European University Institute Library

German visions of India, 1871-1918, commandeering the holy Ganges during the Kaiserreich, Perry Myers

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-250) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

German visions of India, 1871-1918

bibliography

814706952

Perry Myers

commandeering the holy Ganges during the Kaiserreich

The wide-ranging fascination with India in Wilhelmine Germany emerged during a time of extraordinary cultural and political tensions. This study shows how religious (denominational and spiritual) dilemmas, political agendas, and shifting social consensus became inextricably entangled in the wider German encounter with India during the Kaiserreich., The field of Indian studies and the wide-ranging fascination with India in Wilhelmine Germany emerged during a time of extraordinary cultural and political tensions, which explicitly informed the analyses, understanding, and interpretation of Indian traditions. That is, German Indologen - eminent professors in Indian Studies - and other intellectuals transacted concerns with religious traditions, scientific imperatives, and sociopolitical transformations. Specifically, these German intellectuals drew on non-Western traditions to assemble an archive of knowledge through which they could negotiate a number of issues, including: denominational agendas - both Catholic and Protestant - as the established Churches sought to solidify their roles in a more secular world dominated by Bismarckian power politics and eventually imperial designs; the perceived faltering of religious signifiers, sparked in part by the scientific challenges to Biblical exegesis as the primary source for establishing human knowledge and spiritual identity; a new paradigm for the nation as Germany sought to identify itself during the age of Empire, with its inherent colonial competition among the European powers; and new, innovative paths for re-shaping intellectual identity and re-building community consensus in response to these perceived stresses. The image of India became a powerful sounding board during the Kaiserreich for many intellectuals to re-negotiate modern definitions of science, culture, and religion - to re-formulate their destabilized sense of history and progress. Just as Chamberlain projects in 1905, German Indologists had already long sought to navigate the unstable religious, social and political waters of Wilhelmine Germany through their constructed India. This study shows that these religious (denominational and spiritual) dilemmas, political agendas, and shifting social consensus became inextricably entangled in the wider German encounter with India

PART I: PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CHAMPIONS AND THEIR VISIONS OF INDIA Restoring Spirituality: Buddhism and Building a Protestant Nation Catholic Visions of India and Universal Mandates: Commandeering the Nation State PART II: BREAKING OUT OF THE IRON CAGE: FRINGE RELIGIOUS INNOVATORS AND THEIR DETRACTORS Responding to Science and Materialism: Buddhism and Theosophy Buddhism's Catholic and Protestant Detractors PART III: THE RADICALIZATION OF GERMANY'S INDIA Ambivalent Visions of the British Raj: Spirituality and Germany's Colonial Champions Prescriptive History and the Radicalization of Community-Building