Nation, Nationalism and the Public Sphere

Avishek Ray teaches at the National Institute of Technology Silchar, India. He has earned his PhD in cultural studies from Trent University, Canada. He is interested in intellectual histories and works on issues concerning travel and mobility. He has edited a Bangla anthology on religion and popular culture, and published in reputed journals such as Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Multicultural Education Review, Canadian Journal of Comparative Literature, Journal of Human Values, among others. He has held research fellowships at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, The University of Edinburgh (UK), Purdue University Library (USA), Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (Bulgaria) and Pavia University (Italy).  Ishita Banerjee-Dube is Professor of History at the Center for Asian and African Studies, El Colegio de México (The College of Mexico). She has held the DD Kosambi (Visiting) Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in Goa University, and has been Fellow at the Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt University, Germany. She has been a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, Quito, Ecuador; the University of Syracuse, New York; and the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has also been Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, among others. Her research explores issues of religion, law and power, time and temporality, language and identity, gender and nation, food and emotion, and democracy and social justice. She has authored four books: A History of Modern India (2015), Religion, Law, and Power (2007), Divine Affairs (2001) and, in Spanish, Fronteras del Hinduismo (Borders of Hinduism) (2007).

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Nation, Religion, Identity—Crisscrossing Concerns - Ishita Banerjee-Dube and Avishek RayThe Clash of Religious Politics in India - Mark JuergensmeyerWomen’s Rights between Modernity and Tradition: ‘Modernizing’ Islam - Tabinda M. KhanJourneying in the Vernacular: Pilgrimage, Tourism and Nationalism in Hindi Travelogues - Shobna NijhawanRace, Religion and the Politics of Counting: Historicizing Hindu Nationalism - Sayori GhoshalTemple Construction and the Coming of a Nation: The Birla Mandir in Delhi - Anne HartigGuru-led Faith Movements: The Case of the Art of Living Foundation - Himani KapoorRethinking Cow ‘Protection’: Gender, Caste and Labour at a Gaushala - Ridhima SharmaThe Nation and the Hero, or the 56 Inch Paradox - Manjima ChatterjeeThe Question of Minority Citizenship: Shah Rukh Khan as the ′Global Indian′ - Sreya MitraScreening Hindutva: Religion and Television in India - Maribel Elliet Alvarado BecerrilSacred Spaces and Gendered Sites: The Daikho of the Dimasa - Prithibi GogoiIndex