Neoliberalism reassessed

The Integral Nature of Things: Critical Reflections on the Present is a collection of essays, poems and vignettes that attempts to rethink Enlightenment discourses, and how we understand the post-Industrial period. Lata Mani's work is part of a broader critique of neoliberal globalisation that draws on political economy, but focuses more on its cultural logic. Her work addresses a range of questions, including how we tackle the massive ecological and social disruptions caused by globalisation through questions of culture, how we are being formed as subjects in the post-liberalisation era, and what language we use while criticising such developments.

This book is a crucial intervention at a time when critics of globalisation, and those in India who identify themselves as broadly left-leaning, are struggling with questions of how to approach the onslaught of this process, which has accelerated greatly since the nineties. This period also saw a peak in the power and influence of religious fundamentalism in India, a development that led to many progressive activists and intellectuals consciously distancing themselves from religious and spiritual traditions. More than twenty years down the line, there is an increasing openness to reclaiming these traditions in order to counter the influence of both religious extremism and the impact of globalisation.