•  232
    Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion: Beyond Faith and Reason (edited book)
    with Sonia Sikka
    Routledge. 2021.
    With a focus on Asian philosophical traditions, this book examines varieties of philosophical thought and self-transformative practice that do not fit neatly on one side or another of the standard Western division between philosophy and religion. It contains chapters by experts on Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Upaniṣadic and Jain philosophies, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and recent contemplative and spiritual movements. The authors problematize the notion of a European philosophical canon…Read more
  •  2
    Multiculturalism, Recognition and Dialogue
    Dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada). 2002.
    In this thesis, I analyze a spectrum of liberal positions on multicultural diversity. My principal aim is to examine these from the perspective of non-Western non-liberal cultural communities. I ask how well these positions are able to accommodate some of the key concerns and interests of certain non-Western communities with regard to cultural recognition. In addition, I examine whether and to what degree these approaches are open to an intercultural dialogue, given their main theoretical premis…Read more
  •  1117
    My aim in this paper is to chart what I see as parallels between the ontology of self in Charles Taylor’s work and that of various Buddhist ‘no-self’ views, along with parallels between Taylor’s commitment to reviving republican ideas and some aspects of Buddhist ethics. I see key resemblances and overlaps at the level of metaphysics as well as ethics. For Taylor, the sorts of atomistic accounts of self that have come to be accepted as natural and unquestionable in the West are deeply misguided.…Read more
  •  257
    Caricaturizing Freedom: Islam, Offence, and the Danish Cartoon Controversy
    South Asian Film and Media Studies 1 (1): 173-178. 2009.
    I argue in this paper that the publication of cartoons caricaturing Islam by Jyllands- Posten is problematic for a number of reasons. First, within liberal political theory itself, there are reasonable arguments that the depictions (at least two) perpetuate prejudice and verge on hate speech. Second, such depictions weaken the social conditions that make possible a thriving democracy (i.e., participation) by marginalizing the already marginalized. Moreover, the caricatures perpetuate an Oriental…Read more
  •  421
    Individual Autonomy: Self, Culture, and Bioethics
    with Arjuna Maharaj
    Bioethics UPdate 4 (1): 24-34. 2017.
    This paper problematizes the concept of individual autonomy in the on-going project of attempting to understand and construct global principles of bioethics. We argue that autonomy as it is commonly defined and interpreted, and the emphasis that is placed on it, presupposes an individualistic concept of the self, family, and community that arises out of a Euro-Western liberal tradition and that is often in tension with various non-Western perspectives. We conclude that a more globally dialogical…Read more
  •  506
    I explore how Vivekananda and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s development of Advaita Vedānta has an enormous impact on Neo-Hindu, and indeed, Indian, self-understandings of ethics and politics. I contend that Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan both conceive of the spirit of Hinduism as a radical form of equality that lies at the heart of an Advaitic (monistic) interpretation of the Upaniṣads. This metaphysical monism of consciousness of self and other in Advaita paves a solid conceptual road to an ethic o…Read more
  •  113
    Recognizing the Other Solitude: Aboriginal Views of the Land and Liberal Theories of Cultural Justice
    Ayaangwaamizin: The International Journal of Indigenous Philosophy 3 (1): 55-88. 2003.
    Disputes over land are the major source of conflict between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples around the globe. According to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, land claims do not simply have to do with economic settlements. They also involve, in a critical sense, respect and recognition for cultural differences regarding culturally distinct self-understandings of land. The Commissioners argue that these disputes will never be wholly resolved unless dialogue and negotiation…Read more
  •  11
    In this paper I argue that with regard to Indigeneity, there is a profound irony at work in the purportedly emancipatory power of human rights discourse. On the one hand, it is clear that this discourse has made, and continues to make, a significant contribution in supporting Indigenous peoples to articulate their claims for cultural recognition and struggle for freedom and self-rule. On the other hand, I contend that this discourse has a detrimental effect: a Trojan horse of sorts. The discours…Read more
  •  1340
    Human Rights and Political Toleration in India: Multiplicity, Self, and Interconnectedness
    In Ashwani Kumar Peetush & Jay Drydyk (eds.), Human Rights: India and the West, Oxford University Press. pp. 205-228. 2015.
    I would argue that toleration is one of the cornerstones for a just social order in any pluralistic society. Yet, the ideal of toleration is usually thought to originate from within, and most often justified from a European historical and philosophical context. It is thought to be a response to societal conflict and the Wars of Religion in the West, which is then exported to the rest of the world, by colonialism (ironically), or globalization. The West, once again, calls upon itself to teach the…Read more
  •  331
    My purpose in this paper is to challenge the continued exclusion of Indian philosophies from the Western philosophical canon on the supposed basis that such philosophies are really religion, mysticism, and mythology. I argue that many schools of Indian philosophy, such as Advaita Vedānta, resist and problematize historically particular Euro-Western conceptions of both philosophy and religion, and the conceptual borders between them, where philosophy is understood as grounded in various substanti…Read more
  •  191
    In this chapter, I argue that John Rawls’ later work presents one of the most fruitful liberal frameworks from which to approach global cultural diversity. In his Law of Peoples (1999), the normative architecture Rawls provides is much more open to an intercultural/religious dialogue with various non-Western communities, such as the First Nations, than are other liberal approaches. Surprisingly, this has gone unnoticed in the literature on multiculturalism. At the same time, Rawls’ framework is …Read more
  •  236
    Human Rights: India and the West (edited book)
    with Jay Drydyk
    Oxford University Press. 2015.
    The question of how to arrive at a consensus on human rights norm in a diverse, pluralistic, and interconnected global environment is critical. This volume is a contribution to an intercultural understanding of human rights in the context of India and its relationship to the West. The legitimacy of the global legal, economic, and political order is increasingly premised on the discourse of international human rights. Yet the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights developed with little or no…Read more
  •  216
    In this paper, I argue that Will Kymlicka’s theory of “mult”-iculturalism serves to unwittingly perpetuate a form of neo-colonial agenda in which Indigenous claims for recognition and sovereignty in Canada are accommodated to the degree and extent to which they are willing to “liberalize” and promote distinctly Euro-Western self-understandings and conceptions of individual autonomy (tied to substantive notions such as private property) – the supposedly foundational value and defining feature of …Read more