Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism

India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Vatsal Naresh

Modern South Asia

Revises prevailing understandings of simplistic East-West; Secular-Religious; and Democratic-Authoritarian binaries.
Presents a three-way comparison between Turkey, India and Pakistan
Applies a unique comparative frame, studying the trajectory of democracy and religious pluralism in societies with long-standing and complicated histories in the Global South

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism

India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Vatsal Naresh

Description

A collection of essays that situates and furthers contemporary debates around the prospects of democracy in diverse societies within and beyond the West.

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism examines the relationship between the functioning of democracy and the prior existence of religious plurality in three societies outside the West: India, Pakistan, and Turkey. All three societies had on one hand deep religious diversity and on the other long histories as imperial states that responded to religious diversity through their specific pre-modern imperial institutions. Each country has followed a unique historical trajectory with regard to crafting democratic institutions to deal with such extreme diversity. The volume focuses on three core themes: historical trends before the modern state's emergence that had lasting effects; the genealogies of both the state and religion in politics and law; and the problem of violence toward and domination over religious out-groups. Volume editors Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviarj, and Vatsal Naresh have gathered a group of leading scholars across political science, sociology, history, and law to examine this multifaceted topic. Together, they illuminate various trajectories of political thought, state policy, and the exercise of social power during and following a transition to democracy. Just as importantly, they ask us to reflexively examine the political categories and models that shape our understanding of what has unfolded in South Asia and Turkey.

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism

India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Vatsal Naresh

Modern South Asia

Introduction
Karen Barkey, University of California - Berkeley; Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University; and Vatsal Naresh, Yale University

Section I: Historical perspectives

Chapter 1: Islam, Modernity, and the Question of Religious Heterodoxy: From Early Modern Empires to Modern Nation-States
Sadia Saeed, University of San Francisco

Chapter 2: Liberalism and the Path to Treason in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1923
Christine Philliou, University of California-Berkeley

Chapter 3: Fatal Love: Intimacy and Interest in Indian Political Thought
Faisal Devji, University of Oxford

Chapter 4: Conflict, Secularism, and Toleration
Uday Singh Mehta, City University of New York

Chapter 5: Representative Democracy and Religious Thought in South Asia: Abul A'la Maududi and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Humeira Iqtidar, King's College London

Section II: Genealogies of state and religion

Chapter 6: Religious Pluralism and the State in India: Towards a Typology
Rochana Bajpai, SOAS, University of London

Chapter 7: Is Turkey a Postsecular Society? Secular Differentiation, Committed Pluralism, and Complementary Learning in Contemporary Turkey
Ates Altinordu, Sabanci University

Chapter 8: The Meaning of Religious Freedom: From Ireland and India to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Matthew J. Nelson, SOAS, University of London

Chapter 9: The Limits of Pluralism: A Perspective on Religious Freedom in Indian Constitutional Law
Mathew John, Jindal Global Law School

Chapter 10: Plurality and Pluralism: Democracy, Religious Difference and Political Imagination
Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University

Section III: Violence and domination

Chapter 11: Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws vs. Religious Freedom
Fatima Bokhari, Musawi

Chapter 12: Modalities of Violence: Lessons from Hindu Nationalist India
Amrita Basu, Amherst College

Chapter 13: Legal Contention and Minorities in Turkey: The Case of the Kurds and Alevis
Senem Aslan, Bates College

Chapter 14: "Stranger, Enemy": Anti-Shia Hostility and Annihilatory Politics in Pakistan
Nosheen Ali, New York University

Chapter 15: Thinking through Majoritarian Domination in Turkey and India
Karen Barkey, University of California - Berkeley; and Vatsal Naresh, Yale University

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism

India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Vatsal Naresh

Modern South Asia

Author Information

Karen Barkey is the Haas Distinguished Chair of Religious Diversity at the Othering & Belonging Institute and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR).

Sudipta Kaviraj is a Professor of Indian Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University.

Vatsal Naresh is a PhD student in Political Science at Yale University.

Contributors:

Karen Barkey, University of California - Berkeley
Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University
Vatsal Naresh, Yale University
Sadia Saeed, University of San Francisco
Christine Philliou, University of California-Berkeley
Faisal Devji, University of Oxford
Uday Singh Mehta, City University of New York
Humeira Iqtidar, King's College London
Rochana Bajpai, SOAS, University of London
Ates Altinordu, Sabanci University
Matthew J. Nelson, SOAS, University of London
Mathew John, Jindal Global Law School
Fatima Bokhari, Musawi
Amrita Basu, Amherst College
Senem Aslan, Bates College
Nosheen Ali, New York University

Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism

India, Pakistan, and Turkey

Karen Barkey, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Vatsal Naresh

Modern South Asia

Reviews and Awards

"Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism significantly contributes to comparative politics, history, sociology of religion, and religious studies. It is a candidate to become a reference book for those who study religion and politics in Turkey, Southeast Asia, and beyond." -- Ramazan Kılınc, Journal of Church and State

"A must read for students and experts in political science, law, sociology and history, or anyone interested in issues related to democracy and religion—this historically-grounded collection offers a crucial corrective to conventional theories and provides highly original perspectives on one of the most complicated and timely questions of our era: how to establish and maintain democratic government under conditions of religious heterogeneity." -- Hanna Lerner, Tel Aviv University

"This collection of fifteen essays probes the relationship of secularism, religion, and majoritarian power, highlighting the internal heterogeneities and unevenness of experiences of citizens. Grounding the work of democracy historically, this volume evocatively argues that perilous democracy is the reality of India, Pakistan, and Turkey." -- Yasmin Saikia, Professor of History and Hardt-Nickachos Chair in Peace Studies, Arizona State University