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Secular states, religious politics: India, Turkey, and the future of secularism

Bose, Sumantra (2018) Secular states, religious politics: India, Turkey, and the future of secularism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9781108454865

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Identification Number: 10.1017/9781108559461

Abstract

A pioneering comparative study of the two major attempts to build secular states - where the state's constitutional identity and fundamental character are not based on or derived from any religious faith - in the non-Western world. This book explains the origins, evolution and latterly the decline of secularism as a core principle of the state in India and Turkey. The anti-secular political transformations of the twenty-first century are the rise of a Sunni-Islamist definition of Turkish national identity to hegemonic power, and Hindu nationalism as India's pre-eminent political force. Both secular-state models adopted a similar operational doctrine of state intervention in and regulation of the religious sphere, rather than a Western-style separation of church and state. But, Turkish state-secularism took a culturally deracinated and harshly authoritarian form that led to its failure, whereas India's secular state - though flawed in practice - followed a culturally rooted and democratic path that makes secularism indispensable to India's future.

Item Type: Book
Official URL: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/pol...
Additional Information: © 2018 The Author
Divisions: Government
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Date Deposited: 09 Feb 2018 14:22
Last Modified: 20 Feb 2024 07:12
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86735

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