Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism - India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism examines the relationship between the functioning of democracy and the prior existence of religious plurality in three societies outside the West: India, Pakistan, and Turkey. The volume brings together political scientists, sociologists, historians, and legal scholars to illuminate various trajectories of political thought, state policy, and the exercise of social power during and following a transition to democracy, and, reflexively, the political categories that shape our understanding of these changes in South Asia and Turkey.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Karen Barkey, University of California - Berkeley; Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University; and Vatsal Naresh, Yale University


• Section I: Historical perspectives


• Chapter 1: Islam, Modernity, and the Question of Religious Heterodoxy: From Early Modern Empires to Modern Nation-States


• Sadia Saeed, University of San Francisco


• Chapter 2: Liberalism and the Path to Treason in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1923


• Christine Philliou, University of California-Berkeley


• Chapter 3: Fatal Love: Intimacy and Interest in Indian Political Thought


• Faisal Devji, University of Oxford


• Chapter 4: Conflict, Secularism, and Toleration


• Uday Singh Mehta, City University of New York


• Chapter 5: Representative Democracy and Religious Thought in South Asia: Abul A'la Maududi and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar


• Humeira Iqtidar, King's College London


• Section II: Genealogies of state and religion


• Chapter 6: Religious Pluralism and the State in India: Towards a Typology


• Rochana Bajpai, SOAS, University of London


• Chapter 7: Is Turkey a Postsecular Society? Secular Differentiation, Committed Pluralism, and Complementary Learning in Contemporary Turkey


• Ates Altinordu, Sabanci University


• Chapter 8: The Meaning of Religious Freedom: From Ireland and India to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan


• Matthew J. Nelson, SOAS, University of London


• Chapter 9: The Limits of Pluralism: A Perspective on Religious Freedom in Indian Constitutional Law


• Mathew John, Jindal Global Law School


• Chapter 10: Plurality and Pluralism: Democracy, Religious Difference and Political Imagination


• Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University


• Section III: Violence and domination


• Chapter 11: Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws vs. Religious Freedom


• Fatima Bokhari, Musawi


• Chapter 12: Modalities of Violence: Lessons from Hindu Nationalist India


• Amrita Basu, Amherst College


• Chapter 13: Legal Contention and Minorities in Turkey: The Case of the Kurds and Alevis


• Senem Aslan, Bates College


• Chapter 14: "Stranger, Enemy": Anti-Shia Hostility and Annihilatory Politics in Pakistan


• Nosheen Ali, New York University


• Chapter 15: Thinking through Majoritarian Domination in Turkey and India


• Karen Barkey, University of California - Berkeley; and Vatsal Naresh, Yale University

About the author

Karen Barkey is the Haas Distinguished Chair of Religious Diversity at the Othering & Belonging Institute and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR).

Sudipta Kaviraj is a Professor of Indian Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University.

Vatsal Naresh is a PhD student in Political Science at Yale University.

Summary

A collection of essays that situates and furthers contemporary debates around the prospects of democracy in diverse societies within and beyond the West.

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism examines the relationship between the functioning of democracy and the prior existence of religious plurality in three societies outside the West: India, Pakistan, and Turkey. All three societies had on one hand deep religious diversity and on the other long histories as imperial states that responded to religious diversity through their specific pre-modern imperial institutions. Each country has followed a unique historical trajectory with regard to crafting democratic institutions to deal with such extreme diversity. The volume focuses on three core themes: historical trends before the modern state's emergence that had lasting effects; the genealogies of both the state and religion in politics and law; and the problem of violence toward and domination over religious out-groups. Volume editors Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviarj, and Vatsal Naresh have gathered a group of leading scholars across political science, sociology, history, and law to examine this multifaceted topic. Together, they illuminate various trajectories of political thought, state policy, and the exercise of social power during and following a transition to democracy. Just as importantly, they ask us to reflexively examine the political categories and models that shape our understanding of what has unfolded in South Asia and Turkey.

Additional text

This collection of fifteen essays probes the relationship of secularism, religion, and majoritarian power, highlighting the internal heterogeneities and unevenness of experiences of citizens. Grounding the work of democracy historically, this volume evocatively argues that perilous democracy is the reality of India, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Product details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 22.10.2021
• EAN: 9780197530023
• ISBN: 978-0-19-753002-3
• No. of pages: 392
• Series: Modern South Asia
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Pakistan, RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State, Geopolitics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, India, Turkey, Political science & theory, Religion & politics, Religion and Politics, Political science and theory, Türkiye / Turkey