Events at Stanford
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16:28 Nov 18, 2021
Date: Thursday, December 9, 2021. 12:00 PM. Location: Virtual Webinar (Pacific Time) Decolonizing Hinduism and Unravelling Hindutva | Chinnaiah Jangam This paper historically explores how a geographical identity ahl al-Hind (people living beyond the Indus River) transformed into a religious identity as Hinduism. While unearthing that process, the paper shows the critical role of British colonialism in constructing Hinduism as spiritual and otherworldly religion in collaboration with the Brahmanical elites. Moreover, the paper argues that in the making of religion, Brahmanism metamorphosized itself as Hinduism by assimilating diverse practices and faiths of people from oppressed castes. In the context of the politics of anticolonial nationalism, the Brahmanical consciousness became foundational for the imagined nation. Finally, the paper decolonizes the idea of Hinduism and argues that the Hindu majoritarian politics are not an aberration rather a manifestation of a complicated alliance of colonial state and ...