ebooks Forgotten Victims: The Abandonment Of Americans In Hitler's Camps by Mitchell G. Bard in History

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The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests of Western society. Following this logic; postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own “alternative sciences” as a step towards “mental decolonization”. These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study; Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism.At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology; Nanda argues; lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness; logic; rules of evidence; and conception of truth; and that there is no non-arbitrary; culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as “difference” by postmodernists; however; has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The “Vedic sciences” currently endorsed in Indian schools; colleges; and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity.By denouncing science and secularization; the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls “reactionary modernism.” In contrast; Nanda points to the Dalit; or untouchable; movement as a true example of an “alternative science” that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.