Many of ancient India's religious traditions are alive in modern India, and many of these religious traditions are in conflict with one another regarding the future of India. Even the so-called "secular state" is deeply pervaded by religious sentiments growing out of the Neo-Hindu nationalist movement of Gandhi and Nehru. A careful analysis of the current religious scene when placed in its proper long-term historical perspective raises interesting questions about the nature and future of religion not only in India but elsewhere as well.

Presents the contemporary religious crisis in India, providing historical perspective and focusing on the crises in Punjab, Kashmir, and Ayodhya.

"The volume is a sequel to "India's Agony Over Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1995, and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997) in the sense that it develops a theory of religion first set forth in the original volume but expands the horizon of the first volume to encompass the general history of religions [inclusive of the Indic traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain; the Abrahamic traditions: Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, Islamic; and the East Asian traditions: Confucian, Daoist, Shinto].The central argument in the book is the assertion that the term "religion" is not primarily significant by its use as a noun, but is better understood in its adjectival sense, namely, "religious," in such expressions as "the religious referent," "the religious issue," or simply, "the religious question.""--Provided by publisher.

The volume is a sequel to "India's Agony Over Religion" (State University of New York Press, 1995, and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997) in the sense that it develops a theory of religion first set forth in the original volume but expands the horizon of the first volume to encompass the general history of religions [inclusive of the Indic traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain; the Abrahamic traditions: Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, Islamic; and the East Asian traditions: Confucian, Daoist, Shinto]. The central argument in the book is the assertion that the term "religion" is not primarily significant by its use as a noun, but is better understood in its adjectival sense, namely, "religious," in such expressions as "the religious referent," "the religious issue," or simply, "the religious question."

This Book Will Fascinate Everyone Interested In Ayodhya, Kashmir, Women`S Rights In India, And Sikh Or Sri Lankan Tamil Separatism, As Well Those Concerned With The General Range Of Issues Surrounding Religion In Politics And Society In South Asia.

This book was written by a Hindu, the grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi. His intent, in writing on eight Muslims and their influence on India in the twentieth century, is to reduce the gulf between Hindu and Muslims. Focusing on figures viewed as heroes by sub-continent Muslims, he shows that they can be admired by Hindus as well--that they need not be frozen in Hindu minds as foes. Here is a fascinating account of twentieth-century India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh told through biographical sketches of eight men: Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), Fazlul Huq (1873-1962), Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), Muhammad Iqbal (1876-1938), Muhammad Ali (1878-1931), Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), Liaqat Ali Khan (1895-1951), and Zakir Husain (1897-1969).

The clouds are moving ecstatically from Kashi to Mathura and the sky will remain covered with dense clouds as long as there is Krishna in Braj. These lines were composed by Mohsin Kakorvi, a Muslim poet, to celebrate not Lord Krishna's birthday but that of the Prophet Muhammad. Awadh, the author's birthplace, was steeped in this sort of syncretism in which Islam and Hinduism complemented and celebrated each other and Urdu culture merged with Awadhi and Brajbhasha. Sadly, this glorious culture has been systematically destroyed over the past century. In many ways, Awadh stood for everything that independent India could have become, a land in which people of different faiths co-existed peacefully and created a culture that drew upon the best that each community had to offer. Instead, what we have today is a pale shadow of the harmony that once existed. Everywhere there are incidents of sectarian murder, communal propaganda and divisive politics. And there seems to be no stopping the forces that are destroying the country. In this remarkable book, which is partly a memoir and partly an exploration of the various deliberate and inadvertent acts that have contributed to the othering of the 180 million Muslims in India, Saeed Naqvi looks at how the divisions between Muslims and Hindus began in the modern era. The British were the first to exploit these divisions between the communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the run-up to Independence, and its immediate aftermath, some of India's greatest leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and others only served to drive the communities further apart. Successive governments