Focusing on boundaries, appropriations, and resistances involved in Western engagements with South Asian religions, this edited volume considers both the pre- and postcolonial period in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It pays particular attention to contemporary controversies surrounding the study of South Asian religions, including several scholars' reflection on the contentious reaction to their own work. Other chapters consider such issues as British colonial epistemologies, the relevance of Hegel for the study of South Asia, the canonization of Francis Xavier, feminist interpretations of the mother of the Buddha, and theological dispute among Muslims in Bangladesh and Pakistan. By using the themes of boundaries, appropriations and resistances, this work offers insight into the dynamics and diversity of Western approaches to South Asian religions, and the indigenous responses to them, that avoids simple active/passive binaries.

List of Figures Introduction: Engaging South Asian Religions PETER GOTTSCHALK AND MATHEW N. SCHMALZ PART ONE: BOUNDARIES 1. A Science of Defining Boundaries: Classification,Categorization, and the Census of India PETER GOTTSCHALK 2. The Repetition of Past Imperialisms: Hegel, HistoricalDifference, and the Theorization of Indic Religions ARVIND MANDAIR 3. Beyond National Borders and Religious Boundaries: Muslim and Hindu Veneration of Bonbibi SUFIA UDDIN PART TWO: APPROPRIATIONS 4. Boundaries and Appropriations in North IndianCharismatic Catholicism MATHEW N. SCHMALZ 5. The Corpse and Cult of St. Francis Xavier, 1552-1623 WILLIAM R. PINCH 6. Sati or Female Supremacy? Feminist Appropriationsof Gotami's Parinirvana LIZ WILSON PART THREE: RESISTANCES 7. Resisting My Attackers; Resisting My Defenders: Representing the Shivaji Narratives JAMES W. LAINE 8. Resisting Assimilation: Encounters with a Small Islamic Sectin Contemporary Pakistan SHAHZAD BASHIR 9: Climbing through Paradigms PAUL B. COURTRIGHT AFTERWORD AND RESPONSES Afterword: Scandals, Scholars, Subjects SAURABH DUBE Response 1: Historical Difference ARVIND MANDAIR Response 2: Legend versus Myth SUFIA UDDIN Response 3: Staying With and Thinking Through MATHEW N. SCHMALZ List of Contributors Index