ECU Libraries Catalog

Secularism as misdirection : critical thought from the Global South / Nivedita Menon.

Author/creator Menon, Nivedita author.
Format Book and Print
EditionFirst US edition.
Publication Info Durham : Duke University Press, 2024.
Descriptionxv, 478 pages ; 23 cm.
Subject(s)
Series Theory in forms
Theory in forms.
Contents Introduction: Thinking secularism from the Global South -- State, religion, and the bodies of women -- Hindu majoritarianism and the construction of religion -- The failed project of creating Hindus -- The self and psychoanalysis from the Global South -- Capitalism as secular science -- Insurgent constitutionalism and radical frames of citizenship -- Reshaping worlds : beyond the capitalist horizon.
Abstract "In Secularism as Misdirection, Nivedita Menon traces how the discourse of secularism fixes attention to and hyper-visualizes women and religion while obscuring other related issues. Showing how secularism is often invoked to serve capital and antiminority politics, Menon exposes it as a strategy of governance that is compatible with both democracy and authoritarianism, capitalism and socialism. Secularism also delegitimizes the nonindividuated nonrational self, Menon argues, and exploring this aspect, tracks the journey of psychoanalysis in the Global South. Menon further examines the interconnectedness of religion, caste, the state, and women, showing how the discourse of secularism can also be mobilized by Hindu supremacist politics in India. Menon puts Latin American decolonial theorists in conversation with Asian and African thinkers to examine twenty-first-century global reimaginings of selfhood, constitutionalism, citizenship, and anticapitalist existence. Through a feminist and global perspective, Menon suggests that transformative politics is better imagined by stepping out of the frame offered by secularism and focusing on substantive values such as democracy, social justice, and ecological justice"-- Provided by publisher.
General noteOriginally published by Ashoka University, 2023, as part of their Hedgehog and Fox series.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in other formOnline version: Menon, Nivedita. Secularism as misdirection. Durham : Duke University Press, 2024 9781478059448
LCCN 2023037241
ISBN9781478030423
ISBN1478030429
ISBN9781478026204 (hardcover)
ISBN1478026200
ISBN(ebook)

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner Order on Demand Title Order On Demand ✔ Available Click to order this title