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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

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The history of India told through the lives of 50 phenomenal people.

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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives: The Buddha: Waking India Up

Buddha

11/05/2015

The Buddha: Waking India Up

BBC Radio 4 - Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, The Buddha: Waking India Up

A portrait of the Buddha and how he has been interpreted over the millennia.

Professor Sunil Khilnani looks at the life of the Buddha and at how he has become an inspiration to modern Indians fighting against the caste system.

Over the course of 50 episodes, Sunil Khilnani, director of the King's India Institute in London, takes listeners on a whirlwind journey from ancient India to the 21st century through the prism of the life stories of 50 remarkable individuals. He will also explore their surprising afterlives, which illuminate both the astonishments and urgent conflicts of India today. He begins with the Buddha, exploring the story of his life and how he has been reinvented in modern India by those who oppose the caste system. "Buddha's solution to suffering lay in the individual mind. But he was also sketching a new form of society," says Professor Khilnani. "He was a moral meritocrat, and to an extent a social one too."
Produced by Mark Savage
Listeners can catch up with the series and see the list of remarkable Indians featured on the Radio 4 website.

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