Modernity, which emphasizes the relegation of religion firmly to an individual’s private life, is a challenging idea for any culture. In India it faces a particularly unusual problem: the persistence of numerous traditional and religious practices means that religion and modernity co-habit here in a complex, plural, transient, and historically evolving relationship.
Religion and Modernity in India explores this complex relationship through a series of case studies on the quotidian experiences of people practising a variety of religions. It presents the dynamically interacting textures of society engaging with modernity in divergent ways, both historically and in contemporary times.
The essays in this collection consciously bring in the idea of inclusivity by factoring in the small and local contexts. They raise important questions about marginality and sexuality, and discuss the oral and cultural traditions of both mainstream and marginal communities such as tribal communities and women. In doing so, they put forward the perspectives of groups that represent difference but at the same time are linked to a larger whole.
Contents: Introduction/Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Aloka Parasher Sen. Part I: Modernity, Religion and Secularism. 1. Society, religion and modernity in postcolonial India/T.K. Oommen. 2. Possession, alterity, modernity/Aditya Malik. Part II: Modernity, Religion and the Communities. 3. The Dravidian idea in missionary accounts of South Indian religion/Will Sweetman. 4. Locating the self, community and the Nation: writing the history of the Srivaisnavas of South India/Ranjeeta Dutta. 5. Sedentarization and the changing contours of religious identities: the case of the Pastoral Van Gujjars of the Himalayas/Alok Kumar Pandey and R. Siva Prasad. 6. Religion, erotic sensibilities and marginality/Pushpesh Kumar. Part III: Secularism, Religion and Politics. 7. Rethinking the ‘religious-secular’ binary in global politics: M.A. Jinnah and Muslim Nationalism in South Asia/Aparna Devare. 8. Modernity, citizenship, and Hindu Nationalism: Hindu Mahasabha and Its ‘Reorientation’ Debate, 1947-52/Sekhar Bandyopadhyay. 9. Bipolar coalition system in Kerala: Carriers and Gatekeepers of communal forces in politics/B.L. Biju.10. The ritual of power and power of the ritual: an interface between religion and politics/N. Sudhakar Rao and M. Ravikumar. Part IV: Religious Practices of the Diaspora. 11. Cultural reproduction and the reconstruction of identities in the Indian Diaspora/Aparna Rayaprol. 12. Durability and change: Anglo-Indian religious practice in India and the diaspora/Brent Howitt Otto and Robin Andrews. Index.
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