S. N. Balagangadhara

Infobox Philosopher
region = Western & Indian Philosophy
era = 20th-century philosophy
color = #B0C4DE

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caption = Balagangadhara at [http://youtube.com/cultuurwetenschap Rethinking Religion in India] 2008
name = S.N. Balagangadhara
birth = January 3 1952, Bangalore, India
school_tradition = Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Comparative Science of Cultures
main_interests = Religious Studies
Cultural Studies
Post-colonial Studies
Orientalism
Ethics
Political Philosophy
History of ideas
South Asian Studies
notable_ideas = Explanatory Intelligible Account
Colonial Consciousness
Indian Renaissance
influences =
influenced =

Professor S.N. Balagangadhara (aka Balu) was a student of National College, Bangalore and moved to Belgium in 1977 to study philosophy at Ghent University, where he obtained his doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Etienne Vermeersch. His doctoral thesis (1991) was entitled "Comparative Science of Cultures and the Universality of Religion: An Essay on Worlds without Views and Views without the World". Presently, he is professor at Ghent University and directs the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cutuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures). Prof. Balu has been researching the nature of religion. His central area of inquiry has been the study of Western culture against the background of Indian culture. [ [http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/12/09/stories/2007120950090400.htm The Hindu, Online edition of India's National Newspaper, Sunday, Dec 09, 2007] ] His research programme is called in Dutch "Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap," which translates into "Comparative Science of Cultures." Prof. Balagangadhara has held the co-chair of the Hinduism Unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and gives lectures to a wide audience, from the European, American and Indian classrooms, through the scholarly conference halls, to the Hindu temples.

Research

From the 1980s onwards, S.N. Balagangadhara has been developing the research programme Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (“Comparative Science of Cultures”) to study the cultural differences between Asia and Europe. He analyses western culture and intellectual thought through its representations of other cultures, with a particular focus on the representations of India. He studies how and to what extent the Christian religion shaped the West and the conceptual framework through which it understands India. Given the conceptual limitations that this has generated in the human sciences in general and the study of Indian culture in particular, Balagangadhara attempts at developing alternative descriptions of the Indian culture and its traditions. They provide an alternative way to access the Indian traditions and make their insights available for the development of new theories in the human sciences. As such, Balagangadhara attempts at translating the knowledge embodied by the Indian traditions into the conceptual language of the twenty-first century. [See for instance Balagangadhara, S. N. (2005). "How to Speak for the Indian Traditions". Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73 (4): 987-1013. ISSN 0002-7189]

In his early work, Balagangadhara focused on religion, culture and cultural difference. [Balagangadhara, S. N. (1994). "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion". Leiden, New York: E. J. Brill] In scholarly circles, he is mainly known for the controversial claim that religion is not a cultural universal. He started with the following observations: most intellectuals agree that Christianity had a profound influence on western culture; that members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently; and that the empirical and theoretical study of both culture and religion emerged within the West. Balagangadhara proposed to think these ideas through, and argued that religion is important to the West because the constitution and the identity of western culture are tied to the dynamic of Christianity as a religion. He argued that the analytical tools with which the West has understood other cultures like India, are intrinsically shaped by Semitic and Christian theology. The doctrine that God gave religion to the humankind, Balagangadhara argued, lies at the heart of the originally ethnographic belief in the universality of religion:

Balagangadhara proposes therefore a novel analysis of religion, the Roman ‘religio’, the construction of ‘religions’ in India and the nature of cultural differences. He is currently working on two monographs, the first on the evolutionary explanations of religion, and the second on Indian traditions and the ethical domain.

