“There are some artifacts that are symbols of nations and states. One of these symbols is the Ayasofya,” said Turkish…
Sacred space and the (post)secular state
India
The failures and successes of translation
I will frame my response to the wonderfully diverse essays in this collection from within this framework of the failure…
Translating “courts” cautiously
Here I will draw out some translation lessons that my work on Indian dar ul qazas—often characterized as “Muslim courts”—has…
Making persons, cultures, and nations
In this exchange, Levi McLaughlin and Deonnie Moodie discuss person-making, culture-making, and nation-making projects in Japan and India.
Imagining community
I was so glad for a book that systematically discarded the American “separation of church and state” paradigm, which despite…
Practices of relation: Goh and Kaell
This dialogue between scholars Robbie Goh and Hillary Kaell covers the lure of the international, “agglomerative impulses,” and attachments to…
Virtual populist regimes
In this contribution I will focus mainly on the cine-populism of south India and the Indian national populisms, which share…
Figurative publics: Crowds, protest, and democratic anxieties
In this forum of The Immanent Frame, the contributors tackle the dual questions of the political and the popular.
Gandhi’s birthday and the American religious left
For those of us in the United States, Gandhi’s birthday is also an opportunity to reflect on how lessons from…
Giving, time, and a wish
One of my central research questions concerns how wealth is given. What tools or techniques do the wealthy use to…