Mandair Arvind-pal Singh - Secularism and Religion-Making

Secularism and Religion-Making

REFLECTION AND THEORY IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION SERIES
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ROOTS OF RELATIONAL ETHICS
Responsibility in Origin and Maturity in H. Richard
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HEGELS SPECULATIVE GOOD FRIDAY
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COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY AND THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS RIVALRY
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SECULARISM AND RELIGION-MAKING
Edited by Markus Dressler and Arvind-Pal S. Mandair

EDITED BY

Markus Dressler

AND

Arvind-Pal S. Mandair

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Secularism and religion-making/edited by Markus Dressler
and Arvind Mandair.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-19-978294-9 (hardcover:alk. pape)

ISBN 978-0-19-978292-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Secularism. 2. Religion and sociology. I. Dressler, Markus.

II. Mandair, Arvind-pal Singh.

BL2747.8.S343 2011
211.6dc22 2010039997

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

1. Introduction: Modernity, Religion-Making, and the Postsecular
ARVIND-PAL S. MANDAIR, University of Michigan, and markus dressler, Istanbul Technical University

2. Imagining Religions in India: Colonialism and the Mapping of South Asian History and Culture
RICHARD KING, University of Glasgow

3. Translations of Violence: Secularism and Religion-Making in the Discourses of Sikh Nationalism
ARVIND-PAL S. MANDAIR, University of Michigan

4. On the Apocalyptic Tones of Islam in Secular Time
RUTH MAS, University of Colorado, Boulder

5. Secularism, Religious Violence, and the Liberal Imaginary
BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Duke University

6. The Politics of Spirituality: Liberalizing the Definition of Religion
KERRY A. MITCHELL, Long Island University

7. Comparative Religion and the Cold War Transformation of Indo-Persian Mysticism into Liberal Islamic Modernity
ROSEMARY R. HICKS, Tufts University

8. Apache Revelation: Making Indigenous Religion in the Legal Sphere
GREG JOHNSON, University of Colorado, Boulder

9. Making Religion through Secularist Legal Discourse: The Case of Turkish Alevism
MARKUS DRESSLER, Istanbul Technical University

10. Bloody Boundaries: Animal Sacrifice and the Labor of Religion
MARK ELMORE, University of California, Davis

11. Religion-Making and Its Failures: Turning Monasteries into Schools and Buddhism into a Religion in Colonial Burma
ALICIA TURNER, York University, Toronto

12. Precarious Presences, Hallucinatory Times: Configurations of Religious Otherness in German Leitkulturalist Discourse
MICHAEL NIJHAWAN, York University, Toronto

We embarked on this project when we were both at Hofstra University. It was inspired partly by discussions between ourselves and other colleagues about the formation of a fireestanding Religion Department. The collegial and stimulating environment that this new department, previously the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, provided was pivotal for the development of this project. Our discussions about religion and politics initially led to a panel that we organized for the American Academy of Religion convention in 2005, entitled (World-) Religionization: Politics of Religion-Making (cosponsored by the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group and the Comparative Studies in Religion Program). The positive feedback we received encouraged us to deepen and broaden our discussion by means of an international workshop-style conference. This conference, which we named Politics of Religion-Making, took place at Hofstra University, October 46, 2007, and was organized in cooperation with Hofstras Religion Department and the Hofstra Cultural Center. A grant we received from the latter was decisive for the realization of the conference, which was cosponsored by the Sikh Research Foundation (UK) and the Center for Religion and Media at New York University (special thanks to Angela Zito), as well as further schools, departments, and programs from within Hofstra University. To all of these contributors we owe a debt of gratitude. While we are not able to thank each and every individual who helped to make the conference happen, special thanks are due to Athelene Collins and Natalie Datlof, from the Hofstra Cultural Center, and to Warren Frisina, the first chair of the Hofstra Religion Department and a never-ending source of support in the buildup and execution of the conference.