Public Hinduisms

Public Hinduisms critically analyses the way in which Hinduism is produced and represented as an established feature of modern public landscapes. It examines the mediation, representation and construction of multiple forms of Hinduism in a variety of social and political contexts, and in the process establishes it as a dynamic and developing modern concept. The essays in this volume are divided into themes that address different aspects of the processes that form modern Hinduism. The book includes discussions on topics such as ecumenical initiatives, the contemporary interpretation of particular sampradaya and guru traditions, modes of community mobilisation and the mediation strategies of different groups. It also provides India and diaspora-focused case studies as well as ′Snapshot′ views elaborating on different themes. Taking a critical approach to the idea of Hinduism and the way it becomes public, the book provides an interesting read on contemporary Hinduism.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In Hindu Pluralism, Elaine M. Fisher complicates the traditional scholarly narrative of the unification of Hinduism. By calling into question the colonial categories implicit in the term “sectarianism,” Fisher’s work excavates the pluralistic textures of precolonial Hinduism in the centuries prior to British intervention. Drawing on previously unpublished sources in Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu, Fisher argues that the performance of plural religious identities in public space in Indian early modernity paved the way for the emergence of a distinctively non-Western form of religious pluralism. This work provides a critical resource for understanding how Hinduism developed in the early modern period, a crucial era that set the tenor for religion's role in public life in India through the present day.

Beginning With The Premise That Any Pursuit Of An Indian Identity In The `Narrow` Terms Of Hinduness Is A Radical Distortion, Hinduism In Public And Private Surveys The Phenomenon Of Religious Reform Movements Within The Larger Paradigm Of Modernization, And In Tandem With The Ideas Of Nationalism And Hindutva. The Essays Analyse The Reasons Behind The Possible Need For A New Kind Of Social Integration Within The Hindu Community In India.

"Much has been written about the historical origins of the unity of Hinduism. Hindu difference has been read through the lens of the term "sectarianism," a concept that translates devotion as dissent, and community as a potential precursor to communalism. In Hindu Pluralism, Elaine. M. Fisher argues that it is the plurality of Hindu religious identities, and their embodiment and contestation in public space, that first reveals the emergence of Hinduism as a unified religion in south India and an integral feature of a distinctively Indic early modernity prior to British Colonialism."--Provided by publisher.

The way people encounter ideas of Hinduism online is often shaped by global discourses of religion, pervasive Orientalism and (post)colonial scholarship. This book addresses a gap in the scholarly debate around defining Hinduism by demonstrating the role of online discourses in generating and projecting images of Hindu religion and culture. This study surveys a wide range of propaganda, websites and social media in which definitions of Hinduism are debated. In particular, it focuses on the role of Hindu nationalism in the presentation and management of Hinduism in the electronic public sphere. Hindu nationalist parties and individuals are highly invested in discussions and presentations of Hinduism online, and actively shape discourses through a variety of strategies. Analysing Hindu nationalist propaganda, cyber activist movements and social media presence, as well as exploring methodological strategies that are useful to the field of religion and media in general, the book concludes by showing how these discourses function in the wider Hindu diaspora. Building on religion and media research by highlighting mechanical and hermeneutic issues of the Internet and how it affects how we encounter Hinduism online, this book will be of significant interest to scholars of religious studies, Hindu studies and digital media.

Hinduism in the Modern World presents a new and unprecedented attempt to survey the nature, range, and significance of modern and contemporary Hinduism in South Asia and the global diaspora. Organized to reflect the direction of recent scholarly research, this volume breaks with earlier texts on this subject by seeking to overcome a misleading dichotomy between an elite, intellectualist "modern" Hinduism and the rest of what has so often been misleadingly termed "traditional" or "popular" Hinduism. Without neglecting the significance of modern reformist visions of Hinduism, this book reconceptualizes the meaning of "modern Hinduism" both by expanding its content and by situating its expression within a larger framework of history, ethnography, and contemporary critical theory. This volume equips undergraduate readers with the tools necessary to appreciate the richness and diversity of Hinduism as it has developed during the past two centuries.

An analysis of the use of media by political and religious interest groups in India