Kumar, Sunny
Neeti Nair, hurt sentiments: Secularism and belonging in South Asia - The Indian Economic and Social History Review - 60(4), Oct-Dec, 2023: p.481-482
Neeti Nair, Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2023, 350 pp.
Politicians and political commentators have often been quick to argue that Western European notions of secularism cannot simply be superimposed on South Asia, but they have found it rather difficult to define their own South Asian version of it. For me, this difficulty owes more to the lack of intent than content. While scholars have paid due attention to how secularism in modern South Asia has continuously been under siege by its opponents, the vacillations and betrayals of its proponents have slipped under the radar. Neeti Nair’s Hurt Sentiments is an important contribution in this regard, which brings the secularists to the centre of her study of the displacement of secularism as the paradigm of political discourse in South Asia in the twentieth century. Contrary to what the title implies, the politics of outrage against hurtful, offensive or ‘blasphemous’ expressions are only a small but crucial part of this broader investigation. Nair undertakes a close reading of a few conjunctures in the history of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, when secularism was passionately debated and key legislation was enacted. Taken together, these disparate discussions give critical insights into the ideology and practices of South Asian secularists and their role in the weakening of secularism as a political force in the region. –Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00194646231203727
Neeti Nair, hurt sentiments: Secularism and belonging in South Asia - The Indian Economic and Social History Review - 60(4), Oct-Dec, 2023: p.481-482
Neeti Nair, Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2023, 350 pp.
Politicians and political commentators have often been quick to argue that Western European notions of secularism cannot simply be superimposed on South Asia, but they have found it rather difficult to define their own South Asian version of it. For me, this difficulty owes more to the lack of intent than content. While scholars have paid due attention to how secularism in modern South Asia has continuously been under siege by its opponents, the vacillations and betrayals of its proponents have slipped under the radar. Neeti Nair’s Hurt Sentiments is an important contribution in this regard, which brings the secularists to the centre of her study of the displacement of secularism as the paradigm of political discourse in South Asia in the twentieth century. Contrary to what the title implies, the politics of outrage against hurtful, offensive or ‘blasphemous’ expressions are only a small but crucial part of this broader investigation. Nair undertakes a close reading of a few conjunctures in the history of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, when secularism was passionately debated and key legislation was enacted. Taken together, these disparate discussions give critical insights into the ideology and practices of South Asian secularists and their role in the weakening of secularism as a political force in the region. –Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00194646231203727