Return from Exile

This volume brings together three significant works of Ashis Nandy - Alternative Sciences, The Illegitimacy of Nationalism, and The Savage Freud. It is essential reading for social and political scientists, and all those interested in the complexities of Indian politics and culture.

Alternative Sciences is a provocative Book in which Nandy analyses aspects of the lives of two Indian pioneers of science - physicist and plant physiologist J.C. Bose (1858-1937) and mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) - to show how some of the current concerns of the philosophy and sociology of sciences were anticipated by the alternative orientations to science they offered. The Illegitimacy of Nationalism explores, mainly through an analysis of Rabindranath Tagor's political writings, the ambivalence towards nationalism that had crept into some quarters within the Indian freedom movement by the 1920s. The study offers insights into the working of a political idea which has become universally significant, especially in a period of growing international conflicts and ethnic upheavals and violence. The Savage Freud offers an illuminating analysis of some of the central concerns of our time and deals with a wide range of human experiences : From alternative readings of plane hijackings and sati, to the hidden role of racism in a war crimes trial, from the vernacular cultures of psychoanalysis and popular cinema to the play of the absurd in criticisms of modern medicine.