The secular imaginary : Gandhi, Nehru, and the idea(s) of India / Sushmita Nath.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Given the popularity and success of the Hindu right in India's electoral politics today, how may one study ostensibly 'Western' concepts and ideas, such as the secular and its family of cognates, like secularism, secularisation and secularity, in non-Western societies without assuming them to be simply derivative or colonial legacies or contrast cases of Western societies? In other words, what is the discourse of secularity in modern India? While recognising that the dominant language of political modernity of Western societies is not easily translatable in non-Western societies, The Secular Imaginary elaborates upon an intellectual history of secularity in modern India by focusing on the two most influential political leaders - M. K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. It is an intellectual history of both idea(s) and intellectuals which sheds light on Indian narratives of secularity - the Gandhian sarva dharma samabhava, Nehruvian secularism and 'unity in diversity'. It revisits this dominant narrative of secularity of the twentieth century, which influenced and shaped the imagination of the modern nation-state"-- Provided by publisher.