Tolerance, Secularization and Democratic Politics in South Asia

Offers fresh perspectives on the relationship between secularization, tolerance and democracy through a theoretically informed look at South Asian politics.

Humeira Iqtidar (Edited by), Tanika Sarkar (Edited by)

9781108428545, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 July 2018

224 pages, 1 b/w illus. 7 maps
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.51 kg

'At a time when issues of religious intolerance in South Asia are so much in the news, this is a very welcome and timely collection of essays. Taking us beyond abstract theorizing, the book provides a vibrant look at the relationship between secularization and democracy across five South Asia countries – all of them struggling, in different ways, with the creation of democratic political orders. 'Secularization', 'tolerance', and 'religion' are not abstract concepts in these essays, but changing ideas embedded in specific political conflicts. … Taken together, the essays will transform how we think about these concepts.' David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University

What is the relationship between secularization and tolerance? Critically analyzing the empirical and theoretical foundations of a putatively linear relationship between the two, this volume argues for moving past both romanticised readings of pre-modern tolerance and the unthinking belief that secularization will inevitably lead to tolerance. The essays collected in this volume include contributions from across South Asia that suggest that democratic politics have added a layer of complexity to questions of peaceful co-existence. Modern transformations in religious thought and practice have had contradictory implications for tolerance, which offer rich insights into contemporary debates in the region. This multi-disciplinary volume, which spans history, sociology, anthropology and political theory, questions the uncritical acceptance of tolerance as the best framework for engaging with difference, and probes the complications created by and through democratic politics.

1. Introduction Humeira Iqtidar and Tanika Sarkar
2. Languages of secularity Sudipta Kaviraj
3. Secularization of politics: Muslim nationalism and sectarian conflict in South Asia Sadia Saeed
4. Temple building in secularizing Nepal: materializing religion and ethnicity in a state of transformation Sara Shneiderman
5. Secularization and 'constitutive moments': insights from partition diplomacy in South Asia Joya Chatterji
6. Tolerance in Bangladesh: discourses of state and society Samia Huq
7. In the void of faith: Sunnyata, sovereignty, minority Aishwary Kumar
8. Pillayar and the politicians: secularization and toleration at the end of Sri Lanka's Civil War Jonathan Spencer.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Asian history [HBJF]