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Article: Comparative Political Philosophy: Studies Under the Upas Tree.
- Article from:
- The Australian Journal of Politics and History
- Article date:
- January 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 University of Queensland Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Edited by Anthony J. Parel and Ronald C Keith New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1992, 262 pp. Rs. 225.
Professor Parel explains the metaphor of the Upas Tree. Gandhi used it "to describe the impact of modernity as `modern civilization' on humanity" (p. 27). Majid Tehranian identifies that impact or "the Rousseau effect" in the context of "Ayatolla Khomeini's zeal for a return to the purity and justice of pristine Islam", not the self-sufficient Aristotelian polls (p. 221). Parel also links the metaphor of the tree, in the history of ideas, to Buddha, Plato and Bentham (p. 28). The founder of Buddhism was a sixth century B.C. religious philosopber and teacher, Siddhartha ...