Interrogating Hinduism

This roundtable invites scholars to look beyond historical and textual explorations of the term Hinduism to examine how communities in South Asia and elsewhere actively negotiate, contest, and reject the term. Five presenters interrogate the category of “Hinduism” through the framing terms Madrasi, Tamil, Bahujan, Adivasi, and Diaspora, foregrounding the situated, contested, and often marginalized perspectives from which communities engage with, rework, or refuse the label. Spanning diverse locations from the Caribbean to South India to Telangana to tribal India to North America, and drawing on textual, ethnographic, and activist methodologies, the roundtable highlights experiences of inclusion and exclusion based on caste identities, vernacular registers of ritual knowledge and devotion, the politics of adopting and rejecting the label Hinduism, and articulations of derivative political terminologies such as Hinduphobia and Hindutva.