From: rakeshb@stanford.edu
Date: Tue Apr 08 2003 - 14:37:07 EDT
In Stathis Kouvelakis' Philosophy and Revolution: From Kant to Marx (Verso, 2003) there is a chapter on Heine's profound influence on Marx. I was able to recommend strongly the attempt to differentiate the kind of vitalism Heine bequeathed to Marx from Nietzsche's aristocratic vitalism. Just back from India. I encourage one and all to make a pilgrimmage to the 15th century Jain temple Ranakpur, an exquisitely beautiful architectural jewel...and the roads are new, so the difficulties which Jainis thought believers should endure in their pilgrimmages have been removed; the Mughal Emperor Akbar whose multiculturalism seems to put the present rulers to shame wrote as an inscription on one of thousand pillars that no harm would ever come to this temple. My second visit convinced me yet again that it is one of the world's most beautiful places. It was a place to marvel at, meditate and think away from the context of a global clash of fundamentalisms and (speaking of the spectre of fascism) India's own reactionary political turn (see the writings of Jairus Banaji, DN Jha, Romila Thapar, Barbara Harriss-White, and Jan Breman). Yours, Rakesh
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