Crisis of Secularism in India

Anuradha Dingwaney Needham is Donald R. Longman Professor of English at Oberlin College. She is the author of Using the Master’s Tools: Resistance and the Literature of the African and South Asian Diasporas. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan is Distinguished Visiting Global Professor in the Department of English at New York University. Her books include The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in India, also published by Duke University Press.Rajeswari Sunder Rajan is Distinguished Visiting Global Professor in the Department of English at New York University. Her books include The Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in India, also published by Duke University Press.

• Preface viiAcknowledgments xiIntroduction / Rajeswari Sunder Rajan and Anuradha Dingwaney Needham 1I. Secularism’s Historical Background Reflections on the Category of Secularism in India: Gandhi, Ambedkar, and the Ethics of Communal Representation, c. 1931 / Shabnum Tejani 45A View from the South: Ramasami’s Public Critique of Religion / Paula Richman and V. Geetha 66Nehru’s Faith / Sunil Khilnani 89II. Secularism and Democracy Closing the Debate on Secularism: A Personal Statement / Ashis Nandy 107Living with Secularism / Nivedita Menon 118The Contradictions of Secularism / Partha Chatterjee 141Secular Nationalism, Hindutva, and the Minority / Gyan Prakash 177III. Sites of Secularism: Education, Media, and Cinema Secularism, History, and the Contemporary Politics in India / Romila Thapar 191The Gujarat Experiment and Hindu National Realism: Lessons from Secularism / Arvind Rajagopal 208Secularism and Popular Indian Cinema / Shyam Benegal 225Neither State nor Faith: The Transcendental Significance of the Cinema / Ravi S. Vasudevan 239IV. Secularism and Personal Law Siting Secularism in the Uniform Civil Code: A “Riddle Wrapped Inside an Enigma”? / Upendra Baxi 267The Supreme Court, the Media, and the Uniform Civil Code Debate in India / Flavia Agnes 294Secularism and the Very Concept of Law / Akeel Bilgrami 316V. Conversion Literacy and Conversion in the Discourse of Hindu Nationalism / Gauri Viswanathan 333Christian Conversions, Hindutva, and Secularism / Sumit Sarkar 356Appendix: Chronology of the Career of Secularism in India / Dwaipayan Sen 369Works Cited 373Contributors 397Index 401

“Indian public debates on the question of secularism have been among the most thought-provoking in the contemporary world. This rich collection of essays by Indian intellectuals (including historians, political scientists, and philosophers) reflects the sophisticated character of many of the arguments being deployed. I strongly recommend it to anyone who has been seriously thinking about this problem.”-Talal Asad, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity “This very rich collection of essays from a stellar line of contributors is remarkable not only because it updates Indian debates on secularism. It also evinces a spirit of scrupulous engagement with the present by deliberately situating itself in the shadow of the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002. Philosophical, historical, and contemporary at the same time, these essays add a new dimension to global discussions of liberalism and the politics of the religious Right.”-Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies “This illuminating anthology not only speaks volumes about its distinguished editors but also demands close reading of the scholarly articles by a group of humanists, social scientists, and legal practitioners of India and the U. S. . . . The aim of this timely and scholarly anthology is to provide a forum with a view to brainstorming a model for a viable, reasonable, and rational secular society in post-Gujarat India.”- Narasingha P. Sil (Religious Studies Review) “This insightful and informative volume benefits from contributors who are leaders in their fields and is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in religion in India for its sometimes provocative, but always thoughtful engagement with a vitally important contemporary issue which has much broader ramifications in India and elsewhere.” - Catherine Robinson (Journal of Contemporary Religion)