The Question of Faith (Tracts for the Times, No 3)

The Question of Faith examines the cultural resources underlying manifestations of faith in the larger context of communalism and fundamentalism. Countering the economistic and political interpretation of these phenomena, the author focuses instead on the possibilities of resilience contained in the life-sustaining aspects of religious experience and symbology. Exploring different languages outside of the social sciences, this monograph travels through the enigmas of the Kumbh Mela and the Ram Lila, the fiction of U. R. Anantha Murthy, the cultural writings of Rammanohar Lohia, and Mahatma Gandhis politics of faith to offer alternative modes of resisting the violence of our times through a deeper respect for cultural differences and the ambivalences of faith.