Modern Myths, Locked Minds

Description

Secularism is one of the important and contentious public debates in India today. It is seen to be in greater crisis now than ever before, making a case for the continuing presence of this book. The debate also furnishes the making of Indian polity and society, given the inter-related development of culture, society and politics in India. It is thus a debate about religious nationalism and fundamentalism as well. This volume examines the ideologies of secularism and fundamentalism in the setting of the religious traditions of India — Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam. Further insightful comparison of the traditions is offered, each seen over a long period of time, revealing markedly distinctive historical experiences.
This second, paperback edition comes with a new preface where the author revisits this debate and contemporarises it for the reader. Also included are two new appendices on secularism.

About the Author

Table of contents

Preface to the Second Edition; Preface to the First Edition; Acknowledgements;
1.: Introduction: Scope, Concepts, Method;
2.: The Sikh Religious Tradition: Meanings of Secularism;
3.: The Sikh Religious Tradition: Fundamentalisms, Old and New;
4.: Islam in South Asia: From Orthodoxy to Fundamentalism;
5.: Islam in South Asia: Quest for Pluralism;
6.: The Hindu Religious Tradition: Secularism as Pluralism;
7.: The Hindu Religious Tradition: revivalism and Fundamentalism;
8.: The Crisis of Indian Secularism;
Epilogue; Appendix I: Secularism in its Place; Appendix II: Secularism Revisited: Doctrine of Destiny or Political Ideology?; Glossary; References; Index