عنوان

The History of the Academic Study of Religion in Universities, Centers, and Institutes in India

شماره

LA122807

زبان متن نوشتاري يا گفتاري و مانند آن

انگلیسی

عنوان اصلي

The History of the Academic Study of Religion in Universities, Centers, and Institutes in India

نام عام مواد

[Article]

نام نخستين پديدآور

Vasudha Narayanan

محل نشرو پخش و غیره

Leiden

نام ناشر، پخش کننده و غيره

Brill

متن يادداشت

India is home to more than 800 million Hindus and has a massive higher education system that is overseen by the University Grants Commission (ugc). Despite this, there are hardly any departments of religion or Hinduism in India, but the ugc, even though it has a secular mission, funds universities with explicit religious affiliations. This article traces the reasons for these paradoxes and discusses the apparent lacuna of religious studies departments by looking at the genealogy of the study of religion in India. It initially looks at the contested terrain of nineteenth-century educational institutions. The work of British missionaries, Orientalists, and government officials form the imperial context to understand Charles Wood's momentous Despatch (1854), which, on the one hand, argues for secular institutions but, on the other, tries to accommodate the work of the Orientalists and the missionaries. Wood recommends a system in which government subsidies, secular education, and universities with overt religious profiles become interlocked, but the formal study of religion is bypassed. Finally, I reconsider what the "dearth" of religious studies and the "absence" of Hinduism departments reveal about the construction of religion in India itself. The lack of conceptual correspondence between "religion" and "Hinduism" as taught in Western academic contexts does not preclude the formal study of religion in India. Instead, the study of religion is conducted within particularized frameworks germane to the Indic context, using a network of unique institutes. Reflection on these distinctively Indian epistemological frameworks push new ways of thinking about religious education and the construction of religion as an object of study in South Asia. India is home to more than 800 million Hindus and has a massive higher education system that is overseen by the University Grants Commission (ugc). Despite this, there are hardly any departments of religion or Hinduism in India, but the ugc, even though it has a secular mission, funds universities with explicit religious affiliations. This article traces the reasons for these paradoxes and discusses the apparent lacuna of religious studies departments by looking at the genealogy of the study of religion in India. It initially looks at the contested terrain of nineteenth-century educational institutions. The work of British missionaries, Orientalists, and government officials form the imperial context to understand Charles Wood's momentous Despatch (1854), which, on the one hand, argues for secular institutions but, on the other, tries to accommodate the work of the Orientalists and the missionaries. Wood recommends a system in which government subsidies, secular education, and universities with overt religious profiles become interlocked, but the formal study of religion is bypassed. Finally, I reconsider what the "dearth" of religious studies and the "absence" of Hinduism departments reveal about the construction of religion in India itself. The lack of conceptual correspondence between "religion" and "Hinduism" as taught in Western academic contexts does not preclude the formal study of religion in India. Instead, the study of religion is conducted within particularized frameworks germane to the Indic context, using a network of unique institutes. Reflection on these distinctively Indian epistemological frameworks push new ways of thinking about religious education and the construction of religion as an object of study in South Asia.

تاريخ نشر

2015

توصيف ظاهري

7-39

عنوان

Numen

شماره جلد

62/1

شماره استاندارد بين المللي پياييندها

1568-5276

اصطلاح موضوعی

education in India

اصطلاح موضوعی

Hinduism

اصطلاح موضوعی

religious studies

اصطلاح موضوعی

South Asia

مستند نام اشخاص تاييد نشده

Vasudha Narayanan

شماره بازیابی

10.1163/15685276-12341354

نام الکترونيکي

فرمت انتشار

p

نوع ماده

[Article]

کد کاربرگه

275578

سطح دسترسي

a

تكميل شده

Y