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Tantra has formed an integral part of Asian religious history for centuries, but since'Arthur Avalon'introduced the concept to a global readership in the early twentieth century, Tantric traditions have exploded in popularity. While it was long believed that Sir John Woodroffe stood behind Avalon, it was in fact mainly a collaboration between learned South Asians. Julian Strube considers Tantra from the Indian perspective, offering rare insight into the active roles that Indians have played in its globalization and re-negotiation in local Indian contexts. In the early twentieth century, Avalon's publications were crucial to Tantra's visibility in academia and the recognition of Tantra's vital role in South Asian culture. South Asian religious, social, and political life is inexorably intertwined with various Tantric scriptures and traditions, especially in Shaiva and Shakta contexts. In Bengal, Tantra was central to cultural dynamics including Vaishnava and Muslim currents, as well as universalist tendencies incorporating Christianity and esoteric movements such as New Thought, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. Global Tantra contextualizes struggles about orthodoxy and reform in Bengal, and explores the global connections that shaped them. The study elides boundaries between academic disciplines as well as historical and regional contexts, providing insights into global debates about religion, science, esotericism, race, and national identity.

This book examines key aspects of the history, philosophy, and culture of science in India, especially as they may be comprehended in the larger idea of an Indian civilization. The authors, drawn from a range of disciplines, discuss a wide array of issues — scientism and religious dogma, dialectics of faith and knowledge, science under colonial conditions, science and study of grammar, western science and classical systems of logic, metaphysics and methodology, and science and spirituality in the Mahabharata. This collection of essays aims to evolve a framework in which science, culture, and society in India may be studied fruitfully across disciplines and historical periods. With its diverse themes and original approaches, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of the history and philosophy of science, science and religion, cultural studies and colonial studies, philosophy and history, as well as India studies and South Asian studies.

This book is an organizational study of the social aspects of science in India focusing on the determinants of productivity of Indian scientists. The book describes the factors of productivity levels of organic chemists in India in the context of transformation from academic science to post-academic science, and more so, entrepreneurial science. This book considers new factors such as communication technology as an enabling tool to enhance the productivity levels of scientists, and indicates how the different access to the same could lead to/reinforce social inequality in the sphere of Indian science. The present empirical work is an outcome of a study of Indian scientists based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. This book provides an estimation of the relative contribution of determinants of productivity of organic chemists across different levels of organization in the Indian context, and examines their consequences upon the career pattern of scientists. The findings of this study are policy-oriented suggestions aimed at ensuring social equality among scientists in India.

Description based on print version record.