Projects

*The development of the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures (CSLC) at Kuvempu University, India.
*The Karnataka Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities. [ [http://www.hindu.com/edu/2007/08/13/stories/2007081350440300.htm The Hindu, Online edition of India's National Newspaper, Monday, Aug 13, 2007] ]
*The five-year Rethinking Religion in India conference cluster.

elected Publications

Books

*Cite book
publisher = E. J. Brill
isbn = 9004099433
pages = 563
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
title = "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion
location = Leiden, New York
date = 1994 | [http://books.google.com/books?id=ad7EaD7fOL8C&dq=9004099433&lr=&as_brr=0&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 Preview at Google Books] | [http://worldcat.org/search?q=9789004099432&=Search&qt=owc_search Find in libraries near you]
*Cite book
publisher = Manohar (Second and revised edition)
isbn = 8173046085
title = "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion
location = New Delhi
date = 2005

Book Chapters

*Balagangadhara, S.N.; Bloch, Esther, De Roover, Jakob (2008), "Rethinking Colonialism and Colonial Consciousness: The Case of Modern India." in S. Raval (Ed.), "Rethinking Forms of Knowledge in India". Delhi: Pencraft International, pp. 179-212.
*Balagangadhara, S.N. (2007), “Foreword.” In Ramaswamy, de Nicolas & Banerjee (Eds.), "Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America". Delhi: Rupa & Co., pp. vii-xi.
*Balagangadhara, S.N. (2007), "Balagangadhara on the Biblical Underpinnings of 'Secular' Social Sciences." In Ramaswamy, de Nicolas & Banerjee (Eds.), "Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America". Delhi: Rupa & Co., pp. 123-31.
*Balagangadhara, S.N. (2007), “India and her Traditions: A Reply to Jeffrey Kripal.” In Ramaswamy, de Nicolas & Banerjee (Eds.), "Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America". Delhi: Rupa & Co., pp. 429-448.
*Balagangadhara, S.N. (2006), “Secularisation as the Harbinger of Religious Violence in India: Hybridisation, Hindutva and Post-coloniality.” In Schirmer, Saalmann & Kessler (Eds.), "Hybridising East and West, Tales Beyond Westernisation. Empirical Contributions to the Debates on Hybridity". (Series Southeast Asian Modernities, vol. 2). Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 145-182.

Articles

*Cite journal
issn = 1583-0039
volume = 7
issue = 19
pages = 118-143
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
coauthors = Sarah Claerhout
title = [http://www.jsri.ro/new/?download=19_balagangadhara_claerhout.pdf Are Dialogues Antidotes to Violence? Two Recent Examples from Hinduism Studies]
journal = Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies
date = 2008

*Cite journal
issn = 0963-8016
volume = 15
issue = 1
pages = 67-92
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
coauthors = Jakob De Roover
title = The Secular State and Religious Conflict: Liberal Neutrality and the Indian Case of Pluralism
journal = The Journal of Political Philosophy
date = 2007

*Cite journal
issn = 0002-7189
volume = 73
issue = 4
pages = 987-1013
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
title = How to Speak for the Indian Traditions
journal = Journal of the American Academy of Religion
date = 2005

*Cite journal
issn = 0921-3740
volume = 10
issue = 2
pages = 101-23
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
title = The Future of the Present: Thinking Through Orientalism
journal = Cultural Dynamics
date = 1998

*Cite journal
issn = 0921-3740
volume = 1
issue = 1
pages = 98-128
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
title = Comparative Anthropology and Moral Domains
journal = Cultural Dynamics
date = 1988

*Cite journal
issn = 0379-8402
volume = 40
issue = 2
pages = 77-107
last = Balagangadhara
first = S. N.
title = Comparative Anthropology and Action Science: An Essay on Knowing to Act and Acting to Know
journal = Philosophica
date = 1987

External links

* [http://www.cultuurwetenschap.be Website Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap]
* [http://www.cultuurwetenschap.be/conferences/RRI/index.php Website Rethinking Religion in India Conference]
* [http://www.youtube.com/cultuurwetenschap YouTube Channel Rethinking Religion in India]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Balagangadhara Religioscope on Rethinking Religion in India]

References