The Modernist Turn in Indian Philosophy
- Bandyopadhyay, Prasanta S. [ Montana State University: History & Philosophy ]
Nalini Bhushan and Jay Garfield’s recent book, Indian Renaissance (Oxford University Press 2017) argued that Anglophonic Indian philosophy written by Indian philosophers during the period from 1857 to 1947 deserves a reappraisal. In view of their persuasive stance toward this issue, the American Philosophical Association’s Asian American philosophers organized a panel to evaluate Bhushan and Garfield’s work at the APA’s Pacific Divisional Meetings held in San Diego in late March 2018. The panelists were Vrinda Dalmiya, Sarranindranath Tagore, and Anand Vaidya. Each provided a critical appreciation of their book. Both authors offered their responses orally in the same meetings. Due to renewed interest in their work, both editors, Purushottama Bilimoria and Sarranindranath Tagore, urged my guest editing this issue with a plan that each commentator would provide a revised version of his/her talk, and Bhushan and Garfield would subsequently write a response to each. In the meantime, Brian Hatcher graciously agreed to join as a fourth commentator to provide a historical expertise for this period of India’s social and political climate. In the same issue, we are also fortunate to be able to include Purushottama Bilimoria’s timely paper on ‘S. Radharkrishnan: “Saving the Appearances†in East-West Academy.’ The chronological ordering of his paper is, however, a bit later than Bhushan and Garfield’s book. His paper has been accepted for publication after it underwent a referee’s scrutiny.