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This book offers fresh theoretical, methodological and empirical analyses of the relation between religion and the city in the South Asian context.Uniting the historical with the contemporary by looking at the medieval and early modern links between religious faith and urban settlement, the book brings together a series of focused studies of the mixed and multiple practices and spatial negotiations of religion in the South Asian city. It looks at the various ways in which contemporary religious practice affects urban everyday life, commerce, craft, infrastructure, cultural forms, art, music and architecture. Chapters draw upon original empirical study and research to analyze the foundational, structural, material and cultural connections between religious practice and urban formations or flows. The book argues that Indian cities are not 'postsecular' in the sense that the term is currently used in the modern West, but that there has been, rather, a deep, even foundational link between religion and urbanism, producing different versions of urban modernity. Questions of caste, gender, community, intersectional entanglements, physical proximity, private or public ritual, processions and prayer, economic and political factors, material objects, and changes in the built environment, are all taken into consideration, and the book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of different historical periods, different cities, and different types of religious practice.Filling a gap in the literature by discussing a diversity of settings and faiths, the book will be of interest to scholars to South Asian history, sociology, literary analysis, urban studies and cultural studies.

This book analyses engagements with non-Shia practices of Müarram celebrations in the past and present, in South Asia and within a larger diaspora. Breaking new ground by bringing together a variety of regional perspectives (the Deccan, the Punjab, Singapore, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago) and linguistic backgrounds (Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu), the chapters discuss the importance of Müarram celebrations in terms of their respective actors.While in some cases these include an interrelationship with Shia Muslims and their traditions of mourning during Müarram, other contributions address contexts in which Shias, and even Muslims, form only a minor component of the celebrations, or even none at all. Focusing on Müarram celebrations that are beyond the script provided by Shia Müarram practices, this book opens up new perspectives on Müarram as a social practice widely shared by South Asians across regions.The book will be a key resource to scholars and students of South Asian studies, Asian religion, in particular rituals and religious practices, and Islamic studies but also engaging to non-academic readers interested in the practices of several regions.

This book chronicles individual perspectives and specific iterations of Muslim community, practice, and experience in the Himalayan region to bring into scholarly conversation the presence of varying Muslim cultures in the Himalaya.The Himalaya provide a site of both geographic and cultural crossroads, where Muslim community is simultaneously constituted at multiple social levels, and to that end the essays in this book document a wide range of local, national, and global interests while maintaining a focus on individual perspectives, moments in time, and localized experiences. It presents research that contributes to a broadly conceived notion of the Himalaya that enriches readers' understandings of both the region and concepts of Muslim community and highlights the interconnections between multiple experiences of Muslim community at local levels.Drawing attention to the cultural, social, artistic, and political diversity of the Himalaya beyond the better understood and frequently documented religio-cultural expressions of the region, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Anthropology, Geography, History, Religious Atudies, Asian Studies, and Islamic Studies.

This book focuses on genealogies of religious authority in South Asia, examining the figure of the guru in narrative texts, polemical tracts, hagiographies, histories, in contemporary devotional communities, New Age spiritual movements and global guru organizations.Experts in the field present reflections on historically specific contexts in which a guru comes into being, becomes part of a community, is venerated, challenged or repudiated, generates a new canon, remains unique with no clear succession or establishes a succession in which charisma is routinized. The guru emerges and is sustained and routinized from the nexus of guruship, narratives, performances and community. The contributors to the book examine this nexus at specific historical moments with all their elements of change and contingency.The book will be of interest to scholars in the field of South Asian studies, the study of religions and cultural studies.

This book offers fresh theoretical, methodological and empirical analyses of the relation between religion and the city in the South Asian context.

This book presents a collection of original research about every day, innovative, interactive, and multiple religiosities among Sri Lankan Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and devotees of New Religious Movements in post-war Sri Lanka.

This book analyses engagements with non-Shia practices of Müarram celebrations in the past and present, in South Asia and within a larger diaspora. Bringing together a variety of regional perspectives and linguistic backgrounds, the chapters discuss the importance of Müarram celebrations in terms of their respective actors.

This book chronicles individual perspectives and specific iterations of Muslim community, practice, and experience in the Himalayan region to bring into scholarly conversation the presence of varying Muslim cultures in the Himalaya.

This book focuses on the ritualized forms of mobility that constitute phenomena of pilgrimage in South Asia and establishes a new analytical framework for the study of ritual journeys.

Religious imaginary is a way of conceiving and structuring the world within the conceptual and imaginative traditions of the religious. Using religious imaginary as a reference, this book analyses temporal ideologies and expressions of historicity in South Asia in the early modern, pre-colonial and early colonial period.

Presents an analysis of the concept of disease, possession and healing in the major South Asian religious traditions. This book discusses forms of divine possession or affliction and health issues at the crossroad of religious studies and medical anthropology.

Religious procession is a significant dimension of religion in South Asia. Processions are central in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism. This book presents research on the interpretations of the role of processions, the increase in processions and changes in the procession traditions. It is useful for students of Asian studies.

This book explores devotional Hinduism in a modern context of high consumerism and revolutionised communications.

Assesses debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. This title includes the chapters that present historical and empirical arguments as well as theoretical reflections on the topic, offering fresh insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India.

The Parsis are India's smallest minority community, yet they have exercised a huge influence on the country. As pioneers in education in 19th-century India, and as leading figures in banking and commerce, medicine, law and journalism, they were at the forefront of India's industrial revolution. This book explores various key aspects of the Parsis.

There have been few true examples of the use of non-political campaigns since Gandhi developed his technique of satyagraha. This book furthers the understanding of the interface between the politics of non-violence, religious faith, and the motivational aspects of satyagraha.

Bodh Gaya in the North Indian state of Bihar has long been recognized as the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. This book brings together the recent work of twelve scholars from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, art history, history, and religion ¿ to highlight their various findings and perspectives on different facets of Bodh Gayäs past and present.