Author: T N Srinivasan
Translator(s)/Editor: T N Srinivasan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 327
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978-0-19-568378-3
Description
This volume studies secularism in a cluster of developing countries in Asia and Eastern Europe, all with histories of multiculturalism and religious strife. It examines the roots of the secular principle in the society, politics, law, literature, and media of India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and the former Yugoslavia. It further investigates the current threats to secularism, and lists the options before national and international institutions to defuse them.
The crisis of secularism in contemporary India is an important theme in the volume. The essays present an understanding of the manner in which India developed its peculiar variant of secularism. They analyse the complex social processes by which intended violence against some groups get transformed into aggression against others in times of communal tension. It addition to a historical retrospective on religion and secularism in the subcontinent, there is also a discussion on whether Pakistan can ever become the secular state that Mohammed Ali Jinnah wanted it to be.
Some questions of current global significance are addressed through discussions on other societies: the implications in Indonesia of demands by radical Islamists to impose the Sharia on the post-Soeharto State; the Turkish Experiment of Accommodating Islamic ideals in a parliamentary republic, and the connection with the disintegration of Yugoslavia; and the weakening of secularism and strengthening of bonds between religion and nationalism.
The collection discusses issues of widespread concern in times dominated by ethno-cultural conflicts and Islamist extremism around the world. Timely and topical, it will interest students and scholars of politics, international relations, religion, and history. The interested lay reader too will find it engaging.
Contents
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1. INTRODUCTION
T N SRINIVASAN
PART I
2. Secularism in India
3. The Distinctiveness of Indian Secularism
Comments on Rajeev Bhargava’s The Distinctiveness of Indian Secularism
4. An Inner Violence
5. Is Secularism Alien to Indian Civilizations?
Comments on Romila Thapar’s 'Is Secularism Alien to Indian Civilization?
6.The Future of Secularism and the Promise of Diversity in India
7. The Shifting Qiblah
Comments on F S Aijazuddin’s The Shifting Qiblah
PART II
8. Secularism, Revivalism, Mimicry
What we can Learn from Indonesian Islam
Comments on Goenawan Mohamad’s
Secularism, Revivalism, Mimicry
9. The Clash of Religio-political Thought
PART III
10. Islam and Secularism-Plato and Khomeini
Comments on Nur Yalman’s Islam and Secularism-Plato and Khomeini
11. When Secularism Opposes Nationalism
Comments on Amila Buturovic’s When Secularism Opposes Nationalism
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX