Bharat Ki Kahani

  भारत का आधुनिक इतिहास लेखन 19 वीं शताब्दी में यूरोपीय मूल के इतिहासकारों ने शुरू किया। उन्नीसवीं शताब्दी की पाश्चात्य सभ्यता इतिहास में गहरी रुचि रखती थी। पूरी दुनिया पर विजय प्राप्त करने के बाद अब गोरे अपनी सफलताओं का कारण समझने में लगे थे। आखिर वे कौन से कारण थे जो महज दो शताब्दियों के भीतर पाश्चात्य संस्कृति ने बाकी पूरी मानव जाति को मानव प्रयास और प्रगति के तकरीबन हर क्षेत्र में पीछे छोड़ दिया। बाकी दुनिया वह सब क्यों न कर सकी जो यूरोप में हुआ। इसका जवाब इतिहास, समाजशास्त्र, अर्थशास्त्र, मानवशास्त्र और यहाँ तक कि जीव विज्ञान में भी ढूंढा जाने लगा-उन्नीसवीं शताब्दी के सामाजिक विज्ञान और मानविकी की हर धारा इस उभरते सवाल से प्रभावित रही। ऐसे बौद्धिक परिवेश में नस्ल और जाति का अध्ययन एक नए विज्ञान के रूप में उभरा। नस्ल विज्ञान (race sciences) और नस्ल अध्ययन   ( racial studies ) विशुद्ध रूप से एक यूरोपीय आविष्कार है जिसपर आधुनिक भाषा विज्ञान (भाषाओं का अध्ययन), इतिहास, लिनियस के विकास के सिद्धांत, और स्पेंसर के सामाजिक डार्विनवाद का प्रभाव पड़ा। नस्ल या ‘रेस’ की सटीक परिभाषा करना

  Rishi Vashishta “We would look upon the Sun every day Bright in its luster and strong Awakening every day in its ordained path The eyes of the heavens would glow We would see a hundred autumns We would live a hundred autumns Yajurveda There’s the bright Sun The Sun that rises in the front For the good of the world We would live a hundred autumns We would see a hundred autumns   We would listen to the truths of these hundred autumns We would grow the bounties of bliss and life Not just for a hundred autumns But for many years beyond Gautama Rahugana’s hymn Let the winds waft sweetness Let the rivers sprinkle sweetness Let our vegetables brim with honey Let our nights be nights of joy Let our days be days of happiness Let even the dust beneath our feet Turn into honey and joy Let the skies bestow veneration Let our hearts sing with joy Let the trees be full of honey Let the Sun spread sweetness all around Let all directions brim with honey   Our ears would listen to what is sweet and g

  The nineteenth Century West was a civilization deeply interested in history. Having conquered the rest of the world, now the white man wished to understand what explained his successes. What accounted for the fact that within a span of two centuries the West had left the rest of the world behind in almost all areas of human endeavor and progress? The answer was sought in history, sociology, economics, anthropology and even biology - every stream of social sciences and humanities came to be imbued with this looming question. Simultaneously, the rest of the world was assigned to a proverbial waiting room of history. The West’s present became the future that the East ought to aspire to; and this aspiration was imbibed by literate natives, educated in Western universities. The East was now recast ideologically as what the West was not. ‘They’ came to be described as those other people who are not like ‘Us’ Europeans. Within this intellectual milieu, ‘race’ emerged as an object of study

  Who is a sceptic? “A sceptic is a person who doubts only so that he may doubt and seeks nothing beyond uncertainty itself.” – Descartes “…his (the sceptic’s) charge against our standards of proof is not that they work badly; he does not suggest that there are others that work better. The ground on which he attacks them is that they are logically defective, or if not defective, at any rate logically questionable.”- A J Ayer   Philosophical scepticism is born out of an uncompromising insistence on doubting everything. As to whether the position of a sceptic in philosophy is a tenable one has been debated perpetually in Indian philosophical tradition. Can it be claimed as ancient Nyaya philosophers do that the theoretical position of a sceptic is self-contradictory? A tenable philosophical position? Sceptics have often been portrayed as people whose insistence on doubting is out of all proportion; as people who question for the sake of questioning. Ancient philosopher Udayana takes a ji