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

Collection of essays that focuses on the effects of the secular state government on religious minorities in India.

About the Author

Anuradha Dingwaney Needham is Donald R. Longman Professor of English at Oberlin College. She is the author of Using the Master's Tools: Resistance and the Literature of the African and South Asian Diasporas. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan is Distinguished Visiting Global Professor in the Department of English at New York University. Her books include The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in India, also published by Duke University Press.

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan is Distinguished Visiting Global Professor in the Department of English at New York University. Her books include The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in India, also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews
"Indian public debates on the question of secularism have been among the most thought-provoking in the contemporary world. This rich collection of essays by Indian intellectuals (including historians, political scientists, and philosophers) reflects the sophisticated character of many of the arguments being deployed. I strongly recommend it to anyone who has been seriously thinking about this problem."-Talal Asad, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity
"This very rich collection of essays from a stellar line of contributors is remarkable not only because it updates Indian debates on secularism. It also evinces a spirit of scrupulous engagement with the present by deliberately situating itself in the shadow of the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002. Philosophical, historical, and contemporary at the same time, these essays add a new dimension to global discussions of liberalism and the politics of the religious Right."-Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies
"This illuminating anthology not only speaks volumes about its distinguished editors but also demands close reading of the scholarly articles by a group of humanists, social scientists, and legal practitioners of India and the U. S. . . . The aim of this timely and scholarly anthology is to provide a forum with a view to brainstorming a model for a viable, reasonable, and rational secular society in post-Gujarat India."
-- Narasingha P. Sil * Religious Studies Review *
"This insightful and informative volume benefits from contributors who are leaders in their fields and is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in religion in India for its sometimes provocative, but always thoughtful engagement with a vitally important contemporary issue which has much broader ramifications in India and elsewhere." -- Catherine Robinson * Journal of Contemporary Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9780822338468
Author Anuradha Dingwaney Needham
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 594g