Author: Irfan Habib
Several Contributors/
Translator(s)/ Edito: Irfan Habib
Publisher: Tulika
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 291
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81-89487-25-6
Description
Religion has been, and is, an important element in Indian society and history. It is, however, rare for the subject to be discussed with the necessary degree of detachment.
This volume was, therefore, planned with the object of providing a collection of studies that would deal with the role of religion in Indian history on the basis of a rigorous application of academic criteria. The results may surprise those who are more familiar with chauvinistic or apologetic interpretations.
The editor’s introduction and the fifteen chapters range over an extensive period, from pre-history to the present day, and take up specific problems of crucial significance in exploring the inter-relationship between religion and social change.
This volume draws on new research and is meant for academics as well as general readers, who may find here much that is of relevance to their social and intellectual concerns.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
IRFAN HABIB
In Search of the Roots of Religion or Dharma:
Linguistic and Social Routes
D.P. CHATTOPADHYAYA
Religions in Complex societies:
The Myth of the ‘Dark Age’
K.M. SHRIMALI
Social Dimensions of the Cult of Rama
SUVIRA JAISWAL
Eros and History: Sahjiya secrets and the
Tantric Culture of Love
NUPUR CHAUDHURI / RAJAT KANTA RAY
Religion and material Life in Ancient India:
D.D. Kosambi and Niharranjan Ray
BARUN DE
The Islamic Background to Indian History:
An Interpretation of the Islamic Past
M. ATHAR ALI
Kabir: The Historical Setting
IRFAN HABIB
Akbar and the Theologians’ Declaration
(Mahzar) of 1579
OSAMU KONDO
The Road to Sulh-I Kul: Akbar’s Alienation from
Theological Islam
SHIREEN MOOSVI
The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra and its
Influence in India
SYED ALI NADEEM REZAVI
Women in the Sikh discourse:
Liberation or Ambivalence?
KAMLESH MOHAN
Constructing the Hindu Identity
DWIJENDRA NARAYAN JHA
From Religious and Social Reform to Economic
Nationalism: The Nineteenth-Century Reformers
Of Andhra
V. RAMAKRISHNA
Reason and Faith: A Defence of Foucault’s Critique
Of Post-Enlightenment Modernity
FARHAT HASAN
Contemporary communalism:
Textuality and mass Culture
NIRMALANGSHU MUKHERJI
Contributors
Index