Preface
Twentieth century Indian thought as taught in Indian
universities has traditionally been dominated by religious and idealist
thinkers like Vivekanand, Aurobindo, Tagore, Gandhi and Radhakrishnan. Most of
them have supported the orthodox Hindu “philosophy” of advaita vedanta or Hindu religion in one form or another.
This has created a misleading and distorted picture of modern Indian thought in
popular mind. In fact, rationalist, humanist and atheistic trends have been
quite strong in twentieth century Indian thought.
In this book I have tried to bring into focus the
philosophical ideas of eight rationalist, humanist and atheist thinkers of
twentieth century India, namely, Periyar, M. N. Roy, Ambedkar, Gora, Kovoor,
A.B.Shah, Narsingh Narain and Ramswaroop Verma. The academicians have
traditionally neglected them, though they have been quite influential outside
the academic fold. In addition to a
brief life sketch of each of them, I have particularly concentrated on their
views on issues of relevance to rationalism-humanism. I have compared and
contrasted these thinkers with one another, and other related thinkers,
wherever possible, before making some critical comments on them in the
concluding chapter. These critical
comments have been made from a rationalist-humanist point of view. I have
tried, in my own modest way, to evolve a more refined rational humanist
philosophy for twenty-first century
In the first
introductory chapter titled "Rationalism, Humanism and Atheism", my
approach is totally conceptual. In this chapter, I have discussed the concepts
of “rationalism”, “humanism” and “atheism” in a general way.
Along with being a work of interest for academicians and
scholars, particularly in the sphere of philosophy, this book, I believe, will
be of interest to any general reader interested in rationalism, humanism and
atheism, particularly in the Indian context.
I am hoping that this book will serve as an authentic source book on the
life and ideas of the eight twentieth century Indian thinkers discussed by
me. Besides, by highlighting
rationalist-humanist thought in twentieth century
I have written this book in collaboration with
my wife, Dr. Kawaljeet. She has helped
in many ways including in finalizing the synopsis and the plan of work,
collecting books, surfing the Internet for research-material, discussing ideas,
keying the work into our personal computer, correcting the proofs and so on. It
would have been very difficult for me to complete this ambitious project
without her help. The actual writing,
however, has been done by me.
Ramendra