Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature
Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature

Author: Roger McNamara

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-06-06

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1498548946

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Secularism and the Crisis of Minority Identity in Postcolonial Literature examines how writers from religious and ethnic minority communities (Anglo-Indians, Burghers, Dalits, Muslims, and Parsis) in India and Sri Lanka engage secularism through novels, short stories, and autobiographies. Given the rise of Hindu nationalism in India and Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, it would seem obvious that minorities would rally around secularism (the separation of church and state). However, this bookargues that the relationship between minorities and secularism is extremely ambivalent. On the one hand, it shows how writers belonging to oppressed communities can deploy secularism as a mode of critique (secular criticism) to challenge the ideologies of dominant groups—the nation, upper-castes, and religious hierarchies. On the other hand, it examines how these writers reveal that other aspects of secularism (secularization and secular time) are responsible for creating essentialized identities that have not only exacerbated relationships between majorities and minorities and between minority groups, but have also created tension within minority groups themselves. Turing to aesthetics and religious faith, these writers attempt to undermine secular social and cultural structures that are responsible for this crisis of minority identity.

The Crisis of Secularism in India
The Crisis of Secularism in India

Author: Anuradha Dingwaney Needham

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2007-01-18

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9780822338468

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In this timely, nuanced collection, twenty leading cultural theorists assess the contradictory ideals, policies, and practices of secularism in India.

Enlightenment in the Colony
Enlightenment in the Colony

Author: Aamir R. Mufti

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-01-10

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1400827663

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Enlightenment in the Colony opens up the history of the "Jewish question" for the first time to a broader discussion--one of the social exclusion of religious and cultural minorities in modern times, and in particular the crisis of Muslim identity in modern India. Aamir Mufti identifies the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India as a colonial variation of what he calls "the exemplary crisis of minority"--Jewishness in Europe. He shows how the emergence of this conflict in the late nineteenth century represented an early instance of the reinscription of the "Jewish question" in a non-Western society undergoing modernization under colonial rule. In so doing, he charts one particular route by which this European phenomenon linked to nation-states takes on a global significance. Mufti examines the literary dimensions of this crisis of identity through close readings of canonical texts of modern Western--mostly British-literature, as well as major works of modern Indian literature in Urdu and English. He argues that the one characteristic shared by all emerging national cultures since the nineteenth century is the minoritization of some social and cultural fragment of the population, and that national belonging and minority separatism go hand in hand with modernization. Enlightenment in the Colony calls for the adoption of secular, minority, and exilic perspectives in criticism and intellectual life as a means to critique the very forms of marginalization that give rise to the uniquely powerful minority voice in world literatures.

Edward Said's Translocations
Edward Said's Translocations

Author: Tobias Doring

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2012-04-27

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1136333258

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Working with processes of translocation enabled Edward Said to point out interdependence and complementarity across geographical borders and disciplinary boundaries while recognizing cultural difference and the distinct historical experiences of colonizer and colonized. This book brings into focus Said’s politics of reading, from his literary criticism in English to his political columns in Arabic. The international contributors—from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, and the United States—investigate his intellectual legacies without necessarily identifying themselves with the critical positions these involve. Instead of treating his work as a unitary theoretical system, the various arguments explored offer a critical assessment of those situations in which his writing has entered into a productive relationship with other theoretical positions and interlocutors. The collection considers location, which has always been a central category in and for Said’s writing; readings, which designates the acts by which, according to Said, the world comes to be constituted; and legacies, which pertains to the many fields across the boundaries of established academic disciplines that have taken up Said’s challenges. The critical positions visited in this book include critical and cultural theory, postcolonialism, literary studies, theatre and performance studies, and visual and music studies.

The Postsecular Imagination
The Postsecular Imagination

Author: Manav Ratti

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-04

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1135096899

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The Postsecular Imagination presents a rich, interdisciplinary study of postsecularism as an affirmational political possibility emerging through the potentials and limits of both secular and religious thought. While secularism and religion can foster inspiration and creativity, they also can be linked with violence, civil war, partition, majoritarianism, and communalism, especially within the framework of the nation-state. Through close readings of novels that engage with animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism, Manav Ratti examines how questions of ethics and the need for faith, awe, wonder, and enchantment can find expression and significance in the wake of such crises. While focusing on Michael Ondaatje and Salman Rushdie, Ratti addresses the work of several other writers as well, including Shauna Singh Baldwin, Mahasweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, and Allan Sealy. Ratti shows the extent of courage and risk involved in the radical imagination of these postsecular works, examining how writers experiment with and gesture toward the compelling paradoxes of a non-secular secularism and a non-religious religion. Drawing on South Asian Anglophone literatures and postcolonial theory, and situating itself within the most provocative contemporary debates in secularism and religion, The Postsecular Imagination will be important for readers interested in the relations among culture, literature, theory, and politics.

Preventing Things from Falling Further Apart
Preventing Things from Falling Further Apart

Author: Paul M. Mukundi

Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781906704704

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Preventing Things from Falling Further Apart: The Preservation of Cultural Identities in Postcolonial African, Indian, and Caribbean Literatures is a ground breaking comparative work that explores a post-Achebe universe in which formerly colonized peoples make efforts to reconstruct their cultures by deconstructing some of the deleterious effects of colonization, while at the same time embracing postcolonial realities. This volume focuses on the culturally-confusing impact of colonization on individuals and their communities, specifically on indigenous languages, education, status of women, and religious participation. The author analyzes representative literary works authored by, from Africa, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Zakes Mda; from India, Mahasweta Devi and Arundhati Roy; and from the Caribbean, Jamaica Kincaid and Maryse Cond . __________________ A highly dynamic and multitalented young scholar, Dr. Paul M. Mukundi was born in Murang'a, Central Kenya. He earned a Bachelor of Education (Honors) in English Language and Literature from Kenyatta University, Kenya, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Morgan State University, Baltimore, USA. He also holds a master's degree in Ministry and a doctorate in Theology from U.S.A. seminaries. Dr. Mukundi has taught in both religious and secular institutions and has served as Dean of Dominion Leadership University, a private religious-degree granting institution. He has presented scholarly papers in many conferences and his articles on postcolonial literature have appeared in such journals as The Zora Neale Hurston Forum and Sankofa: A Journal of African Children's and Young Adult Literature. He has also written a chapter in Postcolonial Discourses and Renegotiations of Black Identities, an anthology edited by Dr. Clement Akassi. Currently, Dr. Mukundi teaches English and literature at Morgan State University, and is the Founder and Chief editor of Literary Horizons Journal.

Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe
Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe

Author: Volker Kaul

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-02-28

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 3030340988

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This volume assembles renowned scholars to address, for the first time, the relationship between minorities and populism in South Asia and Europe from a critical perspective. Despite the very different and to some extent opposite historical and political trajectories, there is today a convergence on nationalist affirmation and on majoritarian politics between South Asia and Europe. In India, the Hindu majority rebels against wide-ranging minority rights anchored in the Constitution. In Europe, the refugee crisis and Islamic radicalization bring to the forefront the postcolonial legacy. Despite all rhetoric, there are obvious dangers of majoritarianism. Populist parties are divisive, partisan, disregard minority rights, engage in lynching, social division, stigmatization and exclusion, turning minorities into second-class citizens. There is a profound structural connection between minorities and the current rise of populism in India and Europe. But there remains a deep perplexity and also anxiety: Does the presence of minorities necessarily have to trigger majoritarian policies? Are there no solutions to this dilemma? Many observers considered multicultural policies and affirmative action programs in India as a possible model for Europe to adopt in order to achieve greater integration. But eventually they seem to have failed. Why so? Are multiculturalism and the recognition of differences still options today? On the other hand, most scholars in India typically reject the European model of liberal democracy and secularism as impracticable in India and locate the reason for the current malaise in the west. But is liberal democracy really so bad in dealing with pluralism? This volume, collecting a selection of the Reset DOC Venice-Padua-Delhi dialogue series, is going to answer two fundamental questions. First, what precisely is the nexus between minorities and populism in South Asia and Europe? Starting from those case studies, the authors will also draw some general theoretical inferences about the nature of populism. Secondly, given the dangers of populism for minorities, the volume will look for the most adequate and feasible solutions.

Postcolonial Yearning
Postcolonial Yearning

Author: A. Sen

Publisher: Palgrave Pivot

Published: 2013-02-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781137332967

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Anglophone postcolonial studies has been characterized by its secular nature. Yet as the first generation of scholars grapples with mortality, a yearning for spiritual meaning is emerging in many texts. This study synthesizes the sacred language used in these texts with critical theory in order to create a holistic frame for interpretive analysis.

The Insurrection of Little Selves
The Insurrection of Little Selves

Author: Aditya Nigam

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

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"The book takes a closer look at the phenomenon of the 'opportunism' of minority cultures - in the Indian context, the Dalit and the Muslim - and suggests that this might be the consequence of nationalism itself, especially of postcolonial nationalisms. For it is nationalism, in fact, which produces the minority problem in the first place."--BOOK JACKET.