Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism

by Banu Subramaniam, Banu Subramaniam (Editor), Rebecca Herzig (Editor)

Overview

Behind the euphoric narrative of India as an emerging world power lies a complex and evolving relationship between science and religion. Evoking the rich mythology of comingled worlds where humans, animals, and gods transform each other and ancient history, Banu Subramaniam demonstrates how Hindu nationalism sutures an ideal past to technologies of the present to make bold claims about the Vedic Sciences and the scientific Vedas. Moving beyond a critique of India’s emerging bionationalism, this book explores the generative possibility of myth and story, interweaving compelling new stories into a rich analysis that animates alternative imaginaries and “other” worlds of possibilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295745596
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	05/15/2019
Series:	Feminist Technosciences
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Banu Subramaniam is professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity, winner of the 2016 Ludwik Fleck Award from the Society for the Social Studies of Science.

Table of Contents

Prologue. In Search of India: The Inner Lives of Postcolonialism ix

Avatars for Lost Dreams: The Land of Lost Dreams xv

Introduction. Avatars for Bionationalism: Tales from (An)Other Enlightenment 3

Avatar #1 The Story of Uruvam 46

1 Home and the World: The Modern Lives of the Vedic Sciences 49

Avatar #2 The Story of Amudha 72

2 Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Biologies: The Queer Politics of (Un)Natural Sex 76

Avatars #3 The Story of Nadu and Piravi 108

3 Return of the Native: Nation, Nature, and Postcolonial Environmentalism 113

Avatar #4 The Story of Neram 141

4 Biocitizenship in Neoliberal Times: On the Making of the "Indian" Genome 145

Avatar #5 The Story of Ami 178

5 Conceiving a Hindu Nation: (Re)Making the Indian Womb 182

Avatar #6 The Story of Kalakalappu 206

Conclusion: Avatars for Dreamers: Narrative's Seductive Embrace 209

Notes on the Mythopoeia 215

Epilogue: Finding India: The Afterlives of Colonialism 223

A Note of Gratitude and Appreciation 231

Notes 237

References 243

Index 285

What People are Saying About This

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

"A brilliant, persuasive analysis of the multiple, complex, braided narratives of 'scientized religion' and 'religionized science' at the heart of Hindu nationalism in India. Subramaniam is a masterful storyteller—she draws on postcolonial feminist science and technology studies and moves seamlessly between the histories and ecologies of science, religion, and, gender to offer compelling counternarratives that resist and transcend the racist, masculinist, capitalist, caste-based biopolitics of Hindu nationalism. A must-read for anyone committed to understanding and countering the rise of authoritarian nationalisms around the world."

Sandra Harding

"Subramaniam’s innovative analyses—presented alongside entertaining accounts of Indian biopolitics that complicate our grasp of science and society’s interconnections—reanimate and deepen considerations of India’s always ambivalent, hybrid engagements with modernity. Inviting reflection on how the modern West has never in fact succeeded in disenchanting its own sciences—and how the West’s assumptions to the contrary prevent it from successfully reimagining the planetary environmental salvation it seeks—this text should become a classic resource in the history and philosophy of science, in science and technology studies, and in social and political theory."

Editorial Reviews

"Reading Banu Subramaniam is equal parts pleasure and provocation...Subramaniam’s work is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary impurity between the humanities and sciences."

Reading Religion