Description
Book SynopsisExamines religious conversion. This book argues that conversion is an interpretive act that belongs in the realm of cultural criticism. It examines key moments in colonial and postcolonial history to show how conversion questions the limitations of secular ideologies, particularly the discourse of rights central to the British empire.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 1999 Harry Levin Prize, American Comparative Literature Association Winner of the 1999 James Russell Lowell Prize, Modern Language Association Winner of the 2000 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize, South Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies "Outside the Fold is an intriguing and wide-ranging set of essays exploring the meaning of conversion. But beyond that, it is a commentary on the transcultural experience of colonialism and modernity."--David Mosse, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Table of ContentsList of illustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsPt. 1Dissent and the Nation1Ch. 1Cross Currents3Ch. 2A Grammar of Dissent44Pt. 2Colonial Interventions73Ch. 3Rights of Passage: Converts' Testimonies75Ch. 4Silencing Heresy118Ch. 5Ethnographic Plots153Ch. 6Conversion Theosophy, and Race Theory177Pt. 3The Imagined Community209Ch. 7Conversion to Equality211Ch. 8Epilogue: The Right to Belief240AppendixThe Census of India, 1901255Notes261Select Bibliography297Index317
