Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History by Jack David Eller

Author:Jack David Eller
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-11-23T05:24:00+00:00

As Menon describes it, Hindutva essentially represents a massive "reconversion" (or, in some instances, a first conversion) to Hindu identity, especially overcoming or rejecting Christian conversion and reclaiming people who "have been tricked by missionaries or ... seduced by offers of material remuneration. "is From the Hindu nationalist perspective, the proselytization of other religions "is part of a conspiracy to destroy 'Indian' culture and to destabilize the 'Indian' polity.' " As such, the conversion of Hindus to foreign religions, and ideally their successful reconversion to their true and native religion and identity, "is not seen as simply an individual expression of faith but rather as a political choice that necessarily implicates questions of national allegiance, patriotism, and cultural determination."20

In conclusion, while the invention and propagation of Hindutva is a particularly conspicuous case of ethnoreligious genesis and mobilization, it is by no means the only case. Rather, in the examples that follow, we will see similar processes at work in nearly every instance. Religion certainly exists prior to ethnogenesis, but often in fragmented and inchoate form. In the face of or in response to external and internal factors, a religious identity is not only produced and promulgated (usually but not always or entirely out of previously available religious resources) but also promoted as the identity-the true or authentic identity, and the only identity that matters-of the group. As such, the ethnoreligious group becomes "closed" and exclusionary, defensive, and often offensive-and potentially, and frequently actually, violent.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.