This text presents a re-examination of religious conversion. The author argues that conversion is an interpretive act that belongs in the realm of cultural criticism. To that end, this work examines key moments in colonial and postcolonial history to show how conversion questions the limitations of secular ideologies, particularly the discourse of rights central to both the British Empire and the British nation-state. Implicit in such questioning is an attempt to construct an alternative epistemological and ethical foundation of national community. Viswanathan grounds her study in an examination of two simultaneous and, she asserts, linked events: the legal emancipation of religious minorities in England and the acculturation of colonial subjects to British rule. The author views these two apparently disparate events as part of a common pattern of national consolidation that produced the English state. She seeks to explain why resistance, in both cases, frequently took the form of religious conversion, especially to "minority" or alternative religions. Confronting the general characterization of conversion as assimilative and annihilating of identity, Viswanathan demonstrates that
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Editorial Reviews
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Outside the Fold is an intriguing and wide-ranging set of essays exploring the meaning of conversion. -- David Mosse, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Outside the Fold is an intriguing and wide-ranging set of essays exploring the meaning of conversion. But beyond that, it is a commentary on the transcultural experience of colonialism and modernity. -- Review
Outside the Fold is an intriguing and wide-ranging set of essays exploring the meaning of conversion. But beyond that, it is a commentary on the transcultural experience of colonialism and modernity. -- Review
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"I cannot conceive of a more important reading in its detail and its strength. This is the work of a dedicated and highly sophisticated thinker."--Sara Suleri Goodyear, Yale University
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The most penetrating study of conversion to date,
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This review is from: Outside the Fold (Paperback)
Dr. Viswanathan has examined conversion with an eye to the subjective experience and self-definitions of converts themselves, thereby throwing into sharp relief the institutional frameworks (legal, social, religious, colonial, native) which had heretofore labeled and defined conversion experiences both in colonized India and in the English metropole. A work of stunning insight and erudition, it should prove critical in any informed examination of conversion, including its causes and repercussions in all societies that are negotiating an often tortured relationship with modernity.
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First Sentence:
On the assumption that genealogy is often a function of historical narrative and that the history of cultural developments can best be told through the stories (both historical and literary) that chart their transitions, this chapter offers a genealogical account of the construction of the English tolerant state from its colonial provenance. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
interpersonal law, colonial conversions, emancipatory legislation, verbal offense, real assent, religious subjectivity, notional assents, religious emancipation, separate electorates, local converts, civil disabilities, civil emancipation, secular criticism, civil relief, modern secular state, religious absolutism, conversion histories, civil death, uniform civil code Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Annie Besant, Sister Geraldine, Ananda Row, Privy Council, Pandita Ramabai, John Henry Newman, Roman Catholicism, Indian Muslims, Indian National Congress, Barnaby Rudge, William James, Church of England, Matthew Arnold, Anglican England, Athanasian Creed, Caste Disabilities Removal Act, David Lawton, East Indians, Theosophical Society, Thirty-Nine Articles, Brahmo Samaj, British India, Charles Bradlaugh, Grammar of Assent, Madame Blavatsky New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On the assumption that genealogy is often a function of historical narrative and that the history of cultural developments can best be told through the stories (both historical and literary) that chart their transitions, this chapter offers a genealogical account of the construction of the English tolerant state from its colonial provenance. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
interpersonal law, colonial conversions, emancipatory legislation, verbal offense, real assent, religious subjectivity, notional assents, religious emancipation, separate electorates, local converts, civil disabilities, civil emancipation, secular criticism, civil relief, modern secular state, religious absolutism, conversion histories, civil death, uniform civil code Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Annie Besant, Sister Geraldine, Ananda Row, Privy Council, Pandita Ramabai, John Henry Newman, Roman Catholicism, Indian Muslims, Indian National Congress, Barnaby Rudge, William James, Church of England, Matthew Arnold, Anglican England, Athanasian Creed, Caste Disabilities Removal Act, David Lawton, East Indians, Theosophical Society, Thirty-Nine Articles, Brahmo Samaj, British India, Charles Bradlaugh, Grammar of Assent, Madame Blavatsky New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
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81
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- Loss and Gain (Oxford World's Classics) by J. H. Newman on 10 pages
- Barnaby Rudge (Everyman's Library) by Charles Dickens on 7 pages
- Grammar of Assent by John Henry Cardinal Newman on 7 pages
- Religion in South Asia by Geoffrey A. Oddie on 5 pages
- Annie Besant by Geoffrey West on 5 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- Towards a Transcultural Future: Literature and Society in a 'Post'-Colonial World (ASNEL Papers 9.2; Cross/Cultures 79) (Cross/Cultures S.) by Geoffrey V. Davis; Peter H. Marsden; Bénédicte Ledent; Marc Delrez on 6 pages
- Christians and Public Life in Colonial South India, 1863-1937: Contending with Marginality by Chandra Mallampalli on 5 pages
- Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India by Eliza F. Kent on 5 pages
- Victorian Religious Discourse: New Directions in Criticism by Jude V. Nixon on 5 pages
- Guru English: South Asian Religion in a Cosmopolitan Language (Translation/Transnation) by Srinivas Aravamudan on 5 pages
See all 81 books citing this book
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