
Assertive Religious Identities
India & Europe
Manohar Publishers and Distributors
Published on 1. January 2006
Book
Hardback
480 pages
978-81-7304-673-5 (ISBN)
Description
Arising out of a seminar at Jamia Millia Islamia in October 2003, this volume addresses an aspect of Indian society which has been a matter of widespread concern: the working, that is, of major institutions -- some Hindu, some Muslim -- whose ideologies and positions have been socially separative. These institutions -- Arya Samaj, the seminary at Deoband, RSS, Tablighi Jamaat -- have been active for several generations now. While their ostensible functions are 'religious' or 'cultural', which seem innocent enough, for their (implicitly or explicitly separative) agendas, these have worked out low cost forms of organization and activity -- which have given them a rather formidable expansive dynamic, which, has significant transnational, dimensions in each case. Their activities and campaigns have often been aggressive, sometimes prone to violence; and these have served, may be unintentionally, to provoke each other, thereby giving the other side justification for its own contentious activities, as if in collective self-defence. The mutual provocations have, over the decades, confirmed for both sides, a sense of their own victim-hood. These social mechanisms have had significant social and political consequences -- yet have remained largely off the radars of public attention. It is a complex theme; and this volume presents many facets from different angles. Several contributors employ a long-term historical perspective; and also a comparative one, reaching out to Europe, another major region where the mutual relations between major religious traditions have also been problematical for a very long time.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Delhi
India
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 145 mm
Weight
664 gr
ISBN-13
978-81-7304-673-5 (9788173046735)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Satish Saberwal was Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Publications include Wages of Segmentation: Comparative Historical Studies on Europe and India (1995), Roots of Crisis: Interpreting Contemporary Indian Society (1996), and Social Conflict (1996, co-edited with N. Jayaram).
Content
Preface; Introduction; Who is a Malayali Anyway? Language, Community & Identity in Precolonial Kerala; From Dar-ul-Harb to Dar-ul-Islam?: Chishti Sufi Accounts & the Emergence of Islam in the Delhi Sultanate; Conflict & Coexistence: Jews in Europe under Muslim & Christian Rule; Living Plurally: A Nineteenth-Century Delhi Intelligentsia; Standardizing Muslim Scholarship: The Nadwat al-ulama; Local Roots of Tablighi Jamaat in Orissa; Assertive Religious Identities, Secular Nation States & the Question of Pluralism; Hindutva Ideas of the Past; The Navigators of Hindu Rashtra: RSS Pracharaks; Trishul Diksha, Cross Burning & the Politics of Hate; Identity Assertions as Contentious Acts; The Evolution of Political Islam in Jammu & Kashmir; Do Hindu & Islamic Transnational Religious Movements represent Cosmopolitanism & Difference?; Adivasi vs Vanvasi: The Politics of Conversion in Central India; In Pursuit of Tolerance: Why Liberty should Receive Priority; Asserting Religious Identities in the Federal Republic of Germany; Transcending Religious Identities: Amrita Pritam & Partition; Index.