Secularism, Communalism and the Intellectuals

About the Book
These essays focus on the role of fashionable critiques and smug dismissals of secularism and modernity, and the unqualified defense of so-called indigenous traditions in providing intellectual support for the discourse of Hindutva.
Review/s
Zaheer Baber’s stem indictment of anti-secular intellectuals should promote a revival of genuine Indian sociology rather than their unimaginative Indology. Baber takes T.N. Madan, Ashis Nandy and Veena Das to task, he offers us a theory of communalism, and he advises us to consider a comparative “race” framework for the oppressions meted out to the socially suppressed within India: all this in a very short, readable and insightful book.—Vijay Prashad

About the Author
Zaheer Baber is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization and Colonial Rule in India (1996) and editor of Cyber Asia: The Internet and Society in Asia (2005). He has published papers in a number of journals such a The British Journal of Sociology and is a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.