Modernity, Religious Fundamentalism and the Secularization Thesis

-- Victoria S Harrison

Religious fundamentalism is often regarded as an attempt to recreate the past by allowing religious believers to inhabit a pre-modern worldview. This paper seeks to demonstrate that this is a highly misleading picture of religious fundamentalism. By examining some of the key characteristics of religious fundamentalism within the Abrahamic faiths, the paper argues that, far from being a throwback to the past, religious fundamentalism is a distinctively modern phenomenon. Finally, an examination of the secularization thesis and its failure to account for current patterns of religiosity, provides further reason to believe that religious fundamentalism is dependent upon other features of modernity.

© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

The R. gveda Date and Indigenism

-- N Kazanas

This paper presents the evidences and arguments for a R. gveda (RV), the bulk of which was composed in the 4^th millennium BCE. A basic consideration (but not the only one) is that the RV has no knowledge at all of many features that characterize the Harappan culture, which began to emerge solidly c3000. The evidences from Palaeoastronomical researches, from the flow of the river Sarasvati-, from horses' remains, and much else, confirm this. Since the bulk of the R. gveda must be assigned to a period before 3000, and, since this is by general consensus stated to have been composed in Saptasindhu (i.e., the land of the seven rivers in what is today N-W India and Pakistan), then the Indo-aryans or Vedic people were present in that location before 3000, and must, therefore, be regarded as indigenous by 1500, when they are alleged to have moved in by the Aryan Invasion/Immigration/Ingress Theory. Additional solid evidence is now furnished by Genetics.

© 2008 N Kazanas. All Rights Reserved.

Pulayas in Kerala: The Nineteenth Century Emancipation Question Re-Explored

-- Raj Sekhar Basu

In this article, efforts have been made to explore the links between caste and landholding in 19^th century Kerala. There is also an attempt at providing a detailed narrative on the institution of slavery. The article also seeks to provide detailed accounts of the anti-slavery propaganda and the role played by the Christian missionaries in the abolition of slavery. Furthermore, attempts are also made to understand as to whether Pulaya reawakening in the last decades of the 19^th century emerged out of missionary propaganda, or whether it was more out of a change in the attitude of the governments of the native states, vis-à-vis the problems of the depressed classes.

© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

The Office of the Qazi in the Deccan: An Analysis of British Records

-- Akiko Suehiro

In medieval Deccan, the qazi sat in the court as a judge, made documents concerning inheritance and marriage, and performed religious ceremonies. As rewards for these duties, he was given inam lands, daily allowances and various perquisites. His role had greatly changed under the British rule. It was prescribed by Regulation No. 26 of 1827 of the Bombay Act, that qazis were appointed only by the Government, and their duties were restricted to attending the ceremony of marriage and divorce. The appointment of the qazi al-quzat (great qazi) or the qazi of a city, town or pargana by the Government, was prohibited by Act No. 11 of 1864, which abolished Regulation No. 26 of 1827 of the Bombay Act. With Bombay Act No. 3 of 1874 (the Bombay Hereditary Office Act), it was defined that the offices of the qazis would not be `hereditary offices'. With Act No. 12 of 1880 (the Qazis Act), it was prescribed that the qazis were to be appointed in some areas where they were required by the inhabitants for performing their ceremonies, but they would not possess any judicial power. Many trials over the qazi took place in the second half of the 19^th century. The issues were whether the offices of the qazis, appointed by the imperial edict and sanads (official papers) of Muslim governments, were hereditary or not, and whether the inam land and the daily allowances appertaining to the office of the qazi could be mortgaged and taken into seizure or not. In these law-suits, it was decided that neither the offices of the qazis nor the inam lands and the daily wages appertaining to the offices of the qazis were recognized as hereditary, unless the custom that the offices of the qazis were inherited for generations, was proved.

© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

Book Review

Paradise Poisoned: Learning about Conflict, Terrorism and Development from Sri Lanka's Civil Wars

-- Author: John Richardson Reviewed by P Radhakrishnan

This book is the product of a 17 year project since 1987, devoted to understanding linkages between deadly conflict, terrorism and development, by viewing them through the lens of Sri Lanka's post-independence history, from 1948 to 1988. The reference to `Paradise' is to the Sri Lanka of remarkable stability and promise in the early years of independence in 1948, with extraordinarily good preconditions for a peaceful development scenario. How this paradise failed to realize its potential and produced one of the most violent and protracted internal wars in the world, is the story of the book, narrated through 5 parts and 22 chapters. The wars are by the migrant Tamils concentrated in the north and east (Jaffna province) for a separate Tamil Eelam or Tamil State, waged since 1983 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against the tiny State of Sri Lanka.

© 2008 IUP holds the copyright for the review. All Rights Reserved.