Religion, Law and Power

Examines the interplay of distinct yet overlapping facets of history, Hinduism, the state and the nation in Eastern India.

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This book constructs an anthropological history of a subaltern religious formation, Mahima Dharma of Orissa, a large province in eastern India. Tracking the contingent making of a critical community over a hundred and forty year period, ‘Religion, Law and Power’ explores the interplay of distinct expressions of time and history, innovative reformulations of caste and Hinduism and distinct engagements with state and nation. This serves to unravel the wider entanglements of religion, history, law, modernity and power.