Kelly Pemberton - Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, and the Articulation of Identities in South Asia

1. Judaism and Collective Life

Self and Community in the Religious Kibbutz

Aryei Fishman

2. Foucault, Christianity and Interfaith Dialogue

Henrique Pinto

3. Religious Conversion and Identity

The Semiotic Analysis of Texts

Massimo Leone

4. Language, Desire, and Theology

A Genealogy of the Will to Speak

Nolle Vahanian

5. Metaphysics and Transcendence

Arthur Gibson

6. Sufism and Deconstruction

A Comparative Study of Derrida and Ibn Arabi

Ian Almond

7. Christianity, Tolerance and Pluralism

A Theological Engagement with Isaiah Berlins Social Theory

Michael Jinkins

8. Negative Theology and Modern French Philosophy

Arthur Bradley

9. Law and Religion

Edited by Peter Radan, Denise Meyerson and Rosalind F. Atherton

10. Religion, Language, and Power

Edited by Nile Green and Mary Searle-Chatterjee

11. Shared Idioms, Sacred Symbols, and the Articulation of Identities in South Asia

Edited by Kelly Pemberton & Michael Nijhawan

New York London

First published 2009
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

2009 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shared idioms, sacred symbols, and the articulation of identities in South Asia / edited by Kelly Pemberton & Michael Nijhawan.
p. cm.(Routledge studies in religion ; 11)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Group identitySouth Asia. 2. SymbolismSouth Asia. 3. Political cultureSouth Asia. 4. South AsiaCivilization. I. Pemberton, Kelly. II. Nijhawan, Michael.
HM1753.S53 2008
305.0954dc22
2008028826

ISBN13: 978-1-135-90476-0 ePub ISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-95828-8 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-203-88536-8 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-95828-8 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-88536-9 (ebk)

When we first conceived the idea of editing a volume on identity in the South Asian context, we had little sense of how long, and sometimes frustrating, the journey to completion would be. While the idea came from our participation on a conference panel, Hindu Na, Nahin Musulman: Shared Idioms of Piety and Sanctity, at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in 2002, our work in individual chapters, and on the volume as a whole, has moved far beyond the aims and vision of that panel. In the interim, we have acquired a more nuanced understanding of the questions of identity (as a field of study) and identification (as a process of articulating the self) this volume investigates. While we, the editors, have benefited from extended conversations with each other by e-mail and phone, our study has been enriched far more deeply by conversations and collaborations over the years with colleagues and friends who have challenged us to think beyond our initial concepts and assumptions and to push the question of identityand identificationsmuch further. In that respect, we have a few people to single out for special thanks. Tony Stewart and Joyce Flueck-iger provided initial encouragement and advice (and the requisite warnings) for embarking on this project. Jack Hawley, Amina Yaqin, Jenny Takhar, and Huma Dar provided valuable input on the theoretical framework for this volume in the early stages of its composition. Our friends and family provided moral and emotional support through the years we spent revising and seeking publication for this volume, and we thank them, too. Finally, thanks are also due to Erica Wetter, our editor at Routledge, New York, to Debbie Ruel, our copyeditor, and Terence Johnson, our production manager at IBT Global, and to the anonymous readers who critiqued individual chapters and the volume as a whole. While the work has been significantly enriched by their comments and support, we assume full responsibility for the ideasand errorsfound in the pages of this volume.