The Secular Imaginary
Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

It sheds light on Indian narratives of secularity – Gandhian sarva dharma samabhava, Nehruvian secularism and Gandhi-Nehru tradition.

Sushmita Nath (Author)

9781009180290, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 November 2022

300 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.49 kg

Given the popularity and success of the Hindu-Right in India's electoral politics today, how may one study ostensibly 'Western' concepts and ideas, such as the secular and its family of cognates, like secularism, secularisation and secularity in non-Western societies without assuming them simply as derivative, or colonial legacies or contrast cases of Western societies? While recognizing that the dominant language of political modernity of Western societies is not easily translatable in non-Western societies, The Secular Imaginary elaborates upon an intellectual history of secularity in modern India by focusing on the two most influential political leaders – M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. It is an intellectual history of both idea(s) and intellectuals, which sheds light on Indian narratives of secularity – the Gandhian sarva dharma samabhava, Nehruvian secularism, and unity in diversity. It revisits this dominant narrative of secularity of the twentieth century that influenced and shaped the imagination of the modern nation-state.

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1. Debating the secular beyond the west
2. Gandhi's ashram and political thought: a counter-narrative of secularity
3. Gandhi's associationalism: a non-state alternative to liberal secularism?
4. Was Nehru Nehruvian? Religion, secularity, and Nehruism
5. Nehru and the politics of liberalism of fear
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Nationalism [JPFN], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Social theory [JHBA], Sociology [JHB], Social & political philosophy [HPS], History [HB]