Secularism

In the midst of growing religious fanaticism, fundamentalism and terrorism in different parts of the world which are affecting the entire humanity even in the twenty-first century, a renewed study of the philosophy and political ideas of secularism has become essential in order to build a fresh outlook for the purpose of the safety of human civilization.

This book Secularism: Western and Indian presents a comparative study of the philosophy of secularism in India and the West. This, perhaps, is the first book which attempts to bring together the most prominent ideas of secularism of the West and India in a parallel setting. Western secularism in theory though seems to have been more radical and scientific, yet the Indian situation has been more complicated for which the Indian thinkers have had to compromise with certain unavoidable conditions and traditions. Their contributions have been conducive to building an alternative way and thought of secularism in the East, but in the context of secularization, India is not lagging much behind. In the West as well as in India a review of the best ideas of secularism and the process of secularization has become inevitable in the face of the reinvigorated menace of communalism and religious terrorism upsetting peace and harmony, norms of coexistence, secular polity and various civilizing aspects of humanity in the world. In addition, the book offers an insight into the philosophy of secularism of eminent Indian scholars like Rabindranath Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi.

This book will be highly useful to the students, teachers and researchers of History and Political Science. Common readers having interest in knowing about the philosophy of secularism will find it inculcating and informative.

Sailen Debnath, M.A., Ph.D., Head of the Department of History, Alipurduar College, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, has been engrossed in the studies of the history of ideas and intellectual history of India and Europe for the last twenty years. As a Junior Research Fellow he carried out a research work on the Ideological Perspectives of the Indian Nationalist Movement. He has authored several books, namely West Bengal in Doldrums, A Compendium of Gandhism, The Meanings of Hindu Gods, Goddesses and Myths and The Cultural History of North Bengal. He has also edited a book entitled Social and Political Tensions in North Bengal Since 1947 sponsored by the UGC.