Self-Development and Social Transformations?

Ananta Kumar Giri is on the faculty of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India.

Ananta Kumar Giri's fascinating work on Swadhyaya is one of the most detailed ethnographies I have read on the burgeoning indigenous movements to foster economic, social and ethical development in South Asia and other parts of the world. Swadhyaya espouses what Giri calls a 'practical spirituality' in which the ethnographer engages in simultaneous participation and in an 'integrally involving criticism.' This movement on the one hand combines a kind of neo-Vedic ideology that opens up a world not just for Hindus but also for Muslims, Buddhists and other religions. Giri discusses the movement in great detail, sympathetically but without sentimentality, and does not ignore the internal conflicts and leadership struggles that such a movement inevitably faces. I recommend this book for anyone interested in engaged ethnography and the new social movements that attempt to combine socio-economic welfare intrinsically tied to ethical concerns.

• Chapter 1 Foreword by Arjun AppaduraiChapter 2 PrefaceChapter 3 1. Understanding the Vision and Practice of SwadhyayaChapter 4 2. Active Devotion in Local Context: The Dynamics of Swadhyaya in SimarChapter 5 3. Understanding Expanding Universes and Experiments: The Dynamics of Swadhyaya in Veraval and BeyondChapter 6 4. From Matsyagandha to Ghar Mandir: The Work of Swadhyaya in Tribal AreasChapter 7 5. The Educational Dynamics of SwadhyayaChapter 8 6. Globalization of SwadhyayaChapter 9 7. Self-Development and Social Transformations? Swadhyaya and Beyond