India's Agony Over Religion

Gerald James Larson is Professor of History of Religions in the Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara.

"It is comprehensive in its approach to the contemporary crises. I found it to be an extremely interesting book to read." — Ramchandra Gandhi"It is precisely Larson's competence in classical indology that permitted him to explain so lucidly and perceptively the present Indian situation—and also to encompass so clearly the religious developments during the six periods he distinguishes in India's past." —Andre Padoux"The stunning December 6, 1992 event of the destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, and the chaos that ensued, pinpointed the 'agony' that is the subject of this book. The perspective that Larson employs to unpack and analyze that agony is not the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political science—although insights from these fields are in constant use throughout the book), but rather the perspective of one who thoroughly knows the cultural history of South Asia and allows the history and philosophy of religions to confirm fundamental experiences and enduring expressions cumulative for more than four thousand years in the subcontinent. We begin at the beginning, in prehistory no less, and work from there to build an understanding of a great cumulative, multilayered, densely configured civilization." — David M. Knipe"This book is an impressive achievement. It ranges widely in time, reaching from the present back to the Indus Valley Civilization, and it weaves a wide and impressive number of secondary works together to offer a new interpretive framework through which to understand India's present level of religious conflict." — Robert D. Baird

• Preface 1. Introduction: Beating the Retreat Permanences Amid the Inescapable FluxPresent-Day India: An Introductory ProfileThe Terms "State," "Nation-State" and "Civilization"Theoretical Perspective 2. Discontinuity as Continuity (i): Old Indic Formations The World Turned Upside DownTwo Metaphors: Fault Lines and Banyan TreesDiscontinuity as ContinuityThe Indus ValleyThe Indo-BrahmanicalThe Indo-SramanicalThe Indic (Hindu-Buddhist-Jain) 3. Discontinuity as Continuity (II): New Indic Formations The Indo-IslamicThe Indo-Anglian 4. The Minority as Majority The Problem of Coherence in Indian History and CivilizationFrameworks of Meaning in Conversation (Old Indic and New Indic)The Problem of "Religion" in Indian History and Civilization 5. The Secular as Religion and the Community as Citizen India's Hybrid Discourse of ModernityThe 'Secular" As "Religion"The Community as CitizenFive Current Crises The Sikh Community in PunjabKashmiri Muslim DemandsShah Bano BegumThe Mandal CommissionAyodhya (Babri Masjid) 6. Conclusion: The End as the Beginning Two Closing TasksConcluding SummaryThe Search for a New Beginning"Abide with Me..." "...Mother Great and Free" Notes Select Bibliography Index