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Being Different
An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism
by Rajiv Malhotra
"Being Different is a memorable book...it asks us to look freshly at India and the West, ... a necessary virtue, essential to understanding our neighbors and even ourselves."
—Francis X. Clooney, Society of Jesus and Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University
About the Book
An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism
Being Different addresses the challenge of direct and honest engagement on differences, by reversing the gaze, repositioning India from being the observed to the observer and looking at the West from the dharmic point of view.
Read the Book's Introduction
"This book is about how India differs from the West, and hopes to set the terms for a deeper and more informed engagement between dharmic and Western civilizations." Read the full Introduction from Being Different.
About Rajiv Malhotra, Author
Rajiv Malhotra is an Indian-American researcher, writer, speaker and public intellectual on current affairs as they relate to civilizations, cross-cultural encounters, religion and science. Contact Rajiv at RajivMalhotra2007@gmail.com.
Radio Interview
Listen to Rajiv Malhotra's interview with Dr. Alvin Jones of WCBQ AM.
Part One:
Part Two:
Visit the Book Website
Check out the book website for more reviews, videos, discussion forums and commentary on Being Different.
The Importance of Being Different: A Q&A with Rajiv Malhotra
"I feel that the dharmic approaches to "difference" offer a new and fresh approach to interfaith relations, which till now have been pursued with little success, and mainly through the paradigms of Abrahamic religions."
Praise for Being Different
By Many Diverse Voices
Read what other authors, scholars and thought-leaders have to say about Being Different.
Book Club Roundtable
Being Different Without Rancor
For the older generation of Indians, which was just about gathering their wits when India became free from the British yoke in 1947, Being Different was like a breath of fresh air, which echoed their deeply felt perceptions & feelings about the importance of India as a land, which had still a great deal to give to the rest of the world.
An Indian Renaissance
Christopher Shannon
A new renaissance in Indic thought and culture is gathering force, and Rajiv Malhotra’s latest book, Being Different, is at this the forefront.
Moving Beyond Binaries
Brianne Donaldson
As a scholar of Jainism—one of the four Dharma traditions—I couldn't be happier to have another voice emphasizing the instructive precepts of Indic philosophy, among them the authority of individual experience over doctrines, the body as an instrument of knowledge, the anticipation of ongoing change in the world, and the interconnected unity among all life forms.
Being Different: A New Classic for Inter-religious Dialogue
Ravi Ravindra
Rajiv Malhotra's book Being Different is a masterpiece and a must read for anybody interested in the East-West dialogue or in Hinduism or Christianity.
Belonging and Being Different
Indrani Rampersad
This should be prescribed reading for people trying to understand why they find it difficult to "belong" in hegemonic societies, and for those who exercise the hegemony so they can appreciate the violence that they are perpetuating and perhaps do something about it.
Confessions of a Western Universalist
Carl Gregg
Having read a fair amount of postmodern philosophy, I was sympathetically inclined to Malhotra's general perspective, but I am willing to confess that at the end of the book I remain, for better or worse, a fairly unreconstructed Western Universalist.
The Difference That Matters
Rita Sherman
Being Different uses Indian civilization and its interaction with the West as a case study for the problem of the erasure of differences that matter.
The Gift of Difference
Brad Hirschfield
Malhotra argues that ignoring difference in favor of a Pollyannaish, if well-intentioned, flattening of distinction, is not only foolish but arrogant and even dangerous. I could not agree more
Towards an Honest Pluralism
Jim Burklo
Malhotra's book is an eye-opener, if we recognize the inner vision that can see the seldom-examined presuppositions we use to define and categorize the world.
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