Religion and Public Culture: Encounters and Identities in Modern South India by

Publisher Description

The last two centuries have witnessed profound changes in the nature of public consciousness. Nowhere has this been more true than in India, especially in relation to changing cultures of public life and religious tradition in South India. Essays in this collection attempt to explore the intricacies of what is perhaps the single most complex socio-religious environment in the world. The essays consider the evolution of the notion of Hinduism as a distinct and singular separate religion; the relationship between this kind of formulation and various European or western influences in India; and differences which the formation of this idea and its acceptance have made upon wider public consciousness. Each essay also considers certain general issues - such as the passing along of religious authority from one generation to the next, and the rise of disputes over matters both ideological (or doctrinal) and institutional, disputes that are fundamental to the traditions concerned and yet have unmistakable cross-cultural references.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Orthodoxies; Chapter 1 The Construction of Hinduism as a Public Religion: Looking Again at the Religious Roots of Company Raj in South India, Robert Eric Frykenberg; Chapter 2 Acting in Public versus Forming a Public: Conflict Processing and Political Mobilization in Nineteenth Century South India, Pamela G. Price; Chapter 3 The Significance of Episcopal Extension for Church-State Relations in British India, Susan Billington Harper; Chapter 4 The Drama of Conversion in the Courts of South India: Challenges to Aggressive Missionary Enterprise and Changing Judicial Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century, John J. Paul; Chapter 5 Routinized Charisma: the Case of Aurobindo and Auroville, Robert K. Minor; Chapter 6 Dissolving One Paradox and Discovering Another: Pillan's Interpretation of Nammalvar's Poem, John B. Carman; Chapter 7 Memories of Brahman Agraharam in Travancore, Pauline Kolenda; Part 2 Heterodoxies; Chapter 8 Cult Saints, Heroes, and Warrior Kings: South Asian Islam in the Making, Susan Bayly; Chapter 9 Persons East and West, Keith E. Yandell; Chapter 10 The Heterodoxies in Tamil Nadu, James D. Ryan;

Review

'An excellent study of the formation of religious publics, their interaction with each other and with other publics. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in the religious history of India.' - Hindu-Christian Studies

Review Quote

'An excellent study of the formation of religious publics, their interaction with each other and with other publics. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in the religious history of India.' - Hindu-Christian Studies

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