Book Review: Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens, and Rajaram Hedge. Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism. London and New York: Routledge, 2010 (original) (raw)

2013, Journal of International and Global Studies

"What"s in a name?" asks an old saying, but the notion that a name is not necessarily synonymous with an identity has not stopped the scholars of India from engaging in lengthy debates regarding the names given to particular peoples or practices. While naming "races" in India and Europe occupied much of the early discourse on Indian ethnic identity, the current discourse centers on the use of the term "Hindu," an umbrella term meant to identify and group the peoples associated with the indigenous religious and cultural systems of India. The conversation about the use of this term and what the term represents takes up more space in postcolonial studies than any other issue related to India or Indian history, culture, and identity. The debate about how to classify the religion(s) of India is currently discussed without much agreement among scholars, leading to a rift; there are those who argue that "Hinduism" appropriately identifies an indigenous Indian socio-religious and cultural sphere, and there are those who argue that the purported "Hindu" identity is nothing more than a construct, existing only in the imagination of the West, conveniently but erroneously grouping a wide diversity of beliefs, practices, and traditions into a single, supposed entity. The subject of whether or not the term Hinduism legitimately refers to a religion has raged in Western academia for the last decade and continues to inspire publications. Rethinking Religion in India is one such publication that addresses this question. The book is divided into two parts, with Part I, "Historical and Empirical Arguments," containing five articles and Part II, "Theoretical Reflections," containing four articles. The book begins with an introduction by Marianne Keppens and Esther Bloch that addresses the central issues concerning the question of the existence of Hinduism and the understanding of Hinduism as a religion. The authors say that the near non-existence of religious studies programs in Indian academia and the dichotomy that is presented in Indian academia between Hindutva (a term roughly meaning "Hindu-ness," coined in 1923 and currently understood to conceptualize "the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian culture") and a more secular understanding of Indian identity are both compelling reasons to rethink religion in India (p.1). The editors consider the colonial construct of Hinduism as central to this debate. They raise a number of questions about the nature of religion in India, including, "Do Indian traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism form different kinds of religions?" "Do such "Indian Religions," exist at all?" "Did a new religion, namely Hinduism, come into being during the colonial era?" "How could this happen?" Following these questions, the editors proclaim the importance of finding answers to these questions, saying that such answers are essential if one is to understand contemporary issues in India, such as religious conversion and religious conflict. Further, they note that academia has not given due attention to this issue, and they lament the sparse academic works on the subject. As such, the editors strive to bring together the most important voices of the debate in order to establish the notion that Hinduism is indeed a construct. The first article, by David N. Lorenzen, "Hindus and Others," includes a discussion of the practice of Buddhism in India, along with the practices of Christianity and Islam, addressing only Hinduism as conceptually problematic-though other contributing authors, like Balagangadhara, submit to the premise that there is no religion in India and that neither Hinduism, nor Buddhism, nor Jainism are religions at all. Lorenzen attempts to analyze three topics in his essay: (1) religion as an academic study in the universities in the West, (2) the construction of the concept