Aakash Guglani

Essays on Gender, Society and Self Aakash Guglani

This book is an account of my reflections on Indian society especially gender and personal identity in my post graduate work. My essay on nation worship traces the origins of the idea of nationhood to understand reasons behind how ferocious Hindu nationalist politics could shake the foundations of Indian polity? I reflect on poverty, gender dynamics and the caste system tounderstand various faultlines and inequalities that define the quotidian realities of myriad Indians. It forces them to do horrible dehumanising jobs like manual scavenging. You'll see how these social structures shape and limit human agency. To understand this, we have an essay on how social space changes our biological bodies. This helps to understand theoretical issues with empirical realities of caste and gender. Next set of essays deal with philosophy of language and how gender biases in communication inhibit women's choices. I look at the data where there is evidence that communication biases in mainstream media cages women politicians in certain stereotypes-a case of Italy. To understand this, I present a paper on philosophy of language, especially the silentist position against racial slurs where we systematically stop using certain words. At last, I provide essays on personal identity where it is difficult to reduce mind to brain processes. This interdisciplinary approach is used to cover issues of personal identity, gender and society and I provide an essay on this glorious liberal arts tradition of ancient Greeks and Hindus respectively.