Disenchanting India

Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-981262-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 380 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 622 g

India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Johannes Quack challenges this representation through an examination of the contemporary Indian rationalist organizations: groups who affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism, or free-thinking.

Quack shows the rationalists' emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India is an ethnographic study of the organization ''Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti'' (Organization for the Eradication of Superstition), based in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Quack gives a nuanced account of the Organization's specific "mode of unbelief. " He describes
the group's efforts to encourage a scientific temper and to combat beliefs and practices that it regards as superstitious. Quack also shows the role played by rationalism in the day-to-day lives of the Organization's members, as well as the Organization's controversial position within Indian society.

Disenchanting India contributes crucial insight into the nature of rationalism in the intellectual life and cultural politics of India.

Zielgruppe

Students and scholars interested in religion in society, Indian culture, rationalist movements

Autoren/Hrsg.

Quack, Johannes

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Agnostizismus, Atheismus, Säkularer Humanismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction

Part I: Object of Inquiry: Indian Rationalists, Modes of Unbelief & Disenchantment
1. Indian Rationalists
2. Modes of Unbelief
3. Rationalization and Disenchantment
4. Methodological Remarks and Research Setting

Part II: History: Roots of Organized Rationalism in India
5. ''Narrative'' of the Indian Roots of Rationalism
6. Evolution of Rationalism in Colonial India
7. Influence of the English Rationalist Movement
8. Organized Rationalism in 20th Century India
9. Recent History of Organized Rationalism in Maharashtra

Part III: Ethnography: Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANiS)
10. ANiS in Action: The Science-Van
11. Organizational Structure and Set-Up of ANiS
12. Profile and Agenda of ANiS
13. Individual Interpretations and Applications of Rationalism
14. Rationalism as a Way of Life
15. ANiS in Context
16. Impact of ANiS

Part IV Theory: The Mode of Unbelief of ANiS

Bibliography
Appendix

Über Autor(innen)

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Heidelberg University