Dialogue of Civilizations: William Jones and the Orientalists

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It is no small irony that this movement began in the heyday of a nascent imperialism and under the patronage of the East India Company. The authors describe how this happened, set against the turbulence of the times in India. The work of the early British scholars aroused the curiosity of scholars in Germany where Indology and Sanskrit studies rose to brilliant heights.The vast and comprehensive work of German scholars made Berlin the Benaras of India. Since Germany had no empire in India, German Indology was different in flavour and spirit from British Indology. Simultaneously Russian Indology developed on its own, with a growing sympathy for a nation of great heritage who was under alien rule. Their contribution to Indology in the nineteenth and twentieth century was formidable. Italy and Hungary too had their share of outstanding Indologists and Tibetologists.The authors give a comprehensive description of the contribution of these great scholars. The theory of civilization, its clashes, conflicts, and interactions is discussed at some length with erudition and originality. No other book has brought together all these diverse contributions to Indology and Orientalism with particular relevance to contemporary debates on the dialogue of civilizations.

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Mohandas Moses was one of the most distinguished civil servants of his time. He spent his boyhood in Burma, graduated from Madras Univer-sity with honours in Economics and Mathematics and then joined the IAS. His achievements as head of the Food Corporation of India, Karnataka Power Corporation, Union Agriculture and Union Welfare Secretary are still remembered. As Advisor to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir during 1994-1996, he made a very significant contribution to the restoration of normalcy. He was a man of deep and wide learning and has written a highly acclaimed book on the mind and also a memoir of Kashmir. He and his wife Achala have a doctor son. Achala Moulik was educated in England, USA, and Italy. She obtained a degree in Economics, History and International Law from London University and then joined the IAS. She was Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, and Education Secretary to the Government of India. A novelist, poet, playwright and cultural historian, Achala has written twenty-one books. She has been Guest Lecturer at the Getty Conservation Institute at USA, has been a member of several UNESCO-ICOMOS committees on heritage, the United States Education Foundation of India, Trustee of the National Book Trust and the Indian Museum.