Religion and Public Culture: Encounters and Identities in Modern South India

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John Jeya Paul, Keith E. Yandell
Psychology Press, 2000 - History - 260 pages

The last two centuries have witnessed profound changes in the nature of public consciousness. Nowhere has this been more true than in India, especially in relation to changing cultures of public life and religious tradition in South India. Essays in this collection attempt to explore the intricacies of what is perhaps the single most complex socio-religious environment in the world. The essays consider the evolution of the notion of Hinduism as a distinct and singular separate religion; the relationship between this kind of formulation and various European or western influences in India; and differences which the formation of this idea and its acceptance have made upon wider public consciousness. Each essay also considers certain general issues - such as the passing along of religious authority from one generation to the next, and the rise of disputes over matters both ideological (or doctrinal) and institutional, disputes that are fundamental to the traditions concerned and yet have unmistakable cross-cultural references.

 

Contents

Looking
3
Conflict Processing
27
The Significance of Episcopal Extension for ChurchState
56
the Case of Aurobindo and Auroville
130
Pillans
149
Memories of Brahman Agraharam in Travancore
162
South Asian Islam
193
The Heterodoxies in Tamil Nadu
232
INDEX
258
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