A Restatement of Religion
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
Swami Vivekananda and the Making of Hindu Nationalism
Jyotirmaya Sharma
View Inside
Format: ClothPrice: $85.00
Our shopping cart only supports Mozilla Firefox. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase.
In this third installment of his comprehensive history of “India’s religion” and reappraisal of Hindu identity, Professor Jyotirmaya Sharma offers an engaging portrait of Swami Vivekananda and his relationship with his guru, the legendary Ramakrishna. Sharma’s work focuses on Vivekananda’s reinterpretation and formulation of diverse Indian spiritual and mystical traditions and practices as “Hinduism” and how it served to create, distort, and justify a national self-image. The author examines questions of caste and the primacy of the West in Vivekananda’s vision, as well as the systematic marginalization of alternate religions and heterodox beliefs. In doing so, Professor Sharma provides readers with an incisive entryway into nineteenth- and twentieth-century Indian history and the rise of Hindutva, the Hindu nationalist movement.
Jyotirmaya Sharma is professor of political science at the University of Hyderabad, India. He was a Fellow of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden and his publications include Hindutva: Exploring the Idea of Hindu Nationalism and Terrifying Vision: M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India.
“A book of substance and importance, written in an engaging, straightforward style, illuminated by flashes of wit and, of course, by the author's deep knowledge of the cultural background and historical record. Sharma’s scholarship is sound, well-informed, and well-presented. His book will become the classic statement about Vivekananda in this generation"—David Shulman, Hebrew University
“An outstanding study of how and why Vivekananda re-defined Hinduism, and of how and why this redefinition became so influential. This is an invaluable work for anyone interested not only in the recent religious history of South Asia but also in the re-definition of religions in general over the past two centuries.”—Michael Puett, Harvard University
“This forcefully and lucidly argued book is the best brief and yet nuanced introduction to Ramakrishna’s thought that I know of, condensing and accessibly bringing together much recent scholarship. This will be an influential and important book.”—Ajay Skaria, University of Minnesota
“Writing with a rare kind of sensitivity… [Sharma] has woven together the most sophisticated and unsparing critique of political Hinduism to emerge in some time.”—Aishwary Kumar, The Hindu
ISBN: 9780300197402
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
Publication Date: August 27, 2013
336 pages, 5 x 7-3/4
Sales Restrictions: World excluding Indian subcontinent
