Esther Bloch, Marianne Keppens and Rajaram Hegde. Rethinking Religion in India: The colonial construction of Hinduism. New York, NY: Routledge, 2010. Print

To begin my Shelfie process, I wanted to find a book that addressed one of the religions previously addressed and discussed in our class. My first search began with Jainism, only to find that there were no such books focused directly on this religion. I then went to advanced search and typed in India and below it religion; my results list was much improved and I had a few options. I chose Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, not because it explored Hinduism in India but rather because it discussed the effects of colonialism.

While the cover of the book makes this book seems bland and not worth reading, the different chapters seem to be interesting and cover a wide range of aspects of Hinduism not usually addressed. Part one includes historical and empirical arguments and three chapters that caught my eye in this section were, “Representing religion in colonial India”, “Colonialism and religion”, and “Women, the freedom movement, and Sanskrit: notes on religion and colonialism from the ethnographic present.” After skimming through these chapters, I realized the arguments and discussions detailed were as I expected in the sense that colonialism brought many negatives to religion in India. Colonialism took away public space and freedom to was used to practice Hinduism and worship to the gods.  However, colonialism did bring a new sense of tradition  and many Hindu’s viewed Europeans as signs from the gods.

Part two of Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, reflects on the theoretical reflections. This part includes chapters ranging from “Colonialism, Hinduism, and the discourse of religion”, to “Who invented Hinduism? Rethinking religion in India.” Additionally, “Orientalism, post colonialism and the construction of religion” seemed an interesting section.

I ultimately choose this book because after taking a Cultural Anthropology class and an African History class this semester, the aspect of colonialism and how it deals with oreintalism, religion, and racial issues is always controversial.  Colonialism led to anthropology and certainly had an affect on areas with pre-existing religions.  All the books in the general area of this one all addressed Hinduism. Most of the books regarded Hinduism in India, but other books were enclopedias on Hinduism as a religion as a whole.