Explanatory Intelligible Account, Colonial Consciousness, Indian Renaissance
S. N. Balagangadhara (aka Balu) is a professor emeritus of the Ghent University in Belgium, and was director of the India Platform and the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cutuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures).
Balagangadhara 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 Etienne Vermeersch.[1] 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.
Balagangadhara's research centers on the comparative study of Western culture against the background of Indian culture; the program has been named "Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap / Comparative Science of Cultures".[1] He analyses western culture and intellectual thought through its representations of other cultures, with a particular focus on the western representations of India and attempts to translate the knowledge embodied by the Indian traditions into western conceptual frameworks. [2]
His second major work, Reconceptualizing India Studies, appeared in 2012 and argues that post-colonial studies and modern India studies are in need of a rejuvenation.[10][6]
He has held the co-chair of the Hinduism Unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) from 2004 to 2007.[12] On 1 October 2013, University of Pardubice (Czech Republic) awarded him with its honorary doctorate for: (a) the outstanding development of the comparative science of cultures and religions, (b) the development of the collaborations between European and Indian universities, and (c) his contribution to the development of the Studies of religions at the University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.[13][14][15][16]
Balagangadhara, S. N.; Jhingran, Divya (2014). Do All Road Lead to Jerusalem?: The Making of Indian Religions. New Delhi: Manohar. ISBN978-93-5098-061-3. | [2]
Balagangadhara, S. N. & Claerhout, Sarah (2014) "De antieken en het vroege christendom: een heidense visie uit India" in D. Praet & N. Grillaert (Eds.), Christendom en Filosofie. Gent: Academia Press, pp. 51–82
Balagangadhara, S. N. & De Roover, Jakob (2012) "The Dark Hour of Secularism: Hindu Fundamentalism and Colonial Liberalism in India" in R. Ghosh (Ed.), Making Sense of the Secular: Critical Perspectives from Europe to Asia. New York: Routledge, pp. 111–130
Balagangadhara, S. N. (2010) "Orientalism, Postcolonialism, and the 'Construction' of Religion" in Bloch, Keppens & Hegde (Eds.), Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism. New York: Routledge, pp. 135–163
Balagangadhara, S. N. (2009) "Spirituality in Management Theories: A Perspective from India" in S. Nandram & M. Borden (Eds.) Spirituality and Business: Exploring Possibilities for a New Management Paradigm. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 45–60
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. (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. Berlin: Lit Verlag, pp. 145–182.
Balagangadhara, S. N. (1991) "The Reality of the Elusive Man?" In Nispen & Tiemersma (Eds.), The Quest of Man: The Topicality of Philosophical Anthropology. Assen: von Gorcum, pp. 112–116
Balagangadhara, S. N. & Pinxten, R. (1989), "Comparative Anthropology and Rhetorics in Cultures". In Maier, Robert (Ed.), Norms in Argumentation. Dordrecht: Foris, pp. 195–211.
Balagangadhara, S. N.; Jakob De Roover (2010). "The Saint, the Criminal and the Terrorist: Towards a Hypothesis on Terrorism". The Journal of Political Philosophy. 18 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00336.x.
De Roover, Jakob; S. N. Balagangadhara (2009). "Liberty, Tyranny and the Will of God: The Principle of Toleration in Early Modern Europe and Colonial India". History of Political Thought. 30 (1): 111–139.
Balagangadhara, S. N.; Marianne Keppens (2009). "Reconceptualizing the Postcolonial Project: Beyond the Strictures and Structures of Orientalism". Interventions. 11 (1): 50–68. doi:10.1080/13698010902752731. S2CID142551230.
^ abAnantharaman, Sudha (9 December 2007). "In search of new idioms". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
^"Home Page Gyaana.eu Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap". Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap. 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021. More generally, the current social sciences and humanities present themselves as knowledge about human beings and their societies and cultures. Still, its theorising mistakes the Western cultural experience for a universal human experience and reduces other cultures to (pale and erring) variants of the West. One of the challenges, then, is to understand Western culture by looking at its descriptions of other cultures. One of the next challenges is to understand the Indian culture. How has this culture understood human beings, societies and cultures?
