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Zusatztext The book is a rich source of information...It provides the reader with food for thought on complex questions...The narrative is engaging and full of ethnographic detail about personal dilemmas, doctrinal conicts, and rationalist performances. Disenchanting India is a major contribution to and entry point for the study of complex and long-standing problems of Indian society. Informationen zum Autor Post-Doctoral Fellow, Heidelberg University Klappentext India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Johannes Quack challenges this representation through an examination of the contemporary Indian rationalist organizations: groups who affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism, or free-thinking. Zusammenfassung India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Johannes Quack challenges this representation through an examination of the contemporary Indian rationalist organizations: groups who affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism, or free-thinking.Quack shows the rationalists' emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India is an ethnographic study of the organization ''Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti'' (Organization for the Eradication of Superstition), based in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Quack gives a nuanced account of the Organization's specific "mode of unbelief. " He describes the group's efforts to encourage a scientific temper and to combat beliefs and practices that it regards as superstitious. Quack also shows the role played by rationalism in the day-to-day lives of the Organization's members, as well as the Organization's controversial position within Indian society.Disenchanting India contributes crucial insight into the nature of rationalism in the intellectual life and cultural politics of India. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Prologue Introduction Part I: Object of Inquiry: Indian Rationalists, Modes of Unbelief and Disenchantment 1. Indian Rationalists 2. Modes of Unbelief 3. Rationalization and Disenchantment 4. Methodological Remarks and Research Setting Part II: History: Roots of Organized Rationalism in India 5. ''Narrative'' of the Indian Roots of Rationalism 6. Evolution of Rationalism in Colonial India 7. Influence of the English Rationalist Movement 8. Organized Rationalism in 20th Century India 9. Recent History of Organized Rationalism in Maharashtra Part III: Ethnography: Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANiS) 10. ANiS in Action: The Science-Van 11. Organizational Structure and Set-Up of ANiS 12. Profile and Agenda of ANiS 13. Individual Interpretations and Applications of Rationalism 14. Rationalism as a Way of Life 15. ANiS in Context 16. Impact of ANiS Part IV Theory: The Mode of Unbelief of ANiS Bibliography Appendix ...
