ABSTRACT
This chapter expatiates on non-modern theme, namely Indic individuality, which the author variously calls mandalic and 'holonic' as she elucidates its various aspects. It outlines the dominant scholarly discourse on the question of South Asian individuality in order to bring out its glaring blind spots. The chapter proceeds to turn this dominant discourse on its head by juxtaposing the respective attitudes to madness in Western modernity and in Indic non-modernity, thereby deducing rather contrary cultural apperceptions of personal autonomy. It presents the life-histories that the author has collected of practising Tantrikas in the Kathmandu Valley. The chapter educes and elaborates on the mandalic/holonic nature of Indic individuality, and indicates how it actually facilitates the achievement of personal autonomy. It then utilises data on the Rajneesh movement, such as its appeal to the leaders of the Human Potential Movement in the West, to further ground this individuality as a quintessential part of the Indic world-view, and one with potentially cross-cultural ramifications.
