Table of Contents

1. Introduction Part 1: Classical Approaches to Violence in South Asian Traditions 2. Telling Stories about Harm: An Overview of Himsa in Early Indian Narratives 3. Text as Sword: Sikh Religious Violence Taken as Wonder 4. Early Buddhist Approaches and Attitudes to Violence 5. The Non-Violence of Violence: Jain Perspectives on Warfare, Asceticism and Worship 6. Crimes Against God and Violent Punishment in Arabic Islamic Literature Part 2: Religion and Violence in Contemporary South Asia 7. Operationalizing Buddhism for Political Ends in a Martial Context in Lanka, the Case of Sinhalatva 8. Religion and Violence: The Historical Context for Conflict in Pakistan 9. Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk? Part 3: Theory: Framing the ‘Religion and Violence’ Debate 10. A Categorical Difference: Communal Identity in British Epistemologies 11. The Global Fiduciary: Learning to Mediate the Violence of ‘Religion’

About the Author

Liverpool Hope University, and Robinson College, Cambridge, UK Vanderbilt University, USA

Reviews

This is a wonderful collection combining excellent historical scholarship with incisive cultural critique. It is one of the very few books in this field to illuminate the present by an understanding of religious traditions. It is very well written and thus a good read both for students of social sciences and humanities and for the general reader. Peter van der Veer University Professor University College, Utrecht University