Adopted in 1950, Article 17 of the Indian Constitution legally abolished untouchability—the ancient Hindu system of social discrimination—forbade its practice in any form, and made the enforcement of any discrimination arising out of this disability a criminal offence. At the same time, the Indian Constitution guaranteed freedom of religious belief and practice under Article 25 and autonomy of religious institutions under Article 26. The discussion of Employment Division v. Smith in Winnifred Sullivan’s post and subsequent comments reminded me of the very substantial jurisprudence surrounding Article 26.
Posts Tagged ‘Hinduism’
May 2nd, 2012
Religious freedom as crisis claims
posted by Nandini Chatterjee
April 26th, 2012
The problem of translation: A view from India
posted by C.S. AdcockWhat is the politics of religious freedom? For the past decade and more, those who would like to see the active promotion of religious freedom at the “core” of foreign policy in the U.S. and now in Canada would have us understand that religious freedom is the foundation of democracy, the basis for political stability and first step to all other freedoms. The mission statement of the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department of State links its promotion of religious freedom to human rights and to political “stability” for “all countries.” Referring to the establishment of a new Office of Religious Freedom within his government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in a statement to the United Nations last year, the Canadian UN Ambassador declared, “History has shown us that where religious freedom is strong, democratic freedom is strong.”
April 23rd, 2012
Whose Yoga?
posted by Phillip QuinteroNPR’s Margot Adler reports on the current popularity of yoga in the United States, and its disassociation with Hinduism. She explores the perception of yoga as a form of relaxation and physical exercise, contrasting this with the efforts of the Hindu American Foundation to “take back yoga”. Some American Hindus claim that something important is lost when yoga is understood narrowly, that is, without the importance philosophy and lifestyle have for its practice
January 5th, 2012
Axial axioms
posted by Wendy Doniger
The word “magisterial” in publishers’ blurbs usually means little more than “too long,” and indeed Religion in Human Evolution is very long, but it is also magisterial in many of the ways that the Oxford English Dictionary suggests: “Of, relating to, designating, or befitting a master, teacher, or other person qualified to speak with authority; masterly, authoritative, commanding.” It is certainly all of those, a book full of the wisdom and erudition that comes only when someone quite brilliant has thought about a big subject for many years.
September 19th, 2011
A blast from the past: lessons in eastern religion and philosophy
posted by Amanda KaplanFifty years ago, Alan Watts popularized ideas of eastern philosophy and religion. Open Culture shares a relic of the past.
October 13th, 2010
Hinduism, prosperity, and India’s rising middle class
posted by Grace YukichThe tendency in recent years of some U.S. evangelical and Pentecostal Christian preachers to celebrate immense wealth, rather than critique it—what is known as the “prosperity gospel”—is not unique to those forms of Christianity or to the United States. According an article by Mary Fitzgerald in The Irish Times, Meera Nanda’s new book, The God Market, chronicles a similar movement emerging in India.
August 3rd, 2010
Peter Berger on multilateral globalization
posted by Amanda KaplanGlobalization is not defined by one-way Westernization, argues Peter Berger in his new blog at The American Interest Online. Rather, it is a far more complex process than is commonly imagined, and this is indicated, for starters, by the often overlooked influence of Eastern traditions on contemporary Western culture.
August 3rd, 2010
“The Animated Avadhuta”
posted by Amanda KaplanTrent Gilliss, senior editor of Speaking of Faith, shares the thought-provoking and beautifully drawn short “The Animated Avadhuta.”
June 30th, 2010
“The Lady Twilight”
posted by Charles GelmanOver at Killing the Buddha, William Dalrymple is excerpting his new book, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.
January 4th, 2010
The Indian religious marketplace
posted by Nathan SchneiderHartosh Singh Bal explores why, even as India’s religious marketplace has grown more vibrant, the Hindu political party is on the decline.
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