The challenge of materialist Science in India. Comparing two Colonial Muslim and Buddhist responses
Speakers Name
Dr. Danish Hamid
About the speaker
Danish Hamid received his PhD in Philosophy from the IIT at Bombay in 2023. He has published in scholarly and popular journals. In 2020, he was the winner of the first John Dewey Society Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award. He also been leading a group of translators of the works of the famous exegete and theologian, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi.
Affiliation
PhD in Philosophy from the IIT at Bombay
Abstract
This talk that delves into my framing of an intriguing phenomenon observed in late 19th and early 20th century India, when modernist and scientifically inclined intellectuals grappled with the materialism of modern science and the prevailing rationalism of the age, I think through the response of two very different intellectuals - Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to the traditional wisdom of their inherited or adopted faiths. Their responses sometimes involved a reinterpretation of religious scriptures, sometimes moderate and often radical, leading to a number of consequences for the future of religious thought, with varying degrees of success. By examining their approaches, I seek to invite reflection on the question of how to reconcile religious beliefs in the face of the dominance of science.
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