Breaking the Spell of Dharma and Other Essays
By Meera Nanda
Paperback 81-88394-09-2 Rs.160 (India) $18.00 (overseas)
Hardcover 81-88394-08-4 Rs.350 (India) $27-00 (overseas)
Three Essays Collective, New Delhi
In recent times, there have been very few intellectual voices from among the English-using sections of India with the commitment and s of secularism in India seem to invest faith in 'good Hinduism' and its 'plurality' and seem content to direct their critical energies against Hindutva, refusing to see the fundamental links between the former and the latter. But the very rise of aggressive political Hindutva, since the 1980s, owes to the shallow secularism which refused to formulate a strong critique of Hinduism—in its Brahminical and non-Brahminical variations—but instead sponsored the practice of upholding various mutations of Hinduism in the public sphere. Under the guise of equal respect for all religions and cultural practices, the Indian state and society have openly indulged in and encouraged the celebration and prioritisation of Hindu rituals in public institutions, and the sad part is both secular (left-liberal) and anti-secular anti-Hindutva (broadly the 'Ashis Nandy camp') voices have not been disturbed by this. The crimes of public intellectuals have found an echo in the pursuits of their academic kin. Few university-bound academicians in India have been angered by the injustices they are surrounded by.