Secularism

The New Religious Freedom: Secular Fictions and Church Autonomy

“…While it is becoming more difficult for scholars to view secularism simply as the opposite of religion, or the absence of religion, it remains difficult to adequately state what secularism is. On the one hand, it is now commonly argued that secularism is equivalent to the culture of protestant Christianity, and to the individualistic culture of modern, pluralistic democracy (Berger 2007), and along the same lines, but turned somewhat more critically and provocatively, it has been suggested secularism is simply equivalent to western Christianity, which is simply equivalent to western Imperialism (Anidjar 2006). On the other hand, it has been argued that secularism as such does not exist, that there is no general, global phenomenon that corresponds to "the secular," and that scholars can only meaningfully investigate the interrelation of distinct religious traditions, with particular regimes of governance, on individual occasions or around certain issues (Bowen 2010).…”

Praying and playing to the beat of a child's metronome

“…6 I am drawing these thoughts and words from Jean-Luc Nancy (2008). 7 Anidjar, 2006, p. 61. 8 Nancy, 2008.…”

Ethical selfhood and the status of the secular: Muslim identity in Mumbai

“…4. A broadly representative but not exhaustive list of this literature would include a multitude of writers spanning a range of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, history, literary criticism, philosophy and political science (Anidjar 2006;Bhargava 1998;Bhargava 2000;Bharucha 1998;Bilgrami 1999;Chatterjee 1995;Ganguly 2003;Haqqi 1993;Hasan 2004;Hasan 2007;Jhingran 1995;Madan 1987;Nandy 2001a, 2001b, 2003a, 2003b, Robinson 2000Sen 2005;Srinivasan 2007;Sunder Rajan and Needham 2007). 5.…”