![By Ken Wieland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://s3.amazonaws.com/ssrc-static/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/12155304/Ahilya_Ghat_by_the_Ganges_Varanasi-e1494618784878.jpg)
“I came to Varanasi India to do a show about Hinduism, about karma, reincarnation, the caste system, and a little…
Scholar or retailer of import goods? Reza Aslan, his guru, and his critics
India
Politicizing Islam: An introduction
Politicizing Islam is a comparative ethnography that analyzes the religious and political dynamics of the Islamic revival in France and…
Competing inequalities
Saba Mahmood’s Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report is a luminous, fiercely argued book. It requires deep and…
The complicated case of Narendra Modi’s visa
Monday, May 12th, marked the ninth and final phase of India's general elections, and the results announced in coming hours…
In defense of the fragment
Richard Madsen has done me the favor of reading my book carefully and sympathetically. He points out that the complexity…
Modern spirits
The Modern Spirit of Asia is like a brilliant pencil sketch for an uncompleted oil painting. Something inspiring appears in…
Looking back while hurtling forward
At a time when the late twentieth century giants of comparative social science—like S.N. Eisenstadt and Robert Bellah—have recently passed away…
Ascetic faith in a modern world
Jainism, a religion from India that emphasizes a disciplined adherence to non-violence, is one of the oldest religions in the…
“Twin tolerations” today: An interview with Alfred Stepan
Alfred Stepan is Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University and founder and director of the Center for…
Religious freedom as crisis claims
Adopted in 1950, Article 17 of the Indian Constitution legally abolished untouchability---the ancient Hindu system of social discrimination---forbade its practice…