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Subalternity and religion : the prehistory of Dalit empowerment in South Asia
Author
Title
Subalternity and religion : the prehistory of Dalit empowerment in South Asia / Milind Wakankar.
ISBN
0203859650
0415778786
1135166544
9780203859650
9780415778787
9781135166540
Published
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2010.
Physical Description
1 online resource (xii, 202 pages).
Local Notes
Access is available to the Yale community.
Access and use
Access restricted by licensing agreement.
Summary
This book explores the relationship between mainstream and marginal or subaltern religious practice in the Indian subcontinent, and its entanglement with ideas of nationhood, democracy and equality. With detailed readings of texts from Marathi and Hindi literature and criticism, the book brings together studies of Hindu devotionalism with issues of religious violence. Drawing on the arguments of Partha Chatterjee, Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida, the author demonstrates that Indian democracy, and indeed postcolonial democracies in general, do not always adhere to Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality, and that religion and secular life are inextricably enmeshed in the history of the modern, whether understood from the perspective of Europe or of countries formerly colonized by Europe. Therefore subaltern protest, in its own attempt to lay claim to history, must rely on an idea of religion that is inextricably intertwined with the deeply invidious legacy of nation, state, and civilization. The author suggests that the co-existence of acts of social altruism and the experience of doubt born from social strife - 'miracle' and 'violence' - ought to be a central issue for ethical debate. Keeping in view the power and reach of genocidal Hinduism, this book is the first to look at how the religion of marginal communities at once affirms and turns away from secularized religion. This important contribution to the study of vernacular cosmopolitanism in South Asia will be of great interest to historians and political theorists, as well as to scholars of religious studies, South Asian studies and philosophy.
Variant and related titles
Taylor & Francis. EBA 2024-2025.
Other formats
Print version: Wakankar, Milind. Subalternity and religion. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2010
Format
Books / Online
Language
English
Added to Catalog
August 08, 2024
Series
Intersections: colonial and postcolonial histories ; 2
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: The question of a prehistory
Subalternity at the cusp : limits and openings in the Dalit critique
Moral rite before myth and law : death in comparative religion
The time of having-found (God) : languages of Dalit hearsay
The vicissitudes of historical religion
The anomaly of Kabir : historical religion in Dwivedi's Kabir
The pitfalls of a Dalit theology : DR Dharmvir's critique of Dwivedi
System and history in Rajwade's grammar for the Dnyaneswari
The prehistory of historical religion
The suspension of iconoclasm : myth and allegory in the time of deities
Miracle and violence : the allegorical turn in Kabir, Dnyaneswara, and Tukaram
Deity and Daivat : the transfiguration of the folk in Tukaram.
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