{"product_id":"secularism-as-misdirection-critical-thought-from-the-global-south-9788178246970","title":"Secularism As Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Nivedita Menon\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the performance of a magic trick, misdirection draws attention away from the trick to another place which appears more fascinating. This book shows how secularism creates such a misdirection.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMenon argues that secularism stands in as an umbrella term for a range of associated ideas – global science, historical progress, general development, individual freedom, rational choice. Within this grid of meanings linked with secularism, certain features become hypervisible (religion, women) while others are obscured (caste, capitalism, the non-individuated and non-rational self). Secularism, Menon shows, is merely a strategy of rule, being compatible with both democracy and authoritarianism, capitalism and socialism. Only when we are no longer dazzled by secularism’s ability to misdirect can meaningful values – democracy, social equality, and ecological justice  – emerge centre stage. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book is a powerful reconceptualisation of what secularism really means – of what is really being said under cover of the term secularism. Menon’s perspective is \u003cem\u003efrom\u003c\/em\u003e the global South, specifically India, though her book is not \u003cem\u003eabout\u003c\/em\u003e the global South. She explores religion, state, and women; Hindu supremacism’s project to equate Brahminism with Hinduism; psychoanalysis and the self in the global South; and new articulations of constitutionalism and citizenship across the world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is one of those profoundly interesting books that make you rethink the nature of the world you were sure you understood.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45616494117015,"sku":"9788178246970","price":570.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9788178246970.webp?v=1769294941","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/secularism-as-misdirection-critical-thought-from-the-global-south-9788178246970","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}