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A Culture Decline or Revival? by: Bharat Gupt

This book critically analyses the state of affairs in India after the British left in 1947 and examines whether Independence has ushered an era of cultural and social freedom or a cultural decline has set in — a thought-provoking subject.

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Year Of Publication: 2008
Edition: 1st
Pages : xviii, 236
Bibliographic Details : Index
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 500

Overview

It is often taken for granted that Independence from the British rule also ushered an era of cultural and social freedom in India. The author wishes to examine if that is true or if a cultural decline set in soon after. Based on a verse in the Pancatantra, the book has been divided into six parts: Eka (person), Kula (family), Grama (habitat), Janapada (land), Prithvi (earth) and Atma. Issues of education; conflicts between the classes, regions, jatis, languages and religions; expansion of proselytizers; lack of governance; tensions between the legislators and judiciary; rise of unbridled consumerism; falling standards of democracy; dilemmas created by notions of dharma challenged by Westernized modernity; and the problems of attaining universal harmony, are all put into a perspective under these six categories. While examining the state of affairs the author also suggests a way for the pursuit of happiness through unselfish transcendence.

Contents

Preface
Part One
EKA : The Uprooted Individual
1. The Ritual Universe
2. Education Without Art
3. Shelving a Heritage : Sanskrit from Macaulay to M-Tv.
4. Conversion : Sin or Sincerity
5. Bring Back the Teacher
KULA : Broken Homes
6. Yayayatis and Kamsas : Unbridled Indulgences of Affluent Indains
7. Disappearance of the Fourth Ashram
Part Two
GRAMA : Dusty Villages, Dying Cities
8. Vote Bank Politics and Lame-Duck Legislators
9. Voting Young : Ensuring Legislative Immaturity
10. Caste Choudhary : The New Age Parasite
11. Caste Endogamy : A Return to Medievalism
12. Politics of Compensation : Mandal, Mandir and Stri-mandal
JANAPADA : Regional Defacement
13. Anglophonic Hegemony and Regional Indian Langages
14. The Frigid Face of Urdu
15. What is Ethnic?
16. Cultural Nationalism: Kitsch or Charisma
17. Religious Plurality in Education
Part Three
PRITHVEE : Diminishing Boundaries
18. Indian Diaspora: The Brihad Bharat
AATMAN : The Self in Doubt
19. Relativism : A Moral Twilight
20. Search for Sahaj : In Pursuit of Abiding Happiness
Index

Meet the Author
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1946
Bharat Gupt, Reader (Associate Professor) in English, College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi, holds two Master’s degrees, one from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and another from Toronto. He did this doctoral research at the M.S. University of Baroda. He was taught sitar and surbahar by Pandit Uma Shankar Mishra and musicology and classics by Acarya Brhaspati. Trained both in modern and traditional educational systems, he is also on the Visiting Faculty of National School of Drama, Delhi. For his interest in media studies he was awarded a Fellowship to work at the McLuhan Program, University of Toronto. Author of several research articles, he has presented many papers at various international seminars.
Books of Bharat Gupt