Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism

Description

In the early 2000s, as India was emerging as a global superpower, a key development project off the southern Indian coast was thwarted by intense opposition. The construction of a new shipping canal angered Hindu nationalists who sought to protect what they saw as the land bridge built by Hanuman and his monkey army in the Indian epic Ramayana. Environmentalists also protested against the canal, claiming that it severely threatened a fragile and globally important ecosystem. As the controversy grew, the religious and environmental arguments converged, reflecting the evolving relationship between science and religion that marks the hypernationalism of the contemporary Hindu right. Through this case study and others, Banu Subramaniam demonstrates the limitations of the 'universality' of science, to reveal how science in postcolonial contexts is always locally inflected and modulated. Evoking the rich mythology of comingled worlds, where humans, animals, and gods transform each other and ancient history, Subramaniam demonstrates how Hindu nationalism sutures an ideal past to technologies of the present by making bold claims about the scientific basis of Vedic civilization and deploying this narrative to consolidate caste, patriarchal, and Hindu power. Moving beyond a critique of this emerging bionationalism, this book explores the generative possibility of myth and story, interweaving compelling new stories of fictionalized beings like the avatars of Hindu mythology into a rich analysis that animates alternative imaginaries and 'other' worlds of possibilities. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 Prologue: In Search of India: The Inner Lives of Postcolonialism......Page 10 Avatars for Lost Dreams: The Land of Lost Dreams......Page 16 Introduction: Avatars for Bionationalism: Tales from (An)Other Enlightenment......Page 22 Avatar #1: The Story of Uruvam......Page 65 1. Home and the World: The Modern Lives of the Vedic Sciences......Page 68 Avatar #2: The Story of Amudha......Page 91 2. Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Biologies: The Queer Politics of (Un)Natural Sex......Page 95 Avatars #3: The Story of Nadu and Piravi......Page 127 3. Return of the Native: Nation, Nature, and Postcolonial Environmentalism......Page 132 Avatar #4: The Story of Néram......Page 160 4. Biocitizenship in Neoliberal Times: On the Making of the “Indian” Genome......Page 164 Avatar #5: The Story of Arul......Page 197 5. Conceiving a Hindu Nation: (Re)Making the Indian Womb......Page 201 Avatar #6: The Story of Kalakalappu......Page 225 Conclusion: Avatars for Dreamers: Narrative’s Seductive Embrace......Page 228 Notes on the Mythopoeia......Page 234 Epilogue: Finding India: The Afterlives of Colonialism......Page 242 A Note of Gratitude and Appreciation......Page 250 Notes......Page 256 References......Page 262 Index......Page 304