Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment

Akeel Bilgrami

Permanent Black

412 pages, Rs. 895

Bilgrami presents a rigorous exploration of how secularism and identity emerged as concepts in different parts of the modern world. At a time when secularist and religious worldviews appear irreconcilable, Bilgrami strikes out on a path distinctly his own, criticising secularism’s proponents and detractors, liberal universalists and multicultural relativists alike. Those who ground secularism in arguments that aspire to universal reach, Bilgrami argues, fundamentally misunderstand the nature of politics. To those, by contrast, who regard secularism as an outgrowth of colonial domination, he offers a more conceptually vernacular ground for political secularism.