Rethinking Pluralism, Secularism and Tolerance

Neera Chandhoke held a professorship in the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. She has been a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; Justitia Amplificata, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany; Centre for Ethics and Global Politics, Luiss University, Rome, Italy; and Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom. She was awarded the Gaetano Mosca Fellowship at the University of Turin, Torino, Italy. She has been a Jawaharlal Nehru National Fellow, and a fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti Bhawan, New Delhi. She has published on civil society—Democracy and Revolutionary Politics; Contested Secessions: Self-Determination, Democracy and Kashmir; Beyond Secularism: The Rights of Religious Minorities and State and Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory—and is a regular contributor to academic journals and newspapers. Her interests include reading particularly detective novels, listening to music and watching films.

• Foreword by M. Hamid AnsariPrefacePluralism and SecularismThe Political Context: CommunalismSecularism: The DebateColonialism, Nationalism and the Making of Religious IdentityThe Evolution of Minority Rights and Secularism in IndiaEquality and the Rights of MinoritiesThe Principle of ToleranceWrapping UpReferencesIndex

"The attempt to explain the political context and the relevance of secularism deserves enormous appreciation… This book is one of the finest attempts to synthesize theoretical approaches and empirical evidence to explain the notion of secularism, the anxieties we face today in religious coexistence, and the threat that the Hindu Right poses to India’s social fabric and to the county’s political structure."