State, Nation, Religion: Politics and the Public Sphere in Modern India brings together essays that examine the entanglements of state, nation, religion and politics in twentieth- and twenty-first-century India. An important intervention in debates on religious nationalism and public life, the volume challenges neat distinctions between the religious and the secular by highlighting their deep historical and everyday interconnections, while tracing the colonial genealogies of religious nationalism and their imprint on democratic politics. From the juridical rights of deities to constructions of exclusionary, racialised citizenship in Northeast India and the reconfiguration of Kashmir, the fourteen essays in this volume throw light on the intersections of religion and power in law, governance, politics and social life, inviting critical reflection on nationalism and democracy in a plural society.
Ishita Banerjee-Dube is Professor-Researcher at the Centre for Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de México, Mexico City.
Avishek Ray teaches at the National Institute of Technology, Silchar
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors
List of Figures and Photographs
Introduction
Nation, State, Religion, Public Sphere: Critical Considerations Ishita Banerjee-Dube and Avishek Ray
1. The Clash of Religious Politics in India Mark Juergensmeyer 2. Historicising Indigeneity in Northeastern India Sanghamitra Misra
3. Journeying in the Vernacular: Hindi Travelogues and the Discovery of the Nation Shobna Nijhawan
4. Race, Religion, and Enumeration: Configurations of Hindu Nationalism in India, 1910–1947 Sayori Ghoshal
5. The Public and the Person: Religion and Competing Legal Personhoods in Today’s India Esha Meher
6. Racial Citizenship and the ‘Tribal Other’ in Northeast India Roluahpuia
7. The Hindu Right and the Erasure of Kashmir Anuradha Bhasin
8. Screening Hindutva: Religion and Television in India Maribel Elliet Alvarado Becerril
9. State, Nation, Religion Revisiting the Cow Protection Discourse: Gender, Caste and Labour at a North Indian Gaushala Ridhima Sharma
10. Gender and Hindutva: A Study of Jnana Prabodhini Women Swati Dyahadroy
11. The Nation and the Hero Manjima Chatterjee
12. ‘Desh ka sawaal hai’: Shah Rukh Khan, the ‘Global Indian’ and the Problematics of Minority Citizenship in Contemporary India Sreya Mitra
13. ‘Religious Mentality’ and the Coming of a Nation: The Birla Mandir in New Delhi Anne Hartig
14. Guru-led Faith Movements in India: The Case of The Art of Living Foundation Himani Kapoor
Index