Living Together Separately: Cultural India in History and Politics (Hardback)

This collection of essays effectively reflects the ongoing debate around the ideas of syncretism, synthesis, and pluralism in South Asia today. It discusses various aspects of syncretism in India while problematizing the very concept of syncretism. The essays pose a number of pertinent and relevant questions, even as they focus on various individuals, moments, and encounters in Indian history. How does one define syncretism? What is the difference between syncretism and pluralism? Is it possible to live together separately? The volume takes a fresh look at various historical events, personalities, and phenomena, and makes an effort to revise many long-held, black-and-white, uni-dimensional views such as unity in diversity and composite culture . This volume boasts of an impressive array of well-known scholars, such as Asim Roy, Michael Fisher, Francis Robinson, Gurpreet Mahajan, Shail Mayaram, Barbara Metcalf, David Lelyveld, Alok Bhalla, Sudhir Chandra, Farzana Shaikh, Peter van de r Veer, Rajat Kanta Ray, and Kumkum Sangari. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of medieval and modern Indian history as well as lay readers interested in the question of Indian pluralism as reflected in its history.