India S Agony Over Religion

Many of ancient India's religious traditions are alive in modern India, and many of these religious traditions are in conflict with one another regarding the future of India. Even the so-called "secular state" is deeply pervaded by religious sentiments growing out of the Neo-Hindu nationalist movement of Gandhi and Nehru. A careful analysis of the current religious scene when placed in its proper long-term historical perspective raises interesting questions about the nature and future of religion not only in India but elsewhere as well.

This Book Will Fascinate Everyone Interested In Ayodhya, Kashmir, Women`S Rights In India, And Sikh Or Sri Lankan Tamil Separatism, As Well Those Concerned With The General Range Of Issues Surrounding Religion In Politics And Society In South Asia.

Presents the contemporary religious crisis in India, providing historical perspective and focusing on the crises in Punjab, Kashmir, and Ayodhya.

"The volume is a sequel to "India's Agony Over Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1995, and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997) in the sense that it develops a theory of religion first set forth in the original volume but expands the horizon of the first volume to encompass the general history of religions [inclusive of the Indic traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain; the Abrahamic traditions: Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, Islamic; and the East Asian traditions: Confucian, Daoist, Shinto].The central argument in the book is the assertion that the term "religion" is not primarily significant by its use as a noun, but is better understood in its adjectival sense, namely, "religious," in such expressions as "the religious referent," "the religious issue," or simply, "the religious question.""--Provided by publisher.

The volume is a sequel to "India's Agony Over Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1995, and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997) in the sense that it develops a theory of religion first set forth in the original volume but expands the horizon of the first volume to encompass the general history of religions [inclusive of the Indic traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain; the Abrahamic traditions: Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, Islamic; and the East Asian traditions: Confucian, Daoist, Shinto]. The central argument in the book is the assertion that the term "religion" is not primarily significant by its use as a noun, but is better understood in its adjectival sense, namely, "religious," in such expressions as "the religious referent," "the religious issue," or simply, "the religious question."

The volume is a sequel to "India's Agony Over Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1995, and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997) in the sense that it develops a theory of religion first set forth in the original volume but expands the horizon of the first volume to encompass the general history of religions [inclusive of the Indic traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain; the Abrahamic traditions: Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, Islamic; and the East Asian traditions: Confucian, Daoist, Shinto]. The central argument in the book is the assertion that the term "religion" is not primarily significant by its use as a noun, but is better understood in its adjectival sense, namely, "religious," in such expressions as "the religious referent," "the religious issue," or simply, "the religious question."

This book critically assesses recent debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. Increasingly scholars have come to realise that the dominant understanding of Indian culture and its traditions is unsatisfactory. According to the classical paradigm, Hindu traditions are conceptualized as features of a religion with distinct beliefs, doctrines, sacred laws and holy texts. Today, however, many academics consider this conception to be a colonial ‘construction’. This book focuses on the different versions, arguments and counter-arguments of the thesis that the Hindu religion is a construct of colonialism. Bringing together the different positions in the debate, it provides necessary historical data, arguments and conceptual tools to examine the argument. Organized in two parts, the first half of the book provides new analyses of historical and empirical data; the second presents some of the theoretical questions that have emerged from the debate on the construction of Hinduism. Where some of the contributors argue that Hinduism was created as a result of a western Christian notion of religion and the imperatives of British colonialism, others show that this religion already existed in pre-colonial India; and as an alternative to these standpoints, other writers argue that Hinduism only exists in the European experience and does not correspond to any empirical reality in India. This volume offers new insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India and will be of interest to scholars of the History of Religion, Asian Religion, Postcolonial and South Asian Studies.

Most of the papers presented at a conference held at Bloomington in 1999; some previously published.