For one to achieve his goal effectively he or she must have an agenda, in some religions today, we heard of their religious agendas for instance we heard of the Islamic, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, agendas, it is very important we know every agenda has a purpose and its centrality. The central theme of the student body magazine for this year is timely in its cohesive sense. This article is arming at giving an understanding on Christian missions a means of achieving Jesus Christ agenda in t...
Abstract The thrust of this paper is on personality cult as a cultural residuum in Africa. The idea of personality cult as known in the Igbo worldview (Africa) is that of the ancestors. The ancestors are the police of their individual families, who keep surveillance on their descendants. Though dead, they continuously participate in the holistic family activities. Viewing from this lens using observation and phenomenological methodology of study, it is pertinent to understand that different...
This Nidān special issue on ‘Christianity in India’ is an extensive enterprise of most recent scholarship pertaining to the topic. Contributions for this special issue, carried out from a historical, literary and anthropological perspective explore pertinent questions about Christian vernacular movements, identity, texts/ literature, music, poetry, institutions, missionaries and cantonments. All this, further contextualized within the local and regional history of colonialism and Brahmin...
In this paper I shall demonstrate through the case study of Nanaimo Sikh community how significantly they view their religious orientation as opposed to their ethnic identification. I will point to some implications for them within the Canadian society as a result of them being primarily seen as one among many religious groups.
In this essay, I outline the complexities of the contemporary South African society and point out why the so called Christian majority’s call for a single faith approach to teaching religion in schools will not make a great deal of sense within the context of the Bill of Rights of the South African constitution. Besides, the issue of religion education in South Africa is not only a human rights issue but also a moral issue.
In the context of rightwing student protest on Delhi University campus in 2011 to demand the withdrawal of an essay written by Prof A K Ramanujan, there developed a politico-legal situation in which students deployed both political pressure as well as legal suit to achieve their goal. This incident raised not only questions of political involvement in defining what Hinduism should be and how its sacred texts ought to be read, but the debate also attempted to shape the ‘sacred text’ by car...
In this essay, I look at the contemporary debate on the study of religion as to where it is in the academy. Second, in relation to that I look at the debates on the study of Hinduism. I then examine the issue of “who speaks for Hinduism” and whether Hinduism is a case of exception in the study of religion. In conclusion I suggest that Hinduism is a case in point in learning about our comparative project in the study of religion. My line of argument in this essay is based on the premise th...
In this paper, I attempt to clarify the idea of freedom in the Gītā using two important categories found both in the Gītā as well as in the Sāṃkhya philosophical system—Buddhi and Sattva. Much of the liberation idea that is often spoken of in the context of many modern Hindu movements is drawn from the Bhagavad Gītā. There is so much looseness to their ideas that it is necessary to explore what the Gītā actually means by its notion of freedom. Additionally, Gītā is often presen...
In presenting Hinduism in Africa, the essay limits itself to three important regions—East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), Southern Africa (South Africa) and West Africa (Ghana). The reason for this limitation is that although there are Hindus throughout Africa presently as India begins to expand its trade with Africa, the three regions mentioned have come to represent the vibrant emergence of Hinduism on the African continent unparalleled with countries elsewhere in Africa. Contact be...
The study of Hinduism is dominated by brahmanical master narrative. In this essay I suggest alternative ways to study Hinduism. Documenting diverse regional narratives and extracting Hindu practices from these narratives is a starting point. In doing so, reliance on fieldwork-based narratives that provide insight into the different orientations by avoiding the temptation to subordinate the local and regional narratives to an overarching master narrative would help us understand the many aspec...