While this gave the colonial writer the sense of scholarship over the “savage”Ĭulture, it also justified colonialism. However, to increase the appeal, sexual practices considered taboo in their own cultures were interpreted. This makes it easier to justify the attack on the “other” to the colonizers. Inaccurate interpretations of a non-Abrahamic culture and its religion done essentially through an Abrahamic lens is easier as it is considered inferior and rescued by “civilization of savages” by translating their literature, religions and other things during colonial times by the colonizers for a mass audience in the colonized country. This book is a call for debate and discussion of such interpretations by Hindu scholars who are also practitioners as to the accuracy of such statements and interpretations. However, with lots of other literature available to prove otherwise, especially the consorts of the “trinity” as well as the children which is not present in Abrahamic religions, it is easier for scholars who are non-Hindus and who have a Eurocentric filter on to interpret this “anomaly” using erotic and exotic lens as the practioners belong to a non-Abrahamic culture. When studies on Hinduism are done using an Abrahamic / Eurocentric lens of the Trinity, naturally it becomes more convenient to re-interpret or reduce it to a religion with a trinity. Invading the Sacred is an anthology of 29 essays by Hindu scholars and Hinduism experts who attempt to present a balanced perspective of Hinduism to the global audience as opposed to the one-sided version of what Hinduism, and Indian culture is all about by the academic scholars of Hinduism in America who refuse debate or through pop-culture images like Indians eating monkey brains in the Hollywood movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” or images of an exotic India as a land of snake charmers, sex maniacs and elephants only or Hinduism is essentially a polytheistic religion as opposed to the Abrahamic religions. A majority of the Indians are Hindus and Hindu-Americans are a minority in the USA. In today’s global world, India is becoming a major economic player. Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America,Įdited by Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas, Aditi Banerjee, This article is special to World and I Online. World and I Online-review by Deepa Kandaswamy PRESS-webĭeepa Kandaswamy is a freelance writer.
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