RSS 1.0Hindu Ethics
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The Hindu Ethics collection gathers important resources about a major religious tradition: Hinduism as Indian religion and dharma and it shows as well the development of a Hindu global spirituality. The purpose of the collection is to build a comprehensive library on the ethical philosophy of Hinduism, based on three main aspects: 1) sources feeding the philosophy of Hinduism, 2) Institutions, which interpret, redefine and propagate the sources, and 3) the themes which are the various facets of application in daily life. The scope of this collection is to be inclusive, encompassing the length and breadth of Hinduism, from ancient lore to modern movements, without leaving out any era, class, creed, sect or school.
Recent Submissions
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Dharma and the Religious Other in Hindi Popular Cinema. From Nehru through ModiThis essay examines common representations of religious minorities in Hindi popular cinema within the context of dominant post-Independence Indian religious and political ideologies—from a religiously pluralist secular socialist framework to a Hindu nationalist late capitalist orientation. We begin by examining the more recent turn to film as a legitimate conveyor of middle-class Indian values worthy of interpretation, and the coeval shift among Indians from embarrassment to pride in film as the industry followed the liberalizing nation-state onto the global stage. Equipped with this interpretive strategy, we turn to the dhārmik, or religious elements within the Hindi sāmājik, or social film, demonstrating concretely how particular notions of Hindu dharma (variously if imperfectly translated as “duty,” “law,” “cosmic order,” “religion”) have long undergirded Hindi popular cinema structurally and topically. Finally, and most significantly, we examine representations of religious minorities, particularly Muslms, Christians, and Sikhs, in Hindi popular cinema against the backdrop of evolving religious and cultural ideologies up to the electoral victory of Prime Minister Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. It is argued that minority representation, like other aspects of Indian public life, can be interpreted as an index of majority concerns about the religious Other. While such representations have never been static, more current depictions present the viewer with a troubling, even ominous picture of the place (or lack thereof) of religious minorities in contemporary Indian society, revealing majoritarian chauvinism and sectarian tensions that call into question the identity of the Indian Republic as a pluralistic secular nation, as well as the easy elisions between Hindu and secular Indian nationalisms. When we now look at past films cognizant of the Hindu nationalist dispensation to come, discontinuity is not the only striking feature. Ideological inconsistencies, tensions, and contradictions have long been manifest on the silver screen, particularly with regard to the religious minorities. The present ascendance of Hindutva as a national (indeed international) religio-political ideology forces us to reconsider past films and the ideologies embedded therein.
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A Comparative Study of the Prasada Complex and the Grace of GodA word or word group lifted from its context incurs the grave danger of a misunderstanding ranging from the greatest excess of analytical dismemberment to an overgenerous and all-inclusive synthesis which tends to rob it of any specific identity or meaning. Considered not only from within the body of textual material which may frame a particular word, but from the ground of these physical, mental and cultural needs which give it birth as well as the motivating force or forces which seem to endanger it, it may be possible to develop a better understanding of its varying harmonic nuances of meaning and its possible correlation or differences relative to other concepts or expressions.
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South Asia and FoodNo description available
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Inside Out Apologetics: Engaging Cultural Narratives in Peninsular MalaysiaIn the Western world, Christian apologists, missionaries, and thinkers who noticed the dangers of a cultural shift called postmodernism have developed many resources in recent years to engage it. This shift started from a time when it was impossible to not believe in God to one in which such faith is one among many possibilities. Meanwhile, extensive analyses of and apologetic engagement with the Eastern culture (Arabic, Confucian, and Southern Asian clusters) has been sidelined, with only limited resources to believers in those parts of the world. Unlike communities and cultures in the West, Eastern communities are shaped more by a sense of honor and shame than by individual reasoning, guilt, and innocence. Hence, a recent apologetic method, called the Inside Out method, developed by apologists Mark Allen and Josh Chatraw, is proposed to engage the prevailing cultural narratives found in the Eastern cultures, particularly in Peninsular Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country. This presentation will apply an Inside Out method within the Malaysian context to engage its cultural narratives of religious pluralism and filial piety. The paper shows how apologetic conversations can be framed with a non-Christian Malaysian. By identifying and challenging his or her take on pluralism and piety, the method invites him or her to consider how the Christian faith tells a better narrative, because the Gospel is the greatest narrative to be told.
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The relationships of family income and caste-status with religiousness: Mediation role of intolerance of uncertaintyThe abstract is available here: https://uscholar.univie.ac.at/o:1648826