The crisis of Indian secularism

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 14, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 11-25

  Ganguly, Sumit ^a  

^a INDIANA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0242382121     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2003.0076     Document Type: Review

References (26)

1. Celia W. Dugger, "Hindu Justifies Mass Killings of Muslims in Reprisal Riots," New York Times, 5 March 2002, A4. For more on the Gujarat pogrom of early 2002, see the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Center Conversations transcript "Hindu Nationalism vs. Islamic Jihad: Religious Militancy in South Asia - A Conversation with Cedric Prakash, Teesta Setalvad, Kamal Chenoy, Sumit Ganguly, Sunil Khilnani, and Jonah Blank," which can be accessed at www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.1533/pub_detail.asp.
2. Celia W. Dugger, "Hindu Justifies Mass Killings of Muslims in Reprisal Riots," New York Times, 5 March 2002, A4. For more on the Gujarat pogrom of early 2002, see the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Center Conversations transcript "Hindu Nationalism vs. Islamic Jihad: Religious Militancy in South Asia - A Conversation with Cedric Prakash, Teesta Setalvad, Kamal Chenoy, Sumit Ganguly, Sunil Khilnani, and Jonah Blank," which can be accessed at www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.1533/pub_detail.asp.
3. For a discussion of this concept, see Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003). See also Larry Diamond's review of Zakaria on pp. 167-71 below; and Robert Kagan, "Idealism Without Apologies: Why There's No Such Thing as Too Much Democracy," New Republic, 7 and 14 July 2003, 27-37.
4. For a discussion of this concept, see Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003). See also Larry Diamond's review of Zakaria on pp. 167-71 below; and Robert Kagan, "Idealism Without Apologies: Why There's No Such Thing as Too Much Democracy," New Republic, 7 and 14 July 2003, 27-37.
5. For a discussion of this concept, see Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003). See also Larry Diamond's review of Zakaria on pp. 167-71 below; and Robert Kagan, "Idealism Without Apologies: Why There's No Such Thing as Too Much Democracy," New Republic, 7 and 14 July 2003, 27-37.
6. For an excellent discussion of the rise of secularism in Europe, see Owen Chadwick, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975). For a discussion of Nehru's signal contributions, see Sarvepalli Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976).
7. For an excellent discussion of the rise of secularism in Europe, see Owen Chadwick, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975). For a discussion of Nehru's signal contributions, see Sarvepalli Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976).
8. For one useful discussion, see Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (New Delhi: Penguin, 1996).
9. James Chiriyankandath, "Creating a Secular State in a Religious Country: The Debate in the Indian Constituent Assembly," Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 38 (July 2000): 1-24.
10. Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn, The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003).
11. Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn, Wheel of Law, 286.
12. Reuters news service, "Indian Court Urges Common Personal Laws," 24 July 2003.
13. The Indian political scientist Rajni Kothari dubbed this the "Congress system." See Rajni Kothari, Politics in India (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970).
14. Even one of the staunchest critics of Indian democracy concedes that Nehru's role in promoting India's institutional development was exemplary. See Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom.
15. Paul R. Brass, The Politics of India Since Independence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
16. For example, even after the rise of violent Sikh separatism in the Punjab and the Indian Army's attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest Sikh shrine, she refused to dispense with her Sikh bodyguards. She explicitly stated that in a secular state the removal of her bodyguards on the basis of their faith would convey an infelicitous political symbolism.
17. For a detailed analysis of the rise of the Jana Sangh and its affiliated organizations, see Bruce Desmond Graham, Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
18. Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
19. For a scholarly analysis of this controversy, see Sarvepalli Gopal, Anatomy of a Confrontation (New Delhi: Viking, 1991).
20. Partha S. Ghosh, The Rise of Political Hinduism in India (Ebenhausen, Germany: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 1995).
21. Karl Friese, "Hijacking India's History," New York Times, 30 December 2002.
22. Those making this argument include the prominent social psychologist Ashis Nandy and political commentators such as Jug Suraiya. For Nandy's views, see "The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Toleration," in Rajeev Bhargava, ed., Secularism and Its Critics (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999); Suraiya's position is articulated in "The Death of God: And the Invention of the Human," eds., Times of India (Delhi), 17 May 2003.
23. Those making this argument include the prominent social psychologist Ashis Nandy and political commentators such as Jug Suraiya. For Nandy's views, see "The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Toleration," in Rajeev Bhargava, ed., Secularism and Its Critics (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999); Suraiya's position is articulated in "The Death of God: And the Invention of the Human," eds., Times of India (Delhi), 17 May 2003.
24. On this point see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "Before the Leviathan: Sectarian Violence and the State in Pre-Colonial India," in Kaushik Basu and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Unraveling the Nation (New Delhi: Penguin, 1996).
25. Edward Luce, "Faith, Caste, and Poverty," Financial Times, 4 July 2003.
26. For an excellent treatment of this subject see Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).