NEW HORIZONS OF SOCIAL THEORY: Conversations, Transformations and Beyond

Social criticism now needs to have an agenda of spiritual criticism which encompasses rational criticism. So begins “New Horizons of Social Theory: Conversations, Transformations and Beyond”, the intriguing new book by Indian social theorist Ananta Kumar Giri, which issues a stirring call for scholars of contemporary social theory and practice to grapple with late modernity’s most pressing social and political issues. The author brings together Western thought and Indian social theory in a work that ranges across an array of Indian texts and ideas hitherto ignored by Western scholarship. Included, along with the mainstays of Indian intellectual thought such as Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, are lesser known Indian social theorists, economists, sociologists, and essayists who argue for transcendence of self-interest, social responsibility, and political renewal. Thoughtfully argued and lucidly written, this work seeks to make social theory a truly planetary conversation and offers seeking readers a genuine “transdisciplinary” learning experience, going beyond both Indian and European ethnocentrism.