The key to the understanding of the main currents of thought-ways and work-ways in the world of today is the phenomenon of modernity. The principal defining characteristic of modernity is the assertion that it is man qua natural man who is the source of meaning and order in the world. The consequent dedivinization has meant, among other things, the organization and functioning of political life and relations in India, as it is elsewhere else in the world are inspired by grounded in and informed by secular values. This as it tuns out, proves only a chimera and a hope that ever slips ut of the greedy hands of man in the modern times. The search for virtue through the process of modernization proves only elusive since the constitutive principle under girding the management of pragmatic affaris of man today is the pursuit of private passions. This pursuit introduces a mismatch between what is good for one individual and what is good for all individuals. This mismatch is reflected in all the areas of human existence in culture in social life and relations in the functioning of the government, etc. Efforts to overcome this mismatch or, at least neutralize its effects on personal lives and collective relations prove ineffective. It is the character of this mismatch as well as futile efforts to overcome it that forms the subject matter of Politics and Society.
Ramashray Roy an eminent Political Scientist, is currently a fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. Earlier, during 1998-2001 he was a fellow of the Indian Institue of Advanced Study, Shimla where he worked on the Vedic Vision of Political Order. Even earlier, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the sutdy of Developing Societies, Delhi (1963-1992) and one of its founder members and its director during 1976-1982. He was director at the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi (1972-1976) and its National Fellow during 1994-1996. He is the president of Tantrabati Geeta Bhawan Trust, Madhubani. He is the recipient of ;Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru National Award of the M P Government in Social Sciences in 1993. He has taught in several universities in the USA. He has also been associated with the United Nations University, Tokyo. He has written more than two dozen books in the areas of Indian politics, Bureaucracy, Development, Gandhian Thought, Political Philosophy and traditional Indian thought. His recent completed study is Marriage in Mithila: A study in Samskara. He has contributed numerous articles to leading journals in India and abroad. He is currently working on Purusha, Purana and History.I
Introduction, Cultural and Political Autonomy Its Contemporary Status. Culture and Development : Some Lessons from Swadhyaya. Swaraj and Panchayati Raj. Modernity, Violence, and Gandhi.Religion and Politics:Gandhi and Modern Day India.Ethico-religious Foundations of Gandhi's Thought.Gandhi and Ambedkar: Collision of Two World-Views. Eternal Peace ; Kant versus Gandhi. What Does Being An Indian Mean. Vedic Roots of Indian Intellectual Tradition: Vakyapadiya,Tantra and Paniniya Pratyahar. The Vedic Foundation of Moral Life. Bhakti Concept in Vedic Literature. Vedic World View and the Modern Times.