<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best available books on "Hinduism"
Review: Richard King has written a very provocative and very useful book. In Orientalism and Religion, King argues that the term "Hinduism" does not represent any single ancient "religion." Rather, Hinduism is a construct of western scholars who, upon encountering Indian culture, created a religion along the lines of their own Christian conceptions of what a religion ought to be. These scholars of the nineteenth century sought out Indian equivalents of their own Christian culture (i.e. sacred texts and authority figures), and from these (largely the Vedas and the Brahmin caste, respectively) created the "religion" of the Hindus, or "Hinduism." This construction of a "world religion" abetted the colonial exploitation of Indians. King effectively argues the point through examinations of the works of early "Orientalist" scholars and works of more recent scholars who exhibit the same "essentializing" tendencies.King's account draws quite explicitly on the work of Michel Foucault and Edward Said, but King deals creatively with both Foucault and Said in generating his own unique approach to the study of the "West's" colonial encounter with India. King is not content with an account that denies the agency of native Indians. He thus focuses on how "native informants," often in reaction against colonial forces, ironically helped perpetuate, and indeed bring into being, the "Hinduism" created by Orientalist scholars. This book should interest all students of religion, as it is part of a growing recognition that the use of the term "religion" when discussing non-western or ancient cultures is highly problematic. Indeed, a possible difficulty for King is his insistence that there were indigenous "religions" in India before the colonial encounter (as on p. 103). Orientalism and Religion should greatly impact specialists in Hinduism, but it is also accessible for the general reader willing to put forth a little extra effort.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best available books on "Hinduism"
Review: Richard King has written a very provocative and very useful book. In Orientalism and Religion, King argues that the term "Hinduism" does not represent any single ancient "religion." Rather, Hinduism is a construct of western scholars who, upon encountering Indian culture, created a religion along the lines of their own Christian conceptions of what a religion ought to be. These scholars of the nineteenth century sought out Indian equivalents of their own Christian culture (i.e. sacred texts and authority figures), and from these (largely the Vedas and the Brahmin caste, respectively) created the "religion" of the Hindus, or "Hinduism." This construction of a "world religion" abetted the colonial exploitation of Indians. King effectively argues the point through examinations of the works of early "Orientalist" scholars and works of more recent scholars who exhibit the same "essentializing" tendencies. King's account draws quite explicitly on the work of Michel Foucault and Edward Said, but King deals creatively with both Foucault and Said in generating his own unique approach to the study of the "West's" colonial encounter with India. King is not content with an account that denies the agency of native Indians. He thus focuses on how "native informants," often in reaction against colonial forces, ironically helped perpetuate, and indeed bring into being, the "Hinduism" created by Orientalist scholars. This book should interest all students of religion, as it is part of a growing recognition that the use of the term "religion" when discussing non-western or ancient cultures is highly problematic. Indeed, a possible difficulty for King is his insistence that there were indigenous "religions" in India before the colonial encounter (as on p. 103). Orientalism and Religion should greatly impact specialists in Hinduism, but it is also accessible for the general reader willing to put forth a little extra effort.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, pioneering work
Review: The preceding review of Richard King's fine work is a scandalous misrepresentation of its content. This book is not an analysis of Indian philosophy, but an analysis of the reception of Indian thought in the West: it explores the processes by which the East has been represented in the West so as to maintain a view of Western superiority. In brief, it challenges Eurocentric views of the East. In order to evaluate Richard King's own appreciation of Indian philosophy, one should read his other books.
Rating: 
Summary: Orientalism and Religion
Review: The preceding review of Richard King's fine work is a scandalous misrepresentation of its content. This book is not an analysis of Indian philosophy, but an analysis of the reception of Indian thought in the West: it explores the processes by which the East has been represented in the West so as to maintain a view of Western superiority. In brief, it challenges Eurocentric views of the East. In order to evaluate Richard King's own appreciation of Indian philosophy, one should read his other books.
Rating: 
Summary: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Review: This is a typical book based on the European sense of superiority over other cultures. It claims that very heart of Indian religion and philosophy, which is based on the Upanishads, is merely a way to impress Westerners. However, given the acknowledged fact that these scriptures predate most of Western civilization by thousands of years, how could they have been motivated by the need to impress Europeans at that time. In relatively recent times, Shankara re-popularized the Upanishad philosophy, giving it the name Vedanta. But that too was in the 7th century, a thousand years before the arrival of the British in India. It was in reaction to the Buddhists, particularly the Madhyamikya, that Vednata was polularized starting in the 7th century. One should read the many Westerners who have been and continue to be inspired by the Upanishads for many of the ideas that constitute today's prevalent worldview in the West called post-modernism. I suggest that its better for a reader to read books by authors such as Harold Coward, Fritojf Schoun, W. C. Smith, Hustom Smith, and Bede Griffiths, in order to get a baeetr view.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, myth-smashing academic book
Review: This is an excellent book that does much to dispel both the Eurocentric and mystifying Orientalist myths that have grown up around the relation of East and West. A truly impressive piece of post-colonial scholarship that refuses to cater to the prejudices of Hindu fundamentalists, convert Neo-Buddhists, or Euro-American boosters.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, myth-smashing academic book
Review: This is an excellent book that does much to dispel both the Eurocentric and mystifying Orientalist myths that have grown up around the relation of East and West. A truly impressive piece of post-colonial scholarship that refuses to cater to the prejudices of Hindu fundamentalists, convert Neo-Buddhists, or Euro-American boosters.
<< 1 >>
| 
