Disenchanting India

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Disenchanting India

Author : Johannes Quack
Publisher : OUP USA
ISBN 13 : 0199812608
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

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Book Synopsis Disenchanting India by : Johannes Quack

Download or read book Disenchanting India written by Johannes Quack and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-11-22 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Johannes Quack challenges this representation through an examination of the contemporary Indian rationalist organizations: groups who affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism, or free-thinking. Quack shows the rationalists' emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India is an ethnographic study of the organization ''Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti'' (Organization for the Eradication of Superstition), based in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Quack gives a nuanced account of the Organization's specific "mode of unbelief." He describes the group's efforts to encourage a scientific temper and to combat beliefs and practices that it regards as superstitious. Quack also shows the role played by rationalism in the day-to-day lives of the Organization's members, as well as the Organization's controversial position within Indian society. Disenchanting India contributes crucial insight into the nature of rationalism in the intellectual life and cultural politics of India.

Temples of Modernity

Author : Robert M. Geraci
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 149857775X
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Temples of Modernity by : Robert M. Geraci

Download or read book Temples of Modernity written by Robert M. Geraci and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Temples of Modernity uses ethnographic data to investigate the presence of religious ideas and practices in Indian science and engineering. Geraci shows 1) how the integration of religion, science and technology undergirds pre- and post-independence Indian nationalism, 2) that traditional icons and rituals remain relevant in elite scientific communities, and 3) that transhumanist ideas now percolate within Indian visions of science and technology. This work identifies the intersection of religion, science, and technology as a worldwide phenomenon and suggests that the study of such interactions should be enriched through attention to the real experiences of people across the globe.

The Law of Possession

Author : William S. Sax
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190493658
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis The Law of Possession by : William S. Sax

Download or read book The Law of Possession written by William S. Sax and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rituals combining healing with spirit possession and court-like proceedings are found around the world and throughout history. For example, a person suffers from an illness that cannot be cured, and in order to be healed he performs a ritual involving prosecution and defense, a judge and witnesses. Divine beings give evidence through human oracles, spirits possess their human victims and are exorcized, and local gods intervene to provide healing and justice. Such practices seem to be the very antithesis of modernity and many modern, secular states have systematically attempted to eliminate them. Why are such rituals largely absent from modern societies, and what happens to them when the state attempts to expunge them from their health and justice systems, or even to criminalize them? Despite the prevalence of rituals involving some or all of these elements, The Law of Possession represents the first attempt to compare and analyze them systematically. The volume brings together historical and contemporary case studies from East Asia, South Asia, and Africa, and argues that, despite consistent attempts by states to discourage, eliminate, and criminalize them, such rituals persist and even thrive because they meet widespread human needs.

Witchcraft Accusations from Central India

Author : Helen Macdonald
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000225712
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Witchcraft Accusations from Central India by : Helen Macdonald

Download or read book Witchcraft Accusations from Central India written by Helen Macdonald and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2020-11-22 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unravels the institutions surrounding witchcraft in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh through theoretical and empirical research on witchcraft, violence and modernity in contemporary times. The author pieces together ‘fragments’ of stories gathered utilising ethnographic methods to examine the meanings associated with witches and witchcraft, and how they connect with social relations, gender, notions of agency, law, media and the state. The volume uses the metaphor of the shattered urn to tell the story of the accusations, punishment, rescue and the aftermath of the events of the trial of women accused of being witches. It situates the ṭonhī or witch as a key elaborating symbol that orders behaviour to determine who the socially included and excluded are in communities. Through the personal interviews and other ethnographic methods conducted over the course of many years, the author delves into the stories and practices related to witchcraft, its relations with modernity, and the relationship between violence and ideological norms in society. Insightful and detailed, this book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of anthropology, development studies, sociology, history, violence, gender studies, tribal studies and psychology. It will also be useful for readers in both historic and contemporary witchcraft practices as well as policy makers.

Religion and Technology in India

Author : Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351204777
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (512 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Technology in India by : Knut A. Jacobsen

Download or read book Religion and Technology in India written by Knut A. Jacobsen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-04 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion tends to flourish when technological developments create new possibilities for communication and representation, and simultaneously change as a consequence of these developments. This book explores intersections between religion and technology in India, at the present and in the colonial past, and how various forms of techno-religious intersections transform and open up for new religious practices, discourses, communities, and institutions. With focus on Indian contexts and religions, it discusses various empirical and theoretical aspects of how technological innovations create, alter, and negotiate religious spaces, practices and authorities. The book provides rich and multifaceted empirical examples of different ways in which technological practices relate to meanings, ideas, and practices of religions. The techno-religious intersections generate several questions about authority and power, the politics and poetics of identity, community and place, and how religious agency, information, and experience are mediated, commodified, and adjusted to new demands of societies. The chapters explore the Hindu, Jain, and Sikh traditions in relation to new technological developments and media, such as photography, new means of visualization, TV serials, mobile phones, and online communication. The book will be of interest to academics studying modern and contemporary India and South Asia, and especially the role of religion and technology.

Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India

Author : Eve Rebecca Parker
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004450084
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India by : Eve Rebecca Parker

Download or read book Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India written by Eve Rebecca Parker and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India, Eve Rebecca Parker theologises with the Dalit women who from childhood have been dedicated to village goddesses and used as ‘sacred’ sex workers.

The Indian Media Economy (2-volume set)

Author : Adrian Athique
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199091781
Total Pages : 584 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis The Indian Media Economy (2-volume set) by : Adrian Athique

Download or read book The Indian Media Economy (2-volume set) written by Adrian Athique and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-29 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twenty-first century has witnessed the rise of India as a major media producer and consumer market increasingly engaged with the global economy. Aided by rising incomes, technological remediation, regulatory strategies, and a shifting political terrain, the business of media has been given official recognition as a substantive component of India’s economy and as a prominent feature of its economic thinking. In light of these developments, these two pioneering volumes investigate the dynamics of an increasingly integrated media economy encompassing television, film, music, sport, and telecoms. Volume 1: Industrial Dynamics and Cultural Adaptation illustrates the distinctive industrial dynamics of India’s media economy, tracking the deeply embedded cultural, political, and economic forces that determine its everyday operation. The selection of essays serves to demonstrate the unique patterns of development and the complex field of exchanges that have constituted India’s media economy. As a whole, this volume posits a comprehensive approach to understanding the nature of media resources, the negotiation of industrial norms and the cultural context of a media economy firmly situated in the realities of India’s distinct regions, cultures, and human networks. Volume 2: Market Dynamics and Social Transactions provides a comprehensive analysis of the interlocking markets that constitute the media economy, focusing upon its particular commodity forms, labour conditions, and spaces of consumption. Taking account of a rich set of case studies, this volume argues for the necessary consideration of multiple and interdependent markets in explicating our everyday encounters with media. By foregrounding the social transactions that encapsulate market exchanges, it begins to illustrate some of the novel aspirations, meanings, and relationships arising with India’s media economy.

Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World

Author : Anne Gerritsen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350195901
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World by : Anne Gerritsen

Download or read book Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World written by Anne Gerritsen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing materiality into the study of the history of medicine, this volume hones in on communities across the Indian Ocean World and explores how they understood and engaged with health and medical commodities. Opening up spatial dimensions and challenging existing approaches to knowledge, power and the market, it defines 'therapeutic commodity' and explores how different materials were understood and engaged with in various settings and for a number of purposes. Offering new spatial realms within which the circulation of commodities created new regimes of meaning, Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World demonstrates how medicinal substances have had immediate and far-reaching economic and political consequences in various capacities. From midwifery and umbilical cords, to the social spaces of soap, perfumes in early modern India and remedies for leprosy, this volume considers a vast range of material culture in medicinal settings to better understand the history of medicine and its role in global connections since the early 17th century.

Science and Religion in India

Author : Renny Thomas
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000534316
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Science and Religion in India by : Renny Thomas

Download or read book Science and Religion in India written by Renny Thomas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth ethnographic study of science and religion in the context of South Asia, giving voice to Indian scientists and shedding valuable light on their engagement with religion. Drawing on biographical, autobiographical, historical, and ethnographic material, the volume focuses on scientists’ religious life and practices, and the variety of ways in which they express them. Renny Thomas challenges the idea that science and religion in India are naturally connected and argues that the discussion has to go beyond binary models of ‘conflict’ and ‘complementarity’. By complicating the understanding of science and religion in India, the book engages with new ways of looking at these categories.

Indian Asceticism

Author : Carl Olson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190225327
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Indian Asceticism by : Carl Olson

Download or read book Indian Asceticism written by Carl Olson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the history of Indian religions, the ascetic figure is most closely identified with power. A by-product of the ascetic path, power is displayed in the ability to fly, walk on water or through dense objects, read minds, discern the former lives of others, see into the future, harm others, or simply levitate one's body. These tales give rise to questions about how power and violence are related to the phenomenon of play. Indian Asceticism focuses on the powers exhibited by ascetics of India from ancient to modern time. Carl Olson discusses the erotic, the demonic, the comic, and the miraculous forms of play and their connections to power and violence. He focuses on Hinduism, but evidence is also presented from Buddhism and Jainism, suggesting that the subject matter of this book pervades India's major indigenous religious traditions. The book includes a look at the extent to which findings in cognitive science can add to our understanding of these various powers; Olson argues that violence is built into the practice of the ascetic.Indian Asceticism culminates with an attempt to rethink the nature of power in a way that does justice to the literary evidence from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sources.

Unbelief in Interwar Literary Culture

Author : Suzanne Hobson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192846477
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (928 download)

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Book Synopsis Unbelief in Interwar Literary Culture by : Suzanne Hobson

Download or read book Unbelief in Interwar Literary Culture written by Suzanne Hobson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-02 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a new account of the relationship between literary and secularist scenes of writing in interwar Britain. Organized secularism has sometimes been seen as a phenomenon that lived and died with the nineteenth century. But associations such as the National Secular Society and the Rationalist Press Association survived into the twentieth and found new purpose in the promotion and publishing of serious literature. This book assembles a group of literary figures whose work was recommended as being of particular interest to the unbelieving readership targeted by these organisations. Some, including Vernon Lee, H.G. Wells, Naomi Mitchison, and K.S. Bhat, were members or friends of the R.P.A.; others, such as Mary Butts, were sceptical but nonetheless registered its importance in their work; a third group, including D.H. Lawrence and George Moore, wrote in ways seen as sympathetic to the Rationalist cause. All of these writers produced fiction that was experimental in form and, though few of them could be described as modernist, they shared with modernist writers a will to innovate. This book explores how Rationalist ideas were adapted and transformed by these experiments, focusing in particular on the modifications required to accommodate the strong mode of unbelief associated with British secularism to the notional mode of belief usually solicited by fiction. Whereas modernism is often understood as the literature for a secular age, Unbelief in Interwar Literary Culture looks elsewhere to find a literature that draws more directly on secularism for its aesthetics and its ethics.

Shared Devotion, Shared Food

Author : Jon Keune
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197574858
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Shared Devotion, Shared Food by : Jon Keune

Download or read book Shared Devotion, Shared Food written by Jon Keune and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Hindu devotional or bhakti traditions welcomed marginalized people-women, low castes, and Dalits-were they promoting social equality? In this book, Jon Keune deftly examines the root of this deceptively simple question. The modern formulation of the bhakti-caste question is what Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar had in mind when he concluded that the saints promoted spiritual equality but did not transform society. While taking Ambedkar's judgment seriously, Jon Keune argues that, when viewed in the context of intellectual history and social practice, the bhakti-caste question is more complex. Shared Devotion, Shared Food explores how people in western India wrestled for centuries with two competing values: a theological vision that God welcomes all people, and the social hierarchy of the caste system. Keune examines the ways in which food and stories about food were important sites where this debate played out, particularly when people of high and low social status ate together. By studying Marathi manuscripts, nineteenth-century publications, plays, and films, Shared Devotion, Shared Food reveals how the question of caste, inclusivity, and equality was formulated in different ways over the course of three centuries, and it explores why social equality remains so elusive in practice.

A Storm of Songs

Author : John Stratton Hawley
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674187466
Total Pages : 457 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (741 download)

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Book Synopsis A Storm of Songs by : John Stratton Hawley

Download or read book A Storm of Songs written by John Stratton Hawley and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A widely-accepted explanation for India’s national unity is a narrative called the bhakti movement—poet-saints singing bhakti from India’s southern tip to the Himalayas between 600 and 1600. John Hawley shows that this narrative, with its political overtones, was created by the early-twentieth-century circle around Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal.

Secularity and Non-Religion

Author : Elisabeth Arweck
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134910584
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis Secularity and Non-Religion by : Elisabeth Arweck

Download or read book Secularity and Non-Religion written by Elisabeth Arweck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-16 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present collection brings together a set of essays which shed light on recent research into non-religion, secularity and atheism—topics which have been emerging as important areas of current research in a number of different disciplines. The essays cover a wide span—in terms of the various stances they discuss (secular, atheist, non-religious), the settings in which these topics are relevant (families, wider society, politics, demography) and the different perspectives which relate to socialisation and social relations (belief acquisition, discrimination). Written by authors from a variety of national settings and academic disciplines, the collection presents a range of methodologies, combining theoretical approaches with quantitative and qualitative research findings. The authors address issues related to an important academic field which had been neglected for some time, but which has been made relevant by the increasing percentage of people professing a non-religious stance. This collection represents a major contribution to this area of academic research, not only because it puts the themes of non-religion and secularity firmly on the academic map, but also because it offers a variety of different viewpoints and aims to bring clarity into the use of concepts and terminology. The authors make important contributions to the emerging body of research in this area and point out areas where further research is needed. The first essay provides a thorough introduction to this field, taking stock of the work done so far, highlighting the overarching issues, and embedding the essays in the wider context of existing literature. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary Religion.

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism

Author : Kerstin Radde-Antweiler
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351396080
Total Pages : 568 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism by : Kerstin Radde-Antweiler

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism written by Kerstin Radde-Antweiler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, challenges, past and present global issues and debates in this exciting subject. The first collection of its kind, this volume comprises over 25 chapters by a team of international contributors. This Handbook is divided into five parts, each taking global developments in the field into account: Theoretical Reflections Power and Authority Conflict, Radicalization and Populism Dialogue and Peacebuilding Trends Within these sections, central issues, debates and developments are examined, including religious and secular press; ethics; globalization; gender; datafication; differentiation; journalistic religious literacy; race and religious extremism. This volume is essential reading for students and researchers in journalism and religious studies. This Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as sociology, communication studies, media studies and area studies.

The Afterlife of Sai Baba

Author : Karline McLain
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295806516
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

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Book Synopsis The Afterlife of Sai Baba by : Karline McLain

Download or read book The Afterlife of Sai Baba written by Karline McLain and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths—Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin. Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining—and enlightening—look at one of South Asia’s most popular spiritual gurus.

The Guru in South Asia

Author : Jacob Copeman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113629807X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (362 download)

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Book Synopsis The Guru in South Asia by : Jacob Copeman

Download or read book The Guru in South Asia written by Jacob Copeman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a set of fresh and compelling interdisciplinary approaches to the enduring phenomenon of the guru in South Asia. Moving across different gurus and kinds of gurus, and between past and present, the chapters call attention to the extraordinary scope and richness of the social lives and roles of South Asian gurus. Prevailing scholarship has rightly considered the guru to be a source of religious and philosophical knowledge and mystical bodily practices. This book goes further and considers the social engagements and entanglements of these spiritual leaders, not just on their own (narrowly denominational) terms, but in terms of their diverse, complex, rapidly evolving engagements with ‘society’ broadly conceived. The book explores and illuminates the significance of female gurus, gurus from the perspective of Islam, imbrications of guru-ship and slavery in pre-modern India, connections between gurus and power, governance and economic liberalization in modern and contemporary India, vexed questions of sexuality and guru-ship, gurus’ charitable endeavours, the cosmopolitanism of gurus in contexts of spiritual tourism, and the mediation of gurus via technologies of electronic communication. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars from religious studies, political science, history, sociology and anthropology, The Guru in South Asia provides exciting and original new insights into South Asian guru-ship. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.