CHARVAKA

Ramakrishna Bhattacharya

  • Ramkrishna Bhattacharya on György Lukács

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya György Lukács (13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, aesthetician,literary historian, and critic. He was, according to Wikiipedia, one of the founders of Western Marxism, an interpretive tradition that departed from the Marxistideological orthodoxy of the USSR. He developed the theory of reification, and contributed to Marxist theory with developments of Karl Marx’s theory of class consciousness. He was…

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  • Dickens, Shaw and Marx: Contrasting Approaches

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya No two authors could be more unlike than Charles Dickens and George Bernard Shaw. Dickens was notorious for the saccharine sentimentality that pervades his novels. His rainbow humour – smiling through tears – endeared him to many readers all over the world. But there are others who complain that his appeal is invariably…

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  • The Cārvākas against Caste and Gender Discrimination

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya [This is Part II of “Facets of Materialism in India: A Historical Outline”. Part I is here] The Carvakas against Caste Discrimination Let us now see what these two arch-opponents of materialism say regarding the materialists’ (or, to be more specific, of the new materialists,’ i.e., the Cārvākas’) views on caste and women. …

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  • Gandhi’s Vision of Ramarajya: A Critique – Part II

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The extent of democracy Is Gandhi’s Ramarajya a land of the equals with all economic disparity gone? The utopias conceived by many writers since the sixteenth century do so. Gandhi held out no such hope in this regard. On the other hand, he categorically declared: [The] Ramarajya of my dream ensures equal rights…

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  • Gandhi’s Vision of Ramarajya: A Critique: Part I

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Ramarajya, ‘’the kingdom of Rama,’ is the projection of an ideal state in the Sanskrit epic, Valmiki Ramayana. When Rama, after rescuing Sita, his wife, from the demon Ravaṇa, came back from his fourteen-year exile, he was given back his kingdom by his devoted brother, Bharata. Rama, we are told, was a model…

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  • Ramarajya in Valmiki, Tulsidas and Krittibas: A Comparative Study

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya  The concept of Ramarajya (literally, the kingdom of rama), the all-found-land, or the land of heart’s desire, is first projected at the end of Book 6 (Lankakanda, Book of War) of the Valmiki Ramayana [critical edition (Varoda: Oriental Institute) canto 116 verses 84-90, vulgate (Delhi: Parimal Publications edition) 128.99-106]. The passage runs as…

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  • A Class Utopia in the Rāmāyaṇa

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya An imaginary land of heart’s desire is known as utopia (literally, no-place, but actually meaning ‘a happy place’, eutopia) in Latin. Originally it is the title of a book written by Thomas More (1478-1535) in 1516. Uttarakuri was such a place in ancient India. This imaginary land was located beyond the Himalayas (for…

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  • Subversion at Work: Astrology Discredited in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyākāṇḍa

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya An advertisement published in the Times of India (Kolkata edition) on December 10, 2014 entered by Nakshatra Diamond Jewellery (certified by Gemological Science International, International Gemological Institute, Independent Gemological Laboratories and others) contained a half-page picture of a bejewelled Bollywood film-star. The advertisement was entitled ‘This Pushya Nakshatra / Buy from the amazing…

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  • Georg Lukács, Philosopher and Aesthetician

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    manojthazath@gmail.com

    Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Not a doctrine but a method Georg Lukács (1885-1971), philosopher and aesthetician, was one of the original philosophers of the twentieth century. A lifelong Marxist, he always believed that Marxism was not a doctrine but a method. In his seminal essay, ‘What is Orthodox Marxism?’ he insisted on this point as Engels had…

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