Contents: Introduction, Indo-British Civilization, The Life of Dayanand Saraswati, History of Arya Samaj, Organisation and Rituals of Arya Samaj, Arya Samaj in its True Perspective, The Rational Basis of Arya Samaj, Role of Arya Samaj, The Significance of the Arya Samaj, Politics and Arya Samaj, Political Outlook of Aryasamajists, Arya Samaj and Education, D.A.V. Movement in India, The D.A.V. Institutions: Their Past and Future, Dayananda An Apostle of Universal Brotherhood, Is the Arya Samaj Another Religion?, Swamantavyamantavya: My Beliefs and Disbeliefs, Swikarapatra: The List Will and Testament of Dayananda, Library Works of Dayananda.

Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the world's largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, to the present. Spanning more than 130 years of Indian history and including the writings of both famous and unknown ideologues, this reader reveals how the "Hindutuva" movement approaches key issues of Indian politics. Covering such important topics as secularism, religious conversion, relations with Muslims, education, and Hindu identity in the growing diaspora, this reader will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Indian politics, society, culture, or history.

Indian civilization and culture is not only ancient but it also extensive and varied. Many races and peoples have contributed and enriched it. Its key note is synthesis on the basis of eternal values. Thus the foundations of the two great ideals of Indian civilization-synthesis of cultures and spiritual regeneration of man have been truly laid, on which future structure of India's culture and civilization has been raised. Aim of this series is to compile some perspectives of Indian civilization and culture. It infact, is a romance, telling tale of heroic men, women and their exploits. It is a whole literature in itself, containing code of life, philosophy of social and ethical relations their speculative thoughts and deeds on human problems that is hard to reval. Through such creations alone the harmonies underlying true civilization and culture will one day reconcile the disorders of modern life. This common pool of literature on civilization and culture compiled in this series of volumes, it is hoped will enable the reader, eastern and western, to understand and appreciate currents of world thoughts, as also the deeds and moments of the mind in India, which have a common urge and aspiration that is global prosperity, happiness and peace.

Book Summary of The Arya Samaj Ceremonial rites and rituals occupy a place of utmost importance in the life of a devout Hindu. Among the innumerable castes and communities in India, only the trivargeas - Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas perform their rites strictly in accrodance with the injuctions ordained by the Vedas.

Why, Salmond asks, would nineteenth-century Hindus who come from an iconic religious tradition voice a kind of invective one might expect from Hebrew prophets, Muslim iconoclasts, or Calvinists? Rammohun was a wealthy Bengali, intimately associated with the British Raj and familiar with European languages, religion, and currents of thought. Dayananda was an itinerant Gujarati ascetic who did not speak English and was not integrated into the culture of the colonizers. Salmond’s examination of Dayananda after Rammohun complicates the easy assumption that nineteenth-century Hindu iconoclasm is simply a case of borrowing an attitude from Muslim or Protestant traditions. Salmond examines the origins of these reformers’ ideas by considering the process of diffusion and independent invention—that is, whether ideas are borrowed from other cultures, or arise spontaneously and without influence from external sources. Examining their writings from multiple perspectives, Salmond suggests that Hindu iconoclasm was a complex movement whose attitudes may have arisen from independent invention and were then reinforced by diffusion. Although idolatry became the symbolic marker of their reformist programs, Rammohun’s and Dayananda’s agendas were broader than the elimination of image-worship. These Hindu reformers perceived a link between image-rejection in religion and the unification and modernization of society, part of a process that Max Weber called the “disenchantment of the world.” Focusing on idolatry in nineteenth-century India, Hindu Iconoclasts investigates the encounter of civilizations, an encounter that continues to resonate today.

Hind Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi is arguably the greatest text to have emerged from the anti-colonial movement in India and the first to seriously challenge the cultural and civilizational premises of the colonizers’ mentality. It is also the first text in India that falls within the broad tradition of modern political philosophy, advancing a complex cluster of theses with conceptual sensitivity, analytical precision, and sustained argument. This book critically engages with Hind Swaraj and explores the fascinating and subtle dialogue set up by Gandhi between the characters of the reader and the editor. With essays from leading contemporary thinkers on Gandhi, the volume looks at themes such as Gandhi on epistemic servitude, decolonization, and intercultural translation; his complex critique of modern civilization; his views on the empire, democracy, citizenship, and violence; the normative structure of Gandhian thought; Gandhi and the political praxis of educational reconstruction; and how to read this text. An important intervention in Gandhian studies, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of peace studies, political philosophy, Indian philosophy, Indian political thought, political sociology, and South Asian studies.