Book review: Deepshikha Shahi, Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120907546 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 137
The book provides a comprehensive account and consolidated information on
the black economy and it could be useful to scholars pursuing research in this area
and also to policymakers to understand the characteristics of black economy. The
volume may lack in certain aspects, such as contemporary policies, new findings,
global best practices, behavioural aspects of tax compliance, and welfare and
inequality impact of black economy. Given the political economy nature of this
book, more detailed analysis of election funding, and the relationship between
black money and terror money could have been useful additions.
Geethanjali Nataraj
Professor of Economics,
Indian Institute of Public Administration
E-mail: geethanjali_n@yahoo.com
Deepshikha Shahi, Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory.
Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2019, 170 pp. (Hardbound),
£120.
DOI: 10.1177/0019556120907546
The book mentioned above is a commendable effort to dwell on the ancient
Bharata’s intricate monist philosophy of Advaitism (non-dualism) and explore its
relevance for the theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary
international politics and relations with a view to inaugurate a Global International
Relations (IR) theory. In fact, the current international scenario is characterised by
the dominant presence of two diametrically opposed theoretical traditions known
as the mainstream universalist Eurocentric IR theories and particularist
postcolonial and de-colonial non-Eurocentric IR theories. Both of these endorse
‘epistemological dualism’ while separating the ‘theorising subject’ from the
‘theorised object’, thereby failing to bridge the gaps in the field characterised as
‘rationalist participation’. The author claims to rely on the monist scheme of
‘subject–object merger’ in the ancient Indian philosophy of Advaita to launch the
above-said Global IR theory, which may evidently be an alternative to the power–
struggle-oriented approach in IR where brute power rules the roost, and that
smacks of Darwinian theory of the ‘survival of the fittest’.
This book illustrates that the conceptual evolution of ‘international politics’
in the Eurocentric IR is generally based on understanding of reality, particularly
the ontological reality of the phenomenal world. The knowledge about this reality
is presently evolving along two broad theoretical approaches in Eurocentric
IR, namely rationalist and reflectivist. These approaches peculiarly focus on
subject–object relationship towards procedural evolution of the reality of the
international politics. While the rationalist theories use analytical and conceptual
tools to discover the reality of international politics as it already is, the reflectivist
theories offer a counter-perspective on the same as it is perceived to be. Thus,
the author stands seriously engaged into analysing a very pertinent debate
regarding rationalist–reflectivist interpretation of the prevailing theories in IR.
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