ABOUT THE BOOK:
As the modern India emerges with a significant presence on the world scene, this book on Indian caste-system highlights the challenges before the nation to ameliorate their condition as a matter of urgency to bring different dimensions of Indian culture to the centre of all civilizations of the world. This volume, if read with an open mind, will enlighten the reader as to know and appreciate our Indian culture on the one hand, and also will enlighten the reader, how we are caught up in a terrible trap of caste system which, to say the least, denies human dignity and distorts the image of God within us on the other hand. These research papers will help one to have a critical look at ourselves, keep off our defences and rationalisations. The authors strongly and authoritatively highlight innumerable possibilities of confronting the evils of the caste system with Indian values and ethos. Human being standing under hierarchy, inscribed by the purity-pollution binary seem to be in a socio-religious-economic standstill. The title of the book, Caste System in Contemporary India: Issues and Implications is indicative of this standstill experience and the yet-to-be realized utopias. The book will definitely throw a challenge to the present generation to move from orthodoxy to orthopraxis.
ABOUT THE EDITORS:
Gnanapragasam Lazar, (b. 1954) was a student of Prof. (Dr.) Stephen Fuchs an eminent Anthropologist of international fame. Lazar began studying anthropology from 1975 from the University of Mysore and then in Pune. He has obtained his M.A., in Philosophy, in the University of Poona (1986), and he furthered his studies in World Religions at the University of Lancaster, England, where he obtained his degree of M.A., M.Phil., and then Ph.D (1994). Apart from his regular teaching, he has published four books and more than 32 scholarly articles in Anthropology, Sociology and World Religions. He is one of the fewest specialists in Islam and Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy. He is the Founder Director of SANSKRUTI – Institute of Dravidian Culture and Research, member of Anthropos International, Founder Associate Editor of Anthropos India. Currently he is also the President of Asia Pacific Missions Studies.
K. Jose (b. 1963) has master's degree in Theology and Sociology; M.Phil., in Sociology and a doctorate degree in North East India Studies. He is the Founder Director of SANSKRITI- NEICR, Guwahati; Member of Anthropos International, and Founder Managing Director of Anthropos India. He has the distinction of authoring and editing a number of books on North Eastern Culture and life-style. Jose is a scholar, social activist and a promoter of North Eastern Culture and Civilization. |