Recent developments in religious studies.

1. Dr. N. Muthu Mohan
Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib
Guru Nanak Dev University
Amritsar
Mail: m_uthumohan@yahoo.co.in

2. 1. Structuralism and Semiotics
2. Post Structuralism and Postmodernism
3. Post Colonialism
4. Hermeneutics
NB: Oriented mostly on Language, Culture,
Texts and their Interpretations

3. Example: Post-War Period
1.“Post” means After, Beyond. “Post” also
means continuity and implications
2. Post Colonialism means after colonialism
but also means the implications of
colonialism
3. Continuity and Discontinuity as its two
Constituents

4. 1 Direct Territorial colonialism may be over.
Countries are politically Independent
2. But Colonialism has also ruled the
countries through cultural means
3. Decolonizing the Culture is the main task
of Post Colonialism

5. 1.Post Colonialism is the First School of Philosophy
where many scholars from Asia, Africa and Latin
America are involved
2. Most of the Authors of Post Colonialism are the
Diaspora Intellectuals
3. Franz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri
Spivak etc
4. Writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa
Thiong’o

6. 1. Orientalism - Edward Said
2. Subaltern Studies - Ranajit Guha and
Others
3. Antonio Gramsci - An Italian Marxist
4. Michael Foucault - A Post Modernist

7. 1. Occident/Orient. Departments of Oriental
Studies in the Western Universities -
Production of Knowledge about Oriental
countries, peoples and cultures
2. The Attitude: Civilizing Mission of the Europe
3. Colonial Power and Knowledge Production:
Two Foundations of Imperial Authority

8. 1. Criticized the Marxist Theory of Basis and
Superstructure and Reduction of Social
phenomena into Economic Basis
2. Emphasized on Cultural Politics
3. The Ruling Class establishes its
Hegemony upon other Social Groups
through Cultural means. Hegemony is
Dominance through consent.

9. 1. Going Beyond the Marxist concept of Class
and Class struggles
2. Subaltern Groups of people are peasants,
oppressed castes, tribes and other
marginalized groups who are not recognized
as classes in Marxist language
3. Subaltern Resistances are mostly through
cultural means-Autonomous Resistances

10. 1 Unity of Colonial Power and Knowledge
Production
2. Apart from Coercive Politics, Resorting to
Cultural Politics
3. Getting the Consent of the Groups and
Establishing the Hegemony
4. Universalizing the Specific European
Concepts and Making them into cultural
meta-narratives

11. 1. Hegel: Master – Slave Dialectics
2. Binary Relations where Oppositions alone
exist. Reversing the Binary. It is an
Absolutism
3. Hybridity, Mimesis, Mimicry, Imitating the
Master and Complicity of the Native Groups.
Fanon: Black Skins , White Masks
4. The Nationalist Elite and the Derivative
Discourses

12. 1. Hegemony is from Above and Autonomy is
from Below
2. Hegemony: Complicity of Colonial
Intellectuals and Nationalist Elite
3. Autonomy of Resistances: Can the Subaltern
Speak? Can the Empire Write Back?
Autonomous Agencies. Contestant
Discourses

13. 1. It was a period of Protestant Christianity
making its Theology
2. Basic Features of Protestant Christianity:
One, Its Reformism and Rationality.
Second, Moral and Individualistic
Religiosity

14. 1. Philosophy of Spirit
2. Philosophy of Spirit in History
3. Africa does not have a History?
4. History started in the East but did not grow there,
passed over to the West to achieve its matured
state!
5. History is the Dialectics of Subject and Object.
East does not have the freedom and growth of
Subject!

15. 1. Western Concepts such as Religion,
Spiritualism, Theology, Transcendence,
Metaphysics, Self, Monotheism, Mysticism
etc were introduced into Religious studies
2. Unity of Philosophy, Religion and History
3. German Orientalists had a Special Interest in
the Making of Hinduism with Vedas, Aryans
and Sanskrit at the Centre

16. 1. Inherited the Western concepts in Religious
studies
2. Inherited the Aryan Theory with Brahmins,
Sanskrit and Vedanta at the Centre
3. Three major Packages of Hinduism -
Vedanta, Bhakti and Yoga - got Established
4. Differing Views were characterized as anti-
National

17. 1. Double Exposure: Sikhism Exposed to Western
Paradigms and also exposed to the Emergent
(modern) Hinduism. Double Hegemony. Specifics
of each should be studied in Detail.
2. Some Post Colonial Scholars consider that Singh
Sabha Scholarship is a Derivative Discourse. It is
not correct. The Specific location of Sikhism is
not understood. Overwhelmed by Western
Context.
3. Sikh Scholars resisted the (two) Hegemonies and
struggled hard to keep alive their Autonomy.

18. 4. Western Categories were distant to Sikh Reality
whereas the Hindu categories were closer. Their
Colonizing capability is Bigger
5. The Hindu Hegemony is immediate, direct and would
have pressing political implications
6. For Example: Sikhs are Hindus; Explaining Sikhism in
terms of Vedanta/Bhakti/Yoga.
7. Autonomy may be measured by the level of growth of
formation of that particular culture and difference with
its Contestants