Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion

ISBN-13: 9780195326000 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 260 str.

Brian K. Pennington

Opis

Drawing on a large body of previously untapped literature, including documents from the Church Missionary Society and Bengali newspapers, Brian Pennington offers a fascinating portrait of the process by which "Hinduism" came into being. He argues against the common idea that the modern construction of religion in colonial India was simply a fabrication of Western Orientalists and missionaries. Rather, he says, it involved the active agency and engagement of Indian authors as well, who interacted, argued, and responded to British authors over key religious issues such as image-worship, sati, tolerance, and conversion.

Recenzje

Was Hinduism Invented? is a timely and cogent reconsideration of Hinduism as a word, a concept and, refreshingly, a reality that became apparent in sharp focus in 19th-century British India. Penningtons command of primary sources combines with alertness to current issues in the study of religion to demonstrate why Hinduism, properly understood, sheds new light on how and on what terms India and the West discovered one another, why Hindus and Christians relate as they do today, and how religions are best conceived and studied.

O autorze

Brian K. Pennington is Associate Professor of Religion at Maryville College in Tennessee.