Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793-1900

This book explores the emergence and subsequent refinement of the idea of Hinduism as it developed among British Protestant missionaries in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using missionary writings, the author shows how the early conservative view of Hinduism as pagan or heathen grew into the dominant paradigm of Hinduism as a unitary, brahman-controlled system, ridden with idolatry, ritualism, superstition, and sexual license. The last few chapters examine the impact of these representations of Hinduism in India and the West. This book is noteworthy for its recognition of the role of 'imagination' and the concept of the 'dominant paradigm'.