000			02061nam a2200193Ia 4500
999			_c26195 _d26195
005			20220219020819.0
008			200202s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a706911369
082			_a306.609541 Rel
100			_aMiri, Sujata
245		0	_aReligion and society of North-East India
260			_aNew Delhi
260			_bVikas Pub. House
260			_c1980
300			_a122p.
520			_a"Religions and society of the tribal peoples of North-Eastern India" is a very wide subject, or to be precise, consists of two very wide subjects, even though inter-related. I am glad this seminar is being held under the auspices of the Department of Philosophy, and not of Political Science, and I trust that the discussions will be free from passion. Some questions have been posed in Professor Miri's letter to the invitees: how do changes take place in the religions of pre- literate peoples? Is it possible to discover something like an underlying structure for such religions?—something like Noam Chomsky's concept of syntactic structures of language in the human mind: (a) Is it possible to discern a historical and social pattern in the relationship and confrontation between such religions and the so-called more organised and doctrinaire religions? (6) Does a religion represent a form of life which is, in some strong sense of the term , “autonomous”?? These are important questions, mainly in the sphere of philosophy and history of religion, but the answers to them would have relevance also to our concept of secularism, which falls in the realm of political thought. For the rest, the focus of the seminar has been left undefined, maybe, in order to promote wide-ranging discussion, leading to emergence of certain specific subjects for more intensive study and exploration. Religions and society of the tribal peoples of North-Eastern India have certainly received very little academic attention in recent times. Many of the standard studies on these
650			_aReligion and sociology
942			_cB _2ddc