Secularism as misdirection : critical thought from the Global South / Nivedita Menon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Menon, Nivedita, author.

Series:

e-Duke books scholarly collection

Theory in forms

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Secularism--Developing countries.

Secularism.

Secularism--Political aspects--Developing countries.

Women--Developing countries--Social conditions.

Women.

Religion and state--Developing countries.

Religion and state.

Political culture--Developing countries.

Political culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 478 pages).

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"In Secularism as Misdirection, Nivedita Menon traces how the discourse of secularism fixes attention to and hyper-visualizes women and religion while obscuring other related issues. Showing how secularism is often invoked to serve capital and antiminority politics, Menon exposes it as a strategy of governance that is compatible with both democracy and authoritarianism, capitalism and socialism. Secularism also delegitimizes the nonindividuated nonrational self, Menon argues, and exploring this aspect, tracks the journey of psychoanalysis in the Global South. Menon further examines the interconnectedness of religion, caste, the state, and women, showing how the discourse of secularism can also be mobilized by Hindu supremacist politics in India. Menon puts Latin American decolonial theorists in conversation with Asian and African thinkers to examine twenty-first-century global reimaginings of selfhood, constitutionalism, citizenship, and anticapitalist existence. Through a feminist and global perspective, Menon suggests that transformative politics is better imagined by stepping out of the frame offered by secularism and focusing on substantive values such as democracy, social justice, and ecological justice"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Thinking secularism from the Global South

State, religion, and the bodies of women

Hindu majoritarianism and the construction of religion

The failed project of creating Hindus

The self and psychoanalysis from the Global South

Capitalism as secular science

Insurgent constitutionalism and radical frames of citizenship

Reshaping worlds : beyond the capitalist horizon.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Menon, Nivedita. Secularism as misdirection.

ISBN:

9781478059448

1478059443

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.