Sri Aurobindo: Nationalism, Religion, and Beyond - Writings on Politics, Society, and Culture

Sri Aurobindo is best known today as a spiritual philosopher and yogi, and as one of the principal leaders in the early phase of the Indian nationalist movement. But he also wrote extensively on political, social and cultural theory. His contributions to these fields, although original and often ahead of their time, have not received the attention they deserve. One reason for this is that they are scattered through six or seven volumes of his complete works. Another is their apparent datedness. But the most important of Aurobindos writings on these subjects are as interesting now as when they were written, for they deal with matters of perennial concern?such as on the assumption and exceeding of cultural identity, and on the proper place of spirituality in society. Peter Heehs?well known historian and biographer of Aurobindo?overcomes the first problem (of scattered sources) by selecting representative passages from the entire body of Aurobindos works. He deals with the second problem (of Aurobindo?s seeming datedness) by providing historical background, and by relating Aurobindos social, cultural, and political ideas to those of contemporary theorists. Heehs?s anthology confronts common misunderstandings by those scholars and politicians who have reduced Aurobindos complex thinking to a collection of clich?s. Additionally, given the manner in which the leading intellectual figures of Hinduism have been appropriated by Hindu nationalists and Hindu fundamentalists in recent times, this anthology is a vital corrective. It provides a far truer, more nuanced, and properly contextualized understanding of the social, political, and religious ideas of one of India?s most influential thinkers.