Turkish and Indian Secularisms in Comparative Perspective

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Turkish and Indian Secularisms in Comparative Perspective "
Zeynep Aysel Madra A. Arato

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	1103777
Doc. No	:	TLpq1417070103
Main Entry	:	A. Arato
	:	Zeynep Aysel Madra
Title & Author	:	Turkish and Indian Secularisms in Comparative Perspective\ Zeynep Aysel MadraA. Arato
College	:	The New School
Date	:	2013
student score	:	2013
Degree	:	Ph.D.
Page No	:	258
Abstract	:	Recent scholarship emphasizes that secularism takes divergent forms in different national settings in terms of institutional arrangement and ideology. In this dissertation, I examine the Turkish and Indian variants of secularism--both recently challenged by the rise of religious politics-- from a comparative-historical perspective. To this end, I examine the debates on secularism that took place in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1920-1931) and the Indian Constituent Assembly (1946-1949) through which the secular regimes of these societies were established. A close examination of these debates shows that while the separation of religion and the state was an important aspect of both Turkish and Indian secularisms, both entailed another strand which allowed the state to intervene in the religious sphere, although for different ends. I then examine how the Turkish and Indian states continued to "reform" and "rationalize" the majority religion--Islam in Turkey and Hinduism in India--through legislative, judicial, and administrative means following the establishment of these secular regimes. This analysis shows that although secularism was historically linked to the construction of sovereign nation-states in both settings, it served different functions in these two projects. Whereas Turkish secularism sanctions state intervention in the religious domain in order to control religion and create a homogeneous nation, the Indian variant of secularism deems it necessary to instigate social reform and create "unity in diversity." Based on these two very different cases, I argue that redefining and regulating the religious sphere is an important feature of secularism which determines the form of religion and the role it will play in society. In this respect, one can think of secularism as a "tool of governance" which is utilized in accordance with the imperatives of creating a modern, secular nation and implementing the nationalist agenda.
Subject	:	Comparative historical sociology
	:	India
	:	Parliamentary debates
	:	Philosophy, religion and theology
	:	Religion and politics
	:	Social sciences