Hinduism

Swami Vivekananda's thoughts are a complex and multidimensional interplay of India's ancient and medieval past and his 19th century milieu. He was an ardent advocate of masculinity and sports. This article discusses the infl uential contributions to theories of masculinity which provide a framework within which Vivekananda's physical activities and gendered notions can be situated. His belief that football is not insignificant reveals his concerns for the development of manliness among the so-called effeminate Bengalis. He himself practised a number of colonial sports and expressed profound interest in golf though these sports were not seen as a form of leisure. The lessons of physical culture not only strengthened his body but empowered his mind against inequality and perils. Vivekananda appeals to the Hindu sources for his construction of the body and mind of the spiritual aspirant as a site delimited and shielded.

The present national crisis of violently conflicting communal identities represents a choice between the inclusiveness of Gandhi and the exclusions of Savarkar. Gandhi did not separate religion from politics. He brought a religious ethic to politics rather than political militancy into religious communities. Meanwhile, Savarkar's Hindutva ideology was narrow and exclusivist in its conflation of janma bhoomi (motherland) and punya bhoomi (holy land). In spite of its pretensions to be nationalist and modern, its militant chauvinism and authoritarian fundamentalism make Savarkar's Hindutva the antithesis of Gandhi's Hinduism. Hindutva defines India as Hindu and wants all Indians to be Hindus. In contrast, Gandhi's Hinduism gives space to all. This paper argues that the future of our multicultural, pluri-religious people can only be even bloodier with the preclusions of Savarkar's Hindutva. Only Gandhi's sarva-dharmasamabhava can possibly be an effective basis for a tolerance on which to premise a just inter-religious peace and harmony.

The Hindu Widow in Indian Literature by Rajul Sogani; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002; pp ix + 265, Rs 525

The subject of religious conversion is rarely studied with reference to Hinduism. On the other hand, reports of adivasi 're-conversion' imply that their Hindu identity is taken for granted, justifying in turn the need for re-conversion. As a further contradiction, while Hinduisation involves their integration with the varna order, they are simultaneously regarded as outcastes - a process that involves hegemony and exploitation of the adivasis and outcastes. This paper, based on the questioning and interrogating the way conversion has been located, takes up the history of conversion in Orissa over the last 200 years

Despite fears of increasing communalisation in public life and the attempt to portray Shivaji as a 'Hindu' raja, long-standing syncretic traditions observed by followers of different communities, from diverse caste backgrounds continue to flourish till date across Maharashtra. As borne out by several case studies cited in this article, Hindus and Muslims frequent dargahs, mazars and chillahs, and there are instances of temples in the Konkan region drawing followers of Islam. There are also shrines and sacred sites that possess a dual identity - they are both a dargah and a temple at the same time; deities bear both Hindu and Islamic names and priests of both communities officiate at ceremonies.