Mary Searle-Chatterjee – författare

Religion, Language and Power shows that the language of ‘religion’ is far from neutral, and that the packaging and naming of what English speakers call ‘religious’ groups or identities is imbued with the play of power. Religious Studies has all too often served to amplify voices from other centers of power, whether scripturalist or otherwise normative and dominant. This book’s de-centering of English classifications goes beyond the remit of most postcolonial studies in that it explores the classifications used in a range of languages — including Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek and English — to achieve a comparative survey of the roles of language and power in the making of ‘religion’ . In contextualizing these uses of language, the ten contributors explore how labels are either imposed or emerge interactively through discursive struggles between dominant and marginal groups. In dealing with the interplay of religion, language and power, there is no other book with the breadth of this volume.

Religion, Language and Power shows that the language of ‘religion’ is far from neutral, and that the packaging and naming of what English speakers call ‘religious’ groups or identities is imbued with the play of power. Religious Studies has all too often served to amplify voices from other centers of power, whether scripturalist or otherwise normative and dominant. This book’s de-centering of English classifications goes beyond the remit of most postcolonial studies in that it explores the classifications used in a range of languages — including Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek and English — to achieve a comparative survey of the roles of language and power in the making of ‘religion’ . In contextualizing these uses of language, the ten contributors explore how labels are either imposed or emerge interactively through discursive struggles between dominant and marginal groups. In dealing with the interplay of religion, language and power, there is no other book with the breadth of this volume.

Timely in its contribution to on-going debates on the decolonization of education, this novel volume charts the development of a scheme of postgraduate transnational education that saw British students sent to Indian and South Asian Universities while political decolonization was still ongoing.Representing the first book-length publication focused entirely on the educational effects of this aspect of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme, chapters are based on the personal narratives of 40 learners, providing a rich historical, qualitative study which sets the students’ experiences in their social and economic context. Demonstrating the changes that took place over time, chapters engage with debates about overt and implicit forms of colonial thinking, as well as discussion concerning cultural and educational decolonization within the academy. Ultimately, this compelling book demonstrates that educational decolonization goes beyond a mere awareness of imperialism and inequalities, instead reaching further towards a genuine, humanist engagement with other cultures.Offering a first-hand account of an early decolonial venture, the book will be invaluable to academics, postgraduate students and scholars interested in decolonizing and international education, as well as in South Asian Studies. Policy makers in international educational contexts may also find the volume useful.