2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion

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Expert Group on Religion

Group: Representations of India

Kim

Apparently no religious discrimination within native population

Buddhism Teshoo Lama

Respected person who receives food and shelter by the native population
Less respect paid by the British
“holy man” (p. 87) vs. “old beggar man” (p. 112), “a heathen’s money” (p. 112) 

Christianity

      - Father Victor and Reverend Bennett

“Between himself and the Roman Catholic chaplain of the Irish contingent lay, as Bennett believed, an unbridgeable gulf [...] whenever the Church of England dealt with a human problem she was very likely to call in the Church of Rome.” (p. 85)

Betrayal of Woman of Shamlegh by a Christian missionary (cf. p. 264)

Portrayal of native “superstition”? Kim’s search for the Red Bull “[...] I saw the Bull again with the – the Sahibs praying to it. [...] ‘Officers praying to a bull!’ What in the world do you make of that?’ said Bennett.” (p. 87)

Huneefa’s rituals 
Mahbub Ali vs. Hurree Babu (cf. p. 178-180)


Untouchable

Religious discrimination of low-caste Hindus and religious minorities (e.g. Muslims) by upper-caste Hindus Outcaste Hindus are not able to practice or forget about religious practices

       - Religious duty of keeping pure
                   • Bakha’s attitude towards cleanliness vs. Hindu purity rituals

“[...] those laws of hygiene which are the basis of Hindu piety. [...] Besides there was scarcity of water [...] they just did without; till sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene had lost its meaning for them.” (p. 76) Solutions to religious discrimination

      - Christian belief presented by Colonel Hutchinson 
                    • Henpecked by his wife, fails to acquaint Bakha with Christianity
      - Renewed Hinduism propelled by Ghandi -> joins various social and cultural  groups
                    • Ghandian speech not fully understandable to Bakha, seems unreachable
                    • critique

“ ‘Ghandi is a humbug [...] In one breath he says he wants to abolish untouchability, in the other he asserts he is an orthodox Hindu. He is running counter to the spirit of our age, which is democracy. [...] (p. 150) Progressive Indian philosophy

     - Alternative solution presented by the poet (cf. p. 152-156)


Midnight's Children

A lot of different religious groups within Indian society No consensus within these groups

Muslim:

                - Aadam Aziz: loses his faith right in the beginning (cf. p.4)
                - Naseem: conservative, wants the children to be  taught according to Islamic  
                  tradition and religion
                - Free Islamic Convocation: speaks up against partition of India, is ended by the 
                  assassination of the hummingbird by the Muslim League
                - Muslim league: radical Muslims, fighting for partition of India and an own  
                  Muslim state
                  

Hindu:

               - Shiva: Hindu fighting in the Indian army, named after the Hindu god of destruction
               - Ravana gang: radical Hindu, terrorizing the Muslims, fighting for partition of 
                 India

Saleem: although he grows up in a Muslim family he is not interested in religion -> To which group, if to any of these, does he belong?