Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal (OIP)

Description

The sociopolitical landscape of Nepal has seen dramatic and far-reaching changes in the past thirty years. The former Hindu kingdom has declared its commitment to secularism without agreement on what secularism means or should mean in the Nepalese context. What happens to religion under conditions of such rapid social and political change? How is the state dealing with Nepal’s multicultural and multi-religious society? How are Nepalis understanding, resisting, and adapting ideas of secularism?
To answer these questions, this volume brings together eleven case studies by an international team of anthropologists and ethno-Indologists of Nepal on a range of diverse topics, such as secularism, new religious movements, shamanism, animal sacrifice, ethnic revival, and the clashes and synergies between Maoism and Buddhism. Political philosopher Rajeev Bhargava provides a comparative analysis in the Afterword.

About the Editors

David N. Gellner is professor of social anthropology and a fellow of All Souls College in the University of Oxford, UK.

Sondra L. Hausner is professor of anthropology of religion and a fellow of St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

Chiara Letizia, a social anthropologist and historian of religions, is professor of South Asian religions at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Reviews

‘This book is a tour de force: at once a major theoretical contribution to global debates about secularism and a major empirical contribution to understanding what has actually happened in Nepal over the past decade.’
— Sara Shneiderman, University of British Columbia, Canada

‘A collection of methodologically and topically varied yet consistently superb case studies ... a tremendous resource for scholars and students of religion in Nepal and South Asia.’
— Megan Adamson Sijapati, Pacific Affairs

Table of contents

Lists of Tables and Figures
Preface
1. Introduction: Religion and Identities in Post-Panchayat Nepal
David N. Gellner and Chiara Letizia

PART I CONTRASTING URBAN AND RURAL VIEWS: SECULARISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND BLOOD SACRIFICE

2. Ideas of Secularism in Contemporary Nepal
Chiara Letizia
3. ‘When Gods Return to Their Homeland in the Himalayas’: Maoism, Religion, and Change in the Model Village of Thabang, Mid-Western Nepal
Ina Zharkevich
4. Neither Statues Nor Rituals: An Analysis of New Religious Movements and Therapists in Nepal
Gérard Toffin
5. ‘Living Goddesses Everywhere?’ On the Possession of Women by the Goddess Bhagavati in Some Mountain Villages of Eastern Nepal
Pustak Ghimire
6. Blood Sacrifice in Nepal: Transformations and Criticism
Axel Michaels
7. Ancestor Worship and Sacrifice: Debates over Bahun–Chhetri Clan Rituals (Kul Puja) in Nepal
Krishna P. Adhikari and David N. Gellner

PART II ETHNIC TRADITIONS CONFRONT A CHANGING STATE AND SOCIETY

8. State Rituals in a Secular State? Replacing the Nepalese King in the Pacali Bhairava Sword Procession and Other Rituals
Astrid Zotter
9. Tamang Lhochhar and the New Nepal
David Holmberg
10. Redefining Kiranti Religion in Contemporary Nepal
Martin Gaenszle
11. Confrontations between Maoists and Buddhists in Nepal: Historical Continuities, Flux, and Transformations in Collective Myth and Practice
Brigitte Steinmann
12. Tamang Christians and the Resituating of Religious Difference
Ben Campbell

Afterword: Nepalese Secularism in Comparative Perspective
Rajeev Bhargava
Glossary
Notes on Editors and Contributors
Index