Limiting Secularism

With a backdrop of religious violence and escalating regional tensions in South Asia, Priya Kumar\u2019s Limiting Secularism probes the urgent topic of secularism and tolerance in Indian culture and life. Kumar explores Partition as the founding trauma of the Indian nation-state and traces the consequences of its marking off of \u201cIndian\u201d from \u201cPakistani\u201d and the positioning of Indian Muslims as strangers within the nation. Kumar unpacks the implications of the Nehruvian doctrine of tolerance-with all of its resonances of condescension and inequality-and asks whether more ethical cohabitation can replace the \u201carrogant compulsive tolerance\u201d of the state and the majority. Informed by Jacques Derrida\u2019s recent work on hospitality and living together, Kumar argues for the emergence of an \u201cethics of coexistence\u201d in Indian fiction and film. Considering narratives ranging from the cosmopolitan English novels of Rushdie and Ghosh to literature in South Asian languages as well as recent Hindi cinema, Kumar demonstrates that these fictions are important resources for reimagining tolerance and coexistence. Distinctive and timely in its investigation of secularism and communalism, Limiting Secularism works to envision the radical possibilities of going beyond tolerance to living well together. Priya Kumar is associate professor of English at the University of Iowa.