Was Ashoka really a secularist Avant-la-Lettre?: ancient indian pluralism and toleration in perspective
Focusing on Rajeev Bhargava's claim that Aśoka was a secularist avant-la-lettre, I dispute the common understanding of secularism as the separation of religion and politics, and argue instead that such separation, to the extent that it existed, was characteristic of traditional religious societ...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2022
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| In: |
Modern Asian studies
Year: 2022, Volume: 56, Issue: 3, Pages: 749-775 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Focusing on Rajeev Bhargava's claim that Aśoka was a secularist avant-la-lettre, I dispute the common understanding of secularism as the separation of religion and politics, and argue instead that such separation, to the extent that it existed, was characteristic of traditional religious societies. I then offer an alternative history of secularism as the demise of the traditional balance of power between church and state, and the rise of a unitary state which incorporated a civil religion that excluded competing forms of religiosity within its domain. This model of secularism, exemplified by the seventeenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, fits Aśoka's Dhamma better than the separationist model does. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-8099 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Modern Asian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X21000160 |