Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On the Death of the Pilgrim: The Postcolonial Hermeneutics of Jarava Lal Mehta

  • Book
  • © 2013

Overview

Authors:
  1. Thomas B. Ellis

    1. Appalachian State University, Boone, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • The only full-length study of this important Hindu philosopher
  • Identifies the ethical pitfalls of deconstructivism’s employment of the messianic and its implicit ties to ontotheology’s metaphysics of presence
  • Extrapolates for the first time Mehta’s alternative to the philosophical hermeneutic emphasis on return and edification ?

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 1-13

  3. From Banaras to the West and Back

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 15-38

  4. From Subcontinent to Continental

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 39-84

  5. Pilgrims and Pilgrimages

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 85-123

  6. Digging at the Roots: The Logic of the Hindu Tradition

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 125-163

  7. Greek Heroes, Jewish Nomads, and Hindu Pilgrims: Ulysses, Abraham and Uddhava at the Cross-Cultural-Roads

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 165-200

  8. Conclusion

    • Thomas B. Ellis
    Pages 201-204

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 205-212
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This searching examination of the life and philosophy of the twentieth-century Indian intellectual Jarava Lal Mehta details, among other things, his engagement with the oeuvres of Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jacques Derrida. It shows how Mehta’s sense of cross-cultural philosophy and religious thought were affected by these engagements, and maps the two key contributions Mehta made to the sum of human ideas. First, Mehta outlined what the author dubs a ‘postcolonial hermeneutics’ that uses the ‘ethnotrope’ of the pilgrim to challenge the philosophical hermeneutic emphasis on supplementation and augmentation. For Mehta, the hermeneutic encounter ruptures, rather than supplements, the self. Secondly, Mehta extended this concept of hermeneutics to interrogate the Hindu tradition, arriving at the concept of the ‘negative messianic’. In contrast to Derrida's emphasis on the 'one to come', Mehta shows how the Hindu bhakti model represents the very opposite, that is, the 'withdrawn other,' identifying thereby the ethical pitfalls of deconstructivism's emphasis on the messianic tradition.  This is the only full-length study in English of this high-profile Hindu philosopher.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Appalachian State University, Boone, USA

    Thomas B. Ellis

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation