Description
Book SynopsisA pioneering comparative study of the two major attempts to build secular states - where the state''s constitutional identity and fundamental character are not based on or derived from any religious faith - in the non-Western world. This book explains the origins, evolution and latterly the decline of secularism as a core principle of the state in India and Turkey. The anti-secular political transformations of the twenty-first century are the rise of a Sunni-Islamist definition of Turkish national identity to hegemonic power, and Hindu nationalism as India''s pre-eminent political force. Both secular-state models adopted a similar operational doctrine of state intervention in and regulation of the religious sphere, rather than a Western-style separation of church and state. But, Turkish state-secularism took a culturally deracinated and harshly authoritarian form that led to its failure, whereas India''s secular state - though flawed in practice - followed a culturally rooted and democ
Trade Review'The book shows why secular politics consistently fails to deliver on its promises.' Nick Spencer, The Tablet
Table of ContentsPreface; 1. The discontents of secularism; 2. Paths to the secular state; 3. Paradoxes of the secular state; 4. India: the anti-secularist ascendancy; 5. Turkey: the anti-secularist triumph; 6. Secular and anti-secular authoritarianisms: i. The case of Kemalism ii. The case of Hindu-nationalism; 7. The futures of secularism; Bibliography; Index.
