Nation and Religion: Perspectives on Europe and Asia

Published by Princeton University Press 1999

Nation and Religion

Perspectives on Europe and Asia

Edited by: Peter van der Veer and Hartmut Lehmann

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691219578

Overview
Contents

About this book

Does modernity make religion politically irrelevant? Conventional scholarly and popular wisdom says that it does. The prevailing view assumes that the onset of western modernity--characterized by the rise of nationalism, the dominance of capitalism, and the emergence of powerful state institutions--favors secularism and relegates religion to the purely private realm. This collection of essays on nationalism and religion in Europe and Asia challenges that view. Contributors show that religion and politics are mixed together in complex and vitally important ways not just in the East, but in the West as well.

The book focuses on four societies: India, Japan, Britain, and the Netherlands. It shows that religion and nationalism in these societies combined to produce such notions as the nation being chosen for a historical task (imperialism, for example), the possibility of national revival, and political leadership as a form of salvation. The volume also examines the qualities of religious discourse and practice that can be used for nationalist purposes, paying special attention to how religion can help to give meaning to sacrifice in national struggle. The book's comparative approach underscores that developments in colonizing and colonized countries, too often considered separately, are subtly interrelated.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Benedict R. Anderson, Talal Asad, Susan Bayly, Partha Chatterjee, Frans Groot, Harry Harootunian, Hugh McLeod, Barbara Metcalf, and Peter van Rooden.

Author / Editor information

Peter van der Veer is Professor of Comparative Religion and Director of the Research Center for Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam. Hartmut Lehmann is Director of the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen.

Reviews

"Van der Veer and Lehmann have collected eminent scholars to focus on the manifold connections between religion and nationalism. . . . There are keen scholarly insights here that will appeal to a wide readership."—Prasenjit Duara, University of Chicago

"Nation and Religion urges us to rethink the received historical interpretation that associates the onset of western modernity with the separation of the private world of religion from the public domain of politics."—Gyan Prakash, Princeton University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1. Introduction Peter Veer and Hartmut Lehmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. The Moral State: Religion, Nation, and Empire in Victorian Britain and British India Peter Veer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3. Protestantism and British National Identity, 1815-1945 Hugh McLeod Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
4. Race in Britain and India Susan Bayly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
5. History, the Nation, and Religion: The Transformations of the Dutch Religious Past Peter Rooden Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
6. On Religious and Linguistic Nationalisms: The Second Partition of Bengal Partha Chatterjee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
7. Nationalism, Modernity, and Muslim Identity in India before 1947 Barbara Metcalf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
8. Memory, Mourning, and National Morality: Yasukuni Shrine and the Reunion of State and Religion in Postwar Japan Harry Harootunian Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
9. Papists and Beggars: National Festivals and Nation Building in the Netherlands during the Nineteenth Century Frans Groot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
10. Religion, Nation-State, Secularism Talal Asad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
11. The Goodness of Nations Benedict Anderson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225