The aim of this paper is to investigate the Indian Hindu nationalist concept of “love jihad”, an idea based upon the alleged fact that Muslim men actively seeks out non-Muslim women for conversion to Islam by various methods including, false promises of love and abductions. While the accusation that Muslims are conducting love jihad currently is being propagated by several active Hindu nationalist groups, the focus of this paper lies on the Viśva Hindū Pariṣad (VHP) and the Rāṣṭrīya Svayaṃsevak Saṃgh (RSS), two major branches within the so-called family of Hindu nationalist organisations, or the Saṃgh Parivār. The material primarily con-sists of articles pertaining to love jihad, published in each organisation’s mouthpiece magazines. Utilising theories on Indian nationalism placed within a structure of analysing propaganda, based on the propaganda model of Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, this paper investigates the idea of love jihad in relation to the VHP and RSS constructs of Indian identities.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1981. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Includes bibliographies. / by Steven William Roecker. / Ph.D.

published_or_final_version / Fine Arts / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This report examines the rhetorical strategies employed in several judicial cases during the 1920s in which the U.S. government contested the racial eligibility of Hindus for naturalization under a law providing that only “white persons” were eligible for naturalization. Through a close examination of the arguments and evidence in the cases, the report argues that the decisions in the cases were inextricably linked to the the conflict between the British and a rising Hindu nationalism movement in the struggle for Indian independence during the period surrounding World War I, and thereby highlight the significance of a wide variety of group identities to racial identification as the courts in the cases negotiated the boundaries of America’s global identity through the lens of race. / text

This study attempts to show that an appeal to the 'perspective of the witness' is essential to better understand the way Sankara makes sense of the richly diverse Vedanta material. It goes beyond the general understanding that Sankara 'conveniently' arranges such material into the categories of the conventional and the absolute placing texts speaking of the Absolute (Brahman) with properties in the conventional/relative category. It suggests that the fundamental properties associated with a theistic conceptualisation of the Absolute, which all authoritative texts attest to, need not be seen as dogmatic tenets that Sankara has to contend with while expounding his non-dual system of thought. Instead, it argues that they should be regarded as meaningful devices that have for their sole purpose to lead the spiritual seeker to the realization of the absolute unity of being, a result that the Advaita tradition holds as the highest goal of life. Three key conceptions of Brahman are explored: Brahman as the cause of the world, as an entity who is gracious towards his devotees, and as an object of devotion. It is argued that all three can be better understood and appreciated when considered in their proper and larger pedagogical context, whose climax is 'the perspective of the witness.' The first three chapters of this thesis are mainly concerned with epistemological and didactic means that are associated with demonstrating the 'perspective of the witness.' The fourth and fifth chapters evaluate how much help such a standpoint can provide us in our appraisal of these three aspects of the Absolute in the context of Sarikara's writings.

This thesis explores the complex identities of the Hindu community of Lusaka, Zambia. It argues that current theories in migration and diaspora studies are not sufficient for understanding such groups in post-colonial Africa. The thesis proposes that we should revisit ‘forgotten’ literature, on immigrants as ‘stranger’ communities, that originates from Georg Simmel’s 1908 essay, ‘The Stranger’. Such work, which this thesis terms ‘stranger theory’, usefully contributes to more contemporary approaches by enabling a comprehensive assessment of a community’s position and how that position changes over time. Stranger theory is used in this thesis to situate Lusaka’s Hindus (and Zambian Hindus more generally) as ‘organic’ members of the nation, whose relationships with wider society are characterised by both ‘nearness’ and ‘remoteness’. The thesis first describes the emergence of a Zambian Hindu ethnic identity during colonial and immediate postcolonial (post-1964) periods focussing on migration and settlement patterns, immigrant networks and the emergence of cultural associations. A theme running throughout the thesis is that the ‘plural society’ of the colonial era (a society consisting of separate, racially-categorised groups with limited interaction) has persisted in Zambia in a postcolonial form, and that this is a useful way of understanding the position of the Hindu community in Zambia today. Following the historical discussion is an analysis of how the contemporary city of Lusaka is experienced by its Hindu residents, through mapping out spaces, social structures and practices that remain unique to Lusaka’s Hindus. Lusaka’s Hindu community is presented as both cohesive and fragmented; the thesis goes on to analyse the ways in which community identity itself is frequently broken down and reconfigured by its members. Zambia’s Hindus comprise diverse sets and subgroups of immigrants with uneven and ‘flexible’ approaches to, and experiences of, migration, citizenship and belonging, rather than embodying a single, quantifiable ‘diaspora’ entity. Yet, in local terms, Hindus in Lusaka are often treated as part of a general ‘Indian’ group; indeed, the thesis shows how Hindus’ relationships with other groups in Zambia emphasise the ‘stranger’ dimension of the community’s position in society. Finally, the thesis asserts that Zambian Hindu ‘twice migrants’—those who migrate onwards to new destinations—reinforce the existence and identities of the ‘home’ community in Zambia. Indeed, these twice migrants must be considered as African and Zambian transnational migrants as well as part of a South Asian ‘diaspora’. Methodologically, the thesis is driven by situational analysis, and brings two separate versions of this approach (from Sociology and Anthropology) together, drawing on data collected in Zambia between 2006 and 2008.

Thesis advisor: James F. Keenan / Secular voices have contributed immensely to the emergence of bioethical discourse in India. The media and the intellectuals frequently employ the language of human dignity, rights and justice to critique the policies of the government or medical institutions and the contemporary healthcare practices. In analyzing the healthcare concerns and in proposing remedial measures to better the situation, they also refer to the notions of care and access but in secular terms. Recognizing that insufficient attention has been paid to the religious dimension in this process and arguing that peoples' religious worldviews bear enormous influence on the entire spectrum of healthcare and in making it better accessible, the thesis examines the Catholic and Hindu religious traditions to find out how they have historically wrestled with and incorporated the theological values of care and access in dealing with healthcare. The study also draws upon the contemporary practices and policies of two select Catholic and Hindu healthcare institutions to illustrate how care and access inform their services and policies. In conclusion, I propose that the inclusion of religious insights and foundational theological values and principles into the mainstream bioethical discourse in India will both enrich the interreligious learning and enhance the various initiatives to promote basic healthcare more participatory and successful. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This dissertation examines Deccan India’s earliest surviving stone constructions, which were founded during the 6th through the 8th centuries CE and are known for their unparalleled formal eclecticism. Whereas past scholarship explains their heterogeneous formal character as an organic outcome of the Deccan’s “borderland” location between north India and south India, my study challenges the very conceptualization of the Deccan temple within a binary taxonomy that recognizes only northern and southern temple types. Rejecting the passivity implied by the borderland metaphor, I emphasize the role of human agents—particularly architects and makers—in establishing a dialectic between the north Indian and the south Indian architectural systems in the Deccan’s built worlds and built spaces. Secondly, by adopting the Deccan temple cluster as an analytical category in its own right, the present work contributes to the still developing field of landscape studies of the premodern Deccan. I read traditional art-historical evidence—the built environment, sculpture, and stone and copperplate inscriptions—alongside discursive treatments of landscape cultures and phenomenological and experiential perspectives. As a result, I am able to present hitherto unexamined aspects of the cluster’s spatial arrangement: the interrelationships between structures and the ways those relationships influence ritual and processional movements, as well as the symbolic, locative, and organizing role played by water bodies. The project therefore reimagines the Deccan’s sacred centers not as conglomerations of disjointed monuments but as integrated environments in which built structures interact with, and engage, natural elements, and vice versa.

This dissertation explores the means by which Hindus in the United States theorize and cultivate desires in the midst of the larger project of making Hindu subjectivities for themselves and their children. It suggests that the cultivation of desire—while significant in creating any type of subjectivity anywhere—is a centerpiece of making identities for Hindus in the diaspora. From its very beginnings, in reference to Jews, the language and sentiment of diaspora have always been associated with desires. Specifically, there is the longing for the homeland, which most diasporic communities have cultivated. For many Hindus, the idea of India as a desired ‘homeland’ is also fundamental, but for them, as throughout history, the desires associated with diasporic experiences have been enacted in a range of ways and they have always been about more than simply place. Hindu parents and community members are engaged in the development of other types of desires—moral-spiritual, theological, narrative-historical, “sanctioned” romantic and familial, gastronomic, and material. Many contemporary practices of Hindus in the diaspora—educational, ritual, representational, political, and consumer—revolve around the inculcation and fulfillment of desires, for both children and adults. Desire is a recurrent trope, articulated differently by parents, teachers, community leaders, married couples, students, young adults, devotees, and children. Not only do people express their own desires, but they negotiate, facilitate or hinder the desires, both real and perceived, of others. Through an examination of various Hindu realms and practices, I trace some of the types of Hinduism that are forming in the United States, as well as the affective cultures and desires that seem to animate them. The chapters explore: the development, content and cultures of Hindu supplementary educational programs; new modes of Hindu exhibition as ritual and devotional practices, and as reflections of collective desires about Hindu representation; the role of consumer cultures—particularly the place of ethnic stores and practices of shopping; the rise in forms of Hindu advocacy, particularly with respect to the concomitant desires to control representations of Hinduism and Indian history within educational and other public spheres; the place of Hindu nationalism and the motivations of participants in a variety of Hindu spaces; and the expression of ‘strategic citizenship’ on the part of a Hindu community seeking public recognition and acceptance. My hope is that this work not only sheds light on processes at work within contemporary Hindu communities in the U.S., but helps us to consider larger human questions about the development of religious selves and sensibilities, the shaping of identities, the cultivation of belonging, the negotiation of public and civic spheres, and the politics and poetics of nationalism and self-representation. The ways people locate themselves and are located by others, both consciously and unconsciously, are often artifacts of desire, and it is through desire that various identifications are negotiated.