The Encounter of Colonialism and Indian Religious Traditions

Dear Colleagues,

Colonialism seems to be a never-ending business. Almost 80 years after Independence, colonialism is everywhere in religious reflection in India. After the British Raj, colonialism has taken new forms and faces, with globalization being among them. More importantly, traces of colonialism are found in the Indian psyche itself, to the point that a generation of Indian religious authors have dedicated their lives to expel those traces. Is that possible, anyway? Is it possible to erase the past, bad as it may be? And was it all bad? To put it differently, is colonialism a historical category, with its pros and cons, or a sin, an essential reality that flies above temporality so that, in the end, colonialism can only be definitively bad?

What is the role of colonialism as a hermeneutical key today in India, with local religious traditions being challenged by modernity, nationalism, and increasing competition with China? As is true for many times in history, India is a land of contradictions: its technologically advanced machines land on the moon while large portions of the population remain in poverty. Is it time to say goodbye to the hermeneutic category of colonialism, or it is here to stay?

The encounter of colonialism with Indian religious traditions is the story of the intertwining of empire, mission, and whiteness. Each of these dimensions negotiated with the others and with Indian religious traditions. Negotiation is a complex term: think of the Roman Catholic Church, which made a deal on India with Portugal and then France, only to find itself at the mercy of the Protestant British Empire. So much for the alliance of altar and throne! But the encounter between colonialism and Indian religious tradition does not only speak with the voice of the white missionaries but with that of local Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs as well. How did they react to the threefold invasion? Did the Indian Christian fishermen of the South feel themselves torn apart by their double belonging to a Western religion and an Asian society? Or did they smoothly negotiate the two terms of the equation?

Colonialism cut into Indian religious traditions at both social and ecclesial levels. By ecclesial, I mean the internal organization of the Church. Is the liturgy perceived as Western in Indian Christianity? Or, piece by piece, has worship been transformed and made Indian, that is, de-Westernized? The same discourse is available for theology: is Indian Christian theology truly Indian and truly Christian, or does the balance more to one side or the other?

Is colonialism only Christian? Were the Islamic invasions of Northern India a form of colonialism too? Although advocates of the inherently religious pluralism of India would reject the question, others would answer with more nuance that Hindustan, a Muslim–Hindu civilization, was a historical construction born out of an invasion. The drama of Partition still resonates in the current debate about what India is, religiously speaking: a Hindu nation, maybe?

And finally, is colonialism a great excuse? Eighty years after Independence, is it not time for India to be over colonialism? South America was a colony. Central America was a colony. Singapore was a colony. But rarely does one hear the word “colonialism” in public debates. One way or another, every nation on earth has been colonialized; then, each one reached independence and moved on. Is there anything strange about the inclination to label everything Western as colonialism, including the same globalization that has transformed China into a superpower? Is this the time for Indian religious tradition to debate new themes and address new issues?

These questions are raised to open a scholarly discussion on the encounter of colonialism and Indian religious traditions. We welcome papers written from a variety of methods: historical, social, anthropological, theological, philosophical, and biblical. We encourage papers that deal with the subject both from local and international perspectives. Of particular interest are original research papers that explore the following topics with reference to Indian religious traditions:

• Concept of colonialism;
• Western and non-Western forms of colonialism;
• Older and new forms of colonialism;
• Assimilation and rejection of colonialism;
• Colonialism and postcolonialism;
• Colonialism as a historical category;
• Capitalism as a hermeneutical category;
• Colonialism as an anthropological category;
• Colonialism and the political use of the past;
• Ecclesial colonialism and its dimensions (theological, liturgical);
• Religious resistance to social and political colonialism;
• Religious resistance to ecclesial colonialism;
• Forms of assimilation and rejection of ecclesial colonialism;
• Colonialism and religions in the Indian subcontinent;
• Hindu–Christian dialogue and colonialism;
• Hindu–Muslim dialogue and colonialism;
• Christian–Muslim dialogue and colonialism;
• Hindustan and colonialism;
• Hindu nationalism, colonialism, and postcolonialism.

Prior to submitting a manuscript, we request that authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor ([email protected]) and CC the Assistant Editor, Margaret Liu ([email protected]), of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring that they fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Dr. Enrico Beltramini
Guest Editor

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• India
• religion
• colonialism
• mission
• Christianity
• Islam
• Hinduism
• assimilation
• dialogue
• practice
• theology