The Spirit and Form of an Ethical Polity

A Meditation on Aurobindo's Thought

Bibliographic Data

ID12740751
AuthorsSugata Bose (0000-0002-6756-1393, Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume4
Issue1
Pages129-144
Publication date2007-03-08
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Intellectual History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1479244306001089
OpenAlexW2122376835
LanguageEN
Citations received8

This article elucidates the meaning of Indian nationalism and its connection to religious universalism as a problem of ethics. It engages in that exercise of elucidation by interpreting a few of the key texts by Aurobindo Ghose on the relationship between ethics and politics in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Both secularist and subalternist histories have contributed to misunderstandings of Aurobindo's political thought and shown an inability to comprehend its ethical moorings. The specific failures in fathoming the depths of Aurobindo's thought are related to more general infirmities afflicting the history of political and economic ideas in colonial India. In exploring how best to achieve Indian unity, Aurobindo had shown that Indian nationalism was not condemned to pirating from the gallery of models of states crafted by the West. By reconceptualizing the link between religion and politics, this essay suggests a new way forward in Indian intellectual history

Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Meditation · Nationalism · Political ethics · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · Spirituality · Theology · Universalism · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub