The Loss of Hindustan

The Invention of India. By Manan Ahmed Asif

Bibliographic Data

ID8205641
AuthorsElaine M Fisher (Stanford University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume89
Issue4
Pages1472-1475
Publication date2021-12-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jaarel/lfab085
OpenAlexW3215133295
LanguageEN
Citations received2

What does religion have to do with how we periodize Indian history—ancient, medieval, and modern? According to Manan Ahmed Asif’s The Loss of Hindustan, the two are virtually inextricable today on account of the perspective on the past we have inherited from British colonialism. According to the facile narrative that structures introductory textbooks and survey courses on South Asian religions, the Indian subcontinent was once a predominantly Hindu region, fostering the “Golden Age” of the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Bhagavad Gītā, and Yogasūtras. This timeless, spiritual state of affairs was then rudely interrupted by the invasion of Islam, at which point India entered an entirely distinct era. Islam in India inaugurated the age of the Mughals, at once the origin of our first empirical accounts of the past and an era marked by decline and degeneration. The Muslim interregnum of India, in turn, comes to an end only with the rise...

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · BENGAL · Colonialism · Hinduism · Indian subcontinent · Interregnum · Islam · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Vedas · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Study and Philosophy of Religion

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