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This is an anthology of parallel texts from the Irish and Indian intellectual traditions ranging over what scholars have said about the two countries’ histories of turmoil, their philosophies of mind and being, their myths and fantasies, their contemplative imagination as expressed in their lyrical poetry, their learning in medicine, history, linguistics and poetics, the records left about them by Irishmen who came to India and by Indians who went to Ireland and the contemporary engagements between the two countries.

The volume shows that, despite major differences between the two countries, contacts and similarities between them have been substantial. The recorded testimonies of Irish people and Indians who have visited the respective countries demonstrate that in both cases the experience has been a warm and encouraging one, which has led the visitor to become more aware of what is meant by nationality, what he or she has acquired from his or her country of origin and what he or she has gained by contact with another society and another culture. That the two appear to share the same spirit of the self is attested by the fact that they both end up in the twentieth century, by coincidence or destiny, with the symbolism in their flags of the same three colours - orange, white and green.

Contents: Introduction. 1. The scholar’s view. 2. Defining the nations: i. The early years. ii. The age of invasions. iii. The establishment of British rule. iv. The nineteenth century: political and cultural nationalism. v. The twentieth century: the coming of independence and continuing divisions. 3. Immaterialism: mind and being. 4. Myth, supernaturalism and fantasy. 5. The contemplative imagination. 6. Learning, medicine, history, language and literature. 7. Irish people in India and Indians in Ireland. Appendix. Index.