Of Blurred Religious Identities
Rohini Mokashi Punekar
SACRED SPACES: EXPLORING TRADITIONS OF SHARED FAITH IN INDIA
By Yoginder Sikand
Penguin India, New Delhi, 2003, pp. 270, Rs. 250.00
VOLUME XXVIII NUMBER 2 February 2004
In the face of state instituted religious violence, the language of hate spewing across the country and the casual acceptance of this in ordinary lives, it is difficult not to stress the significance of this book, its sanity and its timeliness. While there is hardly any aspect of the political, economic, social or cultural life in India that is not stained by considerations of religion and sect, or the violence generating thereof, this is a fact that is known, sincerely bemoaned and endlessly circulated in academic circles of a certain colour; how much sympathy it receives amongst persuasions of other kinds is anybody’s guess.