Gods, Guns and Missionaries The Making of The Modern Hindu I

Name: Gods, Guns And Missionaries The Making Of The Modern Hindu I
SKU: 9780241456941
Price: 349.95 DKK
Availability: InStock
Rating: 0 (2640 reviews)

0.0

( 2640 )

Engelsk

349,95 DKK

På lager i 0 butikker.

Forlagsbeskrivelse af Gods, Guns And Missionaries The Making Of The Modern Hindu I af Manu S Pillai

When European missionaries first arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess: a worship of devils and monsters by a people who burned women alive, performed outlandish rites and fed children to crocodiles. But quickly it became clear that Hindu ‘idolatry’ was far more complex than white men’s stereotypes allowed, and that Hindus had little desire to convert. But then, European power began to grow in India, and under colonial rule, missionaries assumed a forbidding appearance. During the British Raj, Western frames of thinking gained ascendancy, and Hindus felt pressed to reimagine their religion. This was both to fortify it against Christian attacks and to mark resistance to foreign rule. It is this encounter that has given modern Hinduism its present shape. Indeed, Hindus subverted some of the missionaries’ own tools and strategies in the process, also triggering the birth of Hindu nationalism, now so dominant in the country. In Gods, Guns and Missionaries , Manu S. Pillai takes us through these remarkable dynamics. With an arresting cast of characters – maharajahs, poets, gun-wielding revolutionaries, politicians, polemicists, philosophers and clergymen – this is a book ambitious in scope and provocative in its position. Lucid and exhaustive, it is, at once, a political history, a review of Hindu culture and a study of the social forces that prepared the ground for Hindu nationalism. Turning away from simplistic ideas on religious evolution and European imperialism, the past as it appears here is more complicated – and infinitely richer – than popular narratives allow. 'A brave and magnificent book, and a vital intervention: as elegant as it is witty, as erudite as it is wise, and as stylish as it is scholarly. Manu Pillai is fast becoming one of India's most accomplished and impressively wide-ranging historians' William DalrympleWhen European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess: a worship of devils and monsters by a people who burned women alive, performed outlandish rites and fed children to crocodiles. But it quickly became clear that Hindu ‘idolatry’ was far more layered and complex than European stereotypes allowed, surprisingly even sharing certain impulses with Christianity. Nonetheless, missionaries became a threatening force as European power grew in India. Western ways of thinking gained further ascendancy during the British Raj: while interest in Hindu thought influenced Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire in Europe, Orientalism and colonial rule pressed Hindus to reimagine their religion. In fact, in resisting foreign authority, they often adopted the missionaries’ own tools and strategies. It is this encounter, Manu S. Pillai argues, that has given Hinduism its present shape, also contributing to the birth of an aggressive Hindu nationalism. Gods, Guns and Missionaries surveys these remarkable dynamics with an arresting cast of characters – maharajahs, poets, gun-wielding revolutionaries, politicians, polemicists, philosophers and clergymen. Lucid, ambitious, and provocative, it is at once a political history, an examination of the mutual impact of Hindu culture and Christianity upon each other, and a study of the forces that have prepared the ground for politics in India today. Turning away from simplistic ideas on religious evolution and European imperialism, the past as it appears here is more complicated – and infinitely richer – than previous narratives allow.