Becoming Religious in a Secular Age

“Mark Elmore delivers a very refreshing contribution to several areas: religion and secularism studies, South Asian studies, and studies of religion in the Himalayas. The book offers a grounded and an exciting new way of looking at how a region with a particular colonial and postcolonial history remakes itself as a distinct region and becomes religious in the very teeth of intensifying secularist discourse and policy.”—Leela Prasad, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University
“Becoming Religious in a Secular Age is an important piece of work. Its primary contribution is to help us unlearn some of our most tenacious assumptions about religion and modernity. In addition, the book makes a positive contribution by considering what it means—for religion, for people, for the gods, for a state—when religion becomes a ‘problem.’ By writing this book, the author moves to a different, sounder level of thinking about religion; reading this book would help the rest of us to do the same.”—Ann Burlein, Professor of Religion, Hofstra University

About the author

Mark Elmore is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Summary

Religion is often viewed as a universally ancient element of the human inheritance, but in the Western Himalayas the community of Himachal Pradesh discovered its religion only after India became an independent secular state. This book tells the story of this discovery and how it transformed a community's relations to its past and to its members.

Product details

• Authors: Mark Elmore, Elmore Mark
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2016
• EAN: 9780520290532
• ISBN: 978-0-520-29053-2
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, 21st Century, India, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, 21st century, c 2000 to c 2100, Religion & politics, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Social and cultural anthropology, Asian History, Religion and Politics, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), HISTORY / Asia / South / India