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For the Indian Government, he says, the challenges are to accommodate the unique identity of the Kashmiris (one might justifiably ask: don’t the people of every Indian State have their own unique identity?) and make them renounce anti-India sentiments of their own volition. A ‘serious dialogue’, ‘consultation’ would be a start.

The main theme of the book is how the broad features of Islamic tradition reconfigured by the historical particularities of modernity are martialized in specific practices of Dawat (p. 19). The book elaborates the importance that the Tablighi Jamaat attaches to the ritual practice of Dawat to create a cohesive Islamic society.

VOur two countries have the ability and responsibility to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become of clearest transparence.’ In his speech, the Prime Minister also alluded to Swami Vivekananda, describing him as a Renaissance man ahead of his time, and to the enduring contributions of Justice Radhabinod Pal for his dissenting judgement in the Tokyo trial after the Second World War.

A second, and more ominous, outcome of colonization was its propensity to create and control the minds and histories of the colonized. The development of archaeology under state sponsorship in the 19th and 20th centuries and the monumentalizing of heritage played a significant role in this process by documenting and categorizing archaeological sites and monuments, creating thereby monolithic identities for Hindu and Buddhist monuments in India and Southeast Asia. However, a striking aspect of the recent archaeological data is the emphasis on local and regional diversity, whether in the context of Buddhism, the Hindu temple, or inscriptions.

One of the ten Asia lectures, for instance, deals with ‘Fundamentals of Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism’. In fifteen pages, the author has masterfully summarized the contentious issues, contextualizing them against the currents of history with an unerring commitment to details.