Product Information
In Hindutva as Political Monotheism, Anustup Basu offers a genealogical study of Hindutva-Hindu right-wing nationalism-to illustrate the significance of Western anthropology and political theory to the idea of India as a Hindu nation. Connecting Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt's notion of political theology to traditional theorems of Hindu sovereignty and nationhood, Basu demonstrates how Western and Indian theorists subsumed a vast array of polytheistic, pantheistic, and henotheistic cults featuring millions of gods into a singular edifice of faith. Basu exposes the purported Hindu Nation as itself an orientalist vision by analyzing three crucial moments: European anthropologists' and Indian intellectuals' invention of a unified Hinduism during the long nineteenth century; Indian ideologues' adoption of ethnoreligious nationalism in pursuit of a single Hindu way of life in the twentieth century; and the transformations of this project in the era of finance capital, Bollywood, and new media. Arguing that Hindutva aligns with Enlightenment notions of nationalism, Basu foregrounds its significance not just to Narendra Modi's right-wing, anti-Muslim government but also to mainstream Indian nationalism and its credo of secularism and tolerance.Product Identifiers
PublisherDuke University Press
ISBN-139781478009887
eBay Product ID (ePID)16046552687
Product Key Features
Book TitleHindutva As Political Monotheism
AuthorAnustup Basu
FormatHardcover
LanguageEnglish
TopicGovernment, Religious History, Hinduism, History
Publication Year2020
TypeTextbook
Number of Pages296 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height229mm
Item Width152mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorAnustup Basu
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States