Secular Translations

Whatever the exhilaration of ‘Provincializing Europe’, Dipesh Chakrabarty’s gallant bid to unmask the mythical figure of Europe, that irreproachable icon of civilisation and modernity that still shapes every conversation in our times, the irony is that the most fervent supporters of this project today are westerners themselves. In the age of Islamophobia, