The Secular Imaginary: Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

Sushmita Nath

doi:10.1017/9781009180306

Given the popularity and success of the Hindu-Right in India's electoral politics today, how may one study ostensibly 'Western' concepts and ideas, such as the secular and its family of cognates, like secularism, secularisation and secularity in non-Western societies without assuming them simply as derivative, or colonial legacies or contrast cases of Western societies? While recognizing that the dominant language of political modernity of Western societies is not easily translatable in non-Western societies, The Secular Imaginary elaborates upon an intellectual history of secularity in modern India by focusing on the two most influential political leaders – M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. It is an intellectual history of both idea(s) and intellectuals, which sheds light on Indian narratives of secularity – the Gandhian sarva dharma samabhava, Nehruvian secularism, and unity in diversity. It revisits this dominant narrative of secularity of the twentieth century that influenced and shaped the imagination of the modern nation-state.

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The Secular Imaginary

Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Preface
pp vii-viii

Acknowledgements
pp ix-xii

Introduction
pp 1-19

1 - Debating the Secular beyond the West
pp 20-46

2 - Gandhi’s Ashram and Political Thought: A Counter-narrative of Secularity
pp 47-97

3 - Gandhi’s Associationalism: A Non-state Alternative to Liberal Secularism?
pp 98-140

4 - Was Nehru Nehruvian? Religion, Secularity and Nehruism
pp 141-191

5 - Nehru and the Politics of Liberalism of Fear
pp 192-230

Conclusion
pp 231-236

Bibliography
pp 237-252

Index
pp 253-263

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The Secular Imaginary

Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

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