Political Discourse: explorations in Indian and Western political thoughts c.2

At both the national and international levels, the politics of conversation, dialogue and discourse is giving way to the depoliticised rule of the proponents of 'scientific, objective knowledge' of society and history in our so called technetronic age. The perspective informing the essays in this collection is the need to check this scientistic invasion of the practical field of politics so as to restore the discursive or dialogical mode. In this way alone can citizens reclaim and exercise their rights and responsibilities over the public policies and decisions which determine their lives.
The essays in Part I show that the politically enforced norms of social life are embedded in the tradition context of language' which serves as the pre-theoretical frame of our notions of political rationality, fustice and truth. Hidden in those linguistic practices and inter pretive understandings may be ideological distortions of human needs and potentialities, for exploring which a post-positivistic, critical theory of politics is needed.
Part II considers the strengths and limitations of some of the major Western modes of critical discourse and political praxis as contained in the works of Marx. Mannheim, Arendt and Habermas, to mention a few.
The authors of the essays in Part III examine various aspects of Indian thought and practice, and argue that Indian philosophical traditions, nationalist thought and Gandhian Satyagraha broaden and enrich the move ment towards human emancipation, tolerance and unity.
In an age characterised by a serious breakdown in the conversation and dialogue between human beings, this comparative inquiry into the forms of political discourse and practice in India and the West will contribute significantly towards intercultural understanding. The editors argue that it is only through an understanding of the other that we can arrive at a better understanding of ourselves.