The Indian Craftsman: With a Short Biography and Tributes - Couverture souple

Coomaraswamy, Dr. Ananda Kentish Muthu; Krishnan, Kannan

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1720879060 ISBN 13 : 9781720879060

Editeur : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018

Synopsis

Dr. Coomaraswamy’s study of the Indian craftsman raises questions of the broadest and deepest significance—questions that not only awaken modern Eastern thought but also illuminate some of the most pressing problems confronting the advanced West. He presents a way of life among the Eastern Aryans that still survives today, and he does so with such conviction that one is compelled to feel there is no inherent reason why this mode of existence should not continue.

This naturally leads us to ask why a custom sustained through centuries—seemingly so rational in the East and once experienced by the Western Aryans as well—has undergone transformation in one part of the world while remaining intact in another, and what, in fact, have been the gains of such a change. A review of Western economic history, particularly that of England, reveals that the dissolution of traditional English craftsmanship and the village order cannot be traced back further than the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, together with the enclosure of common lands that accompanied it.

At its core, this profound transformation arose from the introduction of industrial machinery. When we consider the picture drawn by Dr. Coomaraswamy, an unavoidable question confronts us: what benefits has industrial machinery truly conferred upon our culture? Conditioned as we are to evaluate everything by mechanical standards, it becomes difficult to see clearly or to gain a balanced perspective. We tend to forget our own bias, assigning an exaggerated value to machine-made products, while overlooking the fact that a vast proportion—perhaps as much as sixty percent—of these productions are not, as commonly believed, labor-saving, health-promoting, or culturally enriching, but quite the opposite.

As John Stuart Mill observed over half a century ago, “It is questionable whether all the labor-saving machinery has yet lightened the day’s labor of a single human being.” The years since his death have not only reinforced the truth of this observation but have also witnessed a growing realization among those subjected to mechanical exploitation that such conditions have failed to deliver the promised human benefits.

— C. R. Ashbee

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese Tamil philosopher and Metaphysicist, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was one of the great art historians of the twentieth century whose multifaceted writings deal primarily with visual art, aesthetics, literature and language, folklore, mythology, religion, and metaphysics. His most mature works adeptly expound the perspective of the perennial philosophy by drawing on a detailed knowledge of the arts, crafts, mythologies, cultures, folklores, symbolisms, and religions of both the East and the West. Along with René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon, Ananda Coomaraswamy is considered as a leading member of the Traditionalist or Perennialist school of comparative religious thought. Born in Ceylon in 1877 of a Tamil father and an English mother, Coomaraswamy was brought up in England following the early death of his father. He was educated at Wycliffe College and at London University where he studied botany and geology. As part of his doctoral work Coomaraswamy carried out a scientific survey of the mineralogy of Ceylon and seemed poised for an academic career as a geologist. However, under pressure from his experiences, while engaged in his fieldwork, he became absorbed in a study of the traditional arts and crafts of Ceylon and of the social conditions under which they had been produced. In turn, he became increasingly distressed by the corrosive effects of British colonialism. In the years between 1900 and 1913, Coomaraswamy moved backward and forwards between Ceylon, India, and England. In India, he formed close relationships with the Tagore family and was involved in both the literary renaissance and the Swadeshi movement. All the while in the subcontinent he was researching the past, investigating arts and crafts, uncovering forgotten and neglected schools of religious and court art, writing scholarly and popular works, lecturing, and organizing bodies such as the Ceylon Social Reform Society and, in England, the India Society.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Date d'édition: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1720879060
• ISBN 13: 9781720879060
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 79
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg