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S.N. Balagangadhara (aka Balu) (ಎಸ್. ಏನ್. ಬಾಲಗಂಗಾಧರ in Kannada) is a professor at the Ghent University in Belgium, and director of the India Platform and the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cutuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures). He was a student of National College, Bangalore and moved to Belgium in 1977 to study philosophy at Ghent University, where he obtained his doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Etienne Vermeersch. His doctoral thesis (1991) was entitled ''Comparative Science of Cultures and the Universality of Religion: An Essay on Worlds without Views and Views without the World''. Prof. Balu has been researching the nature of religion. His central area of inquiry has been the study of Western culture against the background of Indian culture.〔 His research programme is called in Dutch "Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap," which translates into "Comparative Science of Cultures." Prof. Balagangadhara has held the co-chair of the Hinduism Unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He also gives lectures to the general public in Europe and India on issues such as the current (mis)understanding of Indian culture and the search for happiness.〔https://www.facebook.com/SNBalagangadhara〕 ==Research== From the 1980s onwards, S.N. Balagangadhara has developed the research programme Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures) to study cultural differences. On the one hand, he analyses western culture and intellectual thought through its representations of other cultures, with a particular focus on the western representations of India. On the other, Balagangadhara attempts to translate the knowledge embodied by the Indian traditions into the conceptual language of the twenty-first century.〔See for instance Balagangadhara, S. N. (2005). "How to Speak for the Indian Traditions". Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73 (4): 987–1013. ISSN 0002-7189〕 In his first work, ''The Heathen in his Blindness...'' (1994), Balagangadhara focused on religion, culture, and cultural difference.〔Balagangadhara, S. N. (1994). ''"The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion''. Leiden, New York: E. J. Brill〕 He is mainly known for the controversial claim that religion is not a cultural universal. According to the author, Christianity had a profound influence on western culture. Balagangadhara argued that the analytical tools with which the West has understood other cultures like India, are therefore, intrinsically shaped by Semitic and Christian theology. The Semitic doctrine that God gave religion to humankind, Balagangadhara argued, lies at the heart of the ethnographic belief in the universality of religion: Balagangadhara proposes therefore a novel analysis of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India, and the nature of cultural differences. His second major work, ''Reconceptualizing India Studies'', appeared in 2012 and argues that post-colonial studies and modern India studies are in need of a rejuvenation. After Said's Orientalism (1978), post-colonialism, as a discipline, has not contributed much to human knowledge. A strange form of unproductive self-reflection and impenetrable jargon has come to stand for and replace theory building and knowledge production. The book attempts to chalk out a potential direction for the social-scientific study of Indian culture. Stressing the need for an alternative understanding of Western culture, Balagangadhara argues that Hinduism, caste system, and secularism are not colonial constructs but entities within the Western cultural experience. He argues that the so-called facts about India and her traditions are a result of colonial consciousness.〔Balagangadhara, S. N. (2012). ''Reconceptualizing India Studies''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press〕〔(A Review of the book ''Reconceptualizing India Studies'' (2012) )〕 In 2014, Manohar publishers brought out a condensed and shortened version of the ''The Heathen in his Blindness...'' (1994), entitled ''Do all Roads Lead to Jerusalem? The Making of Indian Religions'' (2014). Divya Jhingran worked for two years to bring out this simple, easily accessible and a very readable version of the original work.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TheHeathenInHisBlindness/conversations/messages/6754 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】Books )">url=http://www.manoharbooks.com/BookDetails.asp?bookid=134842&Page=1&subjec=%20%20Others%20%20%20%20%20(Do%20All%20Road%20Lead%20to%20Jerusalem?:%20The%20Making%20of%20Indian%20Religions) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「S. N. Balagangadhara」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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