Understanding the Other and dialogue in the philosophy of the Bengal Renaissance

This study, based on the author's methodology of analyzing the processes of understanding the Other in the epochs of national-cultural renaissances in modernizing non-Western societies, has no analogues in Russian Indology. The book presents a broad panorama of intellectual life in the advanced region of British India from the 19th to the first third of the 20th century, involved in multifaceted interactions with the West. The era of the national-cultural renaissance in Bengal is considered in the light of the emergence and development of processes of understanding and dialogue with the Other, represented by the West, its civilization and culture, other religions, peoples, and societies, as well as various communities and strata within India. The author proposes a reconstruction of the understanding of other civilizations, cultures, religions, societies, and institutions based on the texts of leading thinkers of the Bengal Renaissance from Rammohan Roy to Aurobindo Ghosh and Rabindranath Tagore, showing how the understanding of the Other leads to the 'discovery of India' and the understanding of the Self, along with the creation of a new philosophy of life in India in the modernizing world. The book is intended for a wide range of oriental scholars and all readers interested in the philosophy and culture of Eastern countries, issues of dialogue between civilizations, religions, and cultures.