK
999			_c69019 _d69019