Research Catalog

Secular states, religious politics : India, Turkey, and the future of secularism

Title: Secular states, religious politics : India, Turkey, and the future of secularism / Sumantra Bose.
Author: Bose, Sumantra, 1968-
Publication: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 18-9832	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

xi, 380 pages; 23 cm

Summary

Secular States, Religious Politics is a pioneering comparative study of the two major attempts to build secular states--where the constitutional identity and fundamental character of the state are not based on or derived from any religious faith--in the non-Western world. A few decades ago, the secular nature of the republics of India and Turkey was considered axiomatic. Not so any more. Alternative, anti-secular visions of nationhood have risen decisively from the political margins so centre-stage and won state power in both countries. The secular definition of nationhood has effectively been replaced by a Sunni-Islamist majoritarian definition in Turkey, where the secular state is dead in all but name. In India, majoritarian Hindu nationalism has emerged as by far the country's single largest political force, and the future of India's secular state is in the balance. This book explains the political transformations of India and Turkey with deep insight and exceptional clarity. It shows the similarity of the two non-Western secular states in not being based on a Western-style principle of separation of church and state, but rather on an operational doctrine of state intervention in and regulation of the religious sphere. At the same time, Bose highlights the very different motives behind the establishment of secular states in the two cases, and demonstrates that while state-secularism took a culturally deracinated and deeply authoritarian form in Turkey, it assumed a culturally rooted and democratic form in India. Bose is critical of the flaws of what he calls India's 'really existing' secular state, but argues that unlike the fatally flawed Turkish model, secularism retains relevance in the Indian context and is indispensable to its future as a democracy. In a lucid, accessible style, this book combines encyclopedic knowledge of the cases with a sophisticated comparative framework. Its subject, and argument, are extremely topical to the times we live in.--Page 4 of cover.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

The discontents of secularism -- Paths to the secular state -- Paradoxes of the secular state -- India : the anti-secularist ascendancy -- Turkey : the anti-secularist triumph -- Secular and anti-secular authoritarianisms. The case of Kemalism -- The case of Hindu nationalism -- The futures of secularism.

Call Number

JFE 18-9832

ISBN

9781108472036
1108472036
9781108454865
1108454860

LCCN

2017061664
40028552964

OCLC

1020292538

Author

Bose, Sumantra, 1968- author.

Title

Secular states, religious politics : India, Turkey, and the future of secularism / Sumantra Bose.

Publisher

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

Since 1977

Other Standard Identifier

40028552964

Research Call Number

JFE 18-9832

View in Legacy Catalog