Publisher Description

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.

Author Biography

Sumantra Bose is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His many books include Transforming India: Challenges to the World's Largest Democracy (2013), Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka (2007), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace (2003), and Bosnia after Dayton: Nationalist Partition and International Intervention (2002). Born and raised in Kolkata, India, Bose graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1992 and received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in New York in 1998.

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The discontents of secularism; 2. Paths to the secular state; 3. Paradoxes of the secular state; 4. India: the anti-secularist ascendancy; 5. Turkey: the anti-secularist triumph; 6. Secular and anti-secular authoritarianisms: i. The case of Kemalism ii. The case of Hindu-nationalism; 7. The futures of secularism; Bibliography; Index.

Review

'The book shows why secular politics consistently fails to deliver on its promises.' Nick Spencer, The Tablet

Promotional

Presents a comparative study of two major attempts to build secular states - India and Turkey - in the non-Western world

Review Quote

'The book shows why secular politics consistently fails to deliver on its promises.' Nick Spencer, The Tablet

Promotional "Headline"

Presents a comparative study of two major attempts to build secular states - India and Turkey - in the non-Western world

Description for Bookstore

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.

Description for Library

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.

Details