Synopses & Reviews
This compact, incisive study by a senior scholar provides a new look at two issues which have polarized India over the last decades: religion and nationalism. Embree shows how the relatively modern Western notions of religion and nationalism have been thrust on the Third World and examines how Hindu civilization has resisted such cultural incursions. He argues that the tension generated by competing visions of the just society has been the determining factor in the social and political life of India during this century, showing how the political aspects of religion and the ideological character of nationalism has led inexorably and unfortunately to conflict. Further, the author asserts that in India, as elsewhere in the world at the end of the twentieth century, religions have legitimized violence as people struggle for what they regard as their just claims upon the future. As examples of the tension around religion and nationalism, he examines in detail two recent, explosive casesone involving Muslim-Hindu communal encounters, the other, the separatist movement of Sikhs.
Utopias In Conflict gracefully and elegantly illuminates current issues in South Asian politics and contributes considerably to the broader discussion of fundamentalism and religious violence in the Third World. Thought-provoking and searching, this work should interest anyone concerned about fundamentalism, the problems of national integration, and politics and religion in the Third World.
Synopsis
"Embree is much against prevailing views of India, and that is good in stirring thought. I have modified my views about pluralism in India as a result of reading this book. Embree raises important and prickly questions."Ninian Smart, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Especially significant about this work is its focus upon 'fundamentalistic' elements within both religions and nationalisms which are now competing for dominance in South Asia. With rising concern over many kinds of fundamentalism in South Asia, this very sensitive analysis of the roots of another form of fundamentalism, which has strong ties to indigenous culture in South India, is especially timely."Robert Frykenberg, University of Wisconsin
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [133]-139) and index.
About the Author
Ainslie T. Embree is Professor of History at Columbia University, general editor of the Encyclopedia of Asian History, and author of numerous books on religion, politics, and society in India.