The Crisis of Secularism in India

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Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
Duke University Press, 18 ian. 2007 - 411 pagini
While secularism has been integral to India’s democracy for more than fifty years, its uses and limits are now being debated anew. Signs of a crisis in the relations between state, society, and religion include the violence directed against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and the precarious situation of India’s minority religious groups more generally; the existence of personal laws that vary by religious community; the affiliation of political parties with fundamentalist religious organizations; and the rallying of a significant proportion of the diasporic Hindu community behind a resurgent nationalist Hinduism. There is a broad consensus that a crisis of secularism exists, but whether the state can resolve conflicts and ease tensions or is itself part of the problem is a matter of vigorous political and intellectual debate. In this timely, nuanced collection, twenty leading Indian cultural theorists assess the contradictory ideals, policies, and practices of secularism in India.

Scholars of history, anthropology, religion, politics, law, philosophy, and media studies take on a broad range of concerns. Some consider the history of secularism in India; others explore theoretical issues such as the relationship between secularism and democracy or the shortcomings of the categories “majority” and “minority.” Contributors examine how the debates about secularism play out in schools, the media, and the popular cinema. And they address two of the most politically charged sites of crisis: personal law and the right to practice and encourage religious conversion. Together the essays inject insightful analysis into the fraught controversy about the shortcomings and uncertain future of secularism in the world today.

Contributors. Flavia Agnes, Upendra Baxi, Shyam Benegal, Akeel Bilgrami, Partha Chatterjee, V. Geetha, Sunil Khilnani, Nivedita Menon, Ashis Nandy, Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Gyanendra Pandey, Gyan Prakash, Arvind Rajagopal, Paula Richman, Sumit Sarkar, Dwaipayan Sen, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Shabnum Tejani, Romila Thapar, Ravi S. Vasudevan, Gauri Viswanathan

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Cuprins

Gandhi Ambedkar and the Ethics of Communal Representation c 1931
45
Ramasamis Public Critique of Religion
66
Nehrus Faith
89
A Personal Statement
107
Living with Secularism
118
The Contradictions of Secularism
141
The Secular State and the Limits of Dialogue
157
Secular Nationalism Hindutva and the Minority
177
The Transcendental Significance of the Cinema
239
A Riddle Wrapped Inside an Enigma?
267
The Supreme Court the Media and the Uniform Civil Code Debate in India
294
Secularism and the Very Concept of Law
316
Literacy and Conversion in the Discourse of Hindu Nationalism
333
Christian Conversions Hindutva and Secularism
356
Chronology of the Career of Secularism in India
369
Works Cited
373

Secularism History and Contemporary Politics in India
191
Lessons for Secularism
208
Secularism and Popular Indian Cinema
225
Contributors
397
Index
401
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Pagina 6 - You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State ... We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of the State.
Pagina 6 - I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense, as citizens of the State."* These are the words of Mr.
Pagina 41 - A SCRATCH what is god and what is stone the dividing line if it exists is very thin at jejuri and every other stone is god or his cousin there is no crop other than god and god is harvested here around the year and round the clock out of the bad earth and the hard rock that giant hunk of rock the size of a bedroom is khandoba's wife turned to stone the crack that runs right across is the scar from his broadsword he struck her down with once in a fit of rage scratch a rock and a legend springs •...
Pagina 40 - Considered thus, the most apt comment on it is spoken by it: what is god and what is stone the dividing line if it exists is very thin at jejuri and every other stone is god or his cousin...

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