S0506 India’s Agony of Human Rights. The Neo-Hindu Reinterpretation of Caste and dharma

The course intends to explore the thorny issue of human rights in modern and contemporary India in the light of the subcontinent\'s traditional Hindu background. For this reason, attention will first be placed on the normative religious texts of Brahma\'ical Hinduism (Veda-s, Dharma-.astra literature, the Epics, the orthodox philosophical systems), in an effort to uncover and understand in depth the key, complex ideology of dharma and of the caste system (var\'a, jati). Having portrayed this basic, priestly ideology centered on the principles of duty and hierarchical discrimination – which has dominated Hindu India\'s self-understanding for around two millennia – we shall oppose and contrast it with the modern reinterpretations of dharma and caste which have come to the fore in so-called Neo-Hinduism, both before and after the attainment of political independence (1947). Here, the seminal role played by figures such as Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Swami Vivekananda, M. K. Gandhi, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan will be examined. In particular, the course will assess the fundamental role played by British colonial ideology, by Western religious and socio-political values in determining this new, innovative \'response\' by Indian intellectuals and religious leaders. Indeed, the special \'hermeneutic circle\' and encounter occurring between India and Europe in the XIX and XX centuries will constitute the main focus of our investigation. The opposition between traditional caste duties and modern human rights illustrates such encounter (and clash) in a particularly revealing way. The overall objective of the course is precisely to show India\'s subtle epistemic dependence from the West (even after the attainment of political independence), and at the same time the ways in which the neo-Hindu spiritual awareness has been successful in exporting itself to the Western world, perpetuating (and selling!) the myth of its supreme, mystical heritage and unsurpassed, immemorial wisdom (sanatana-dharma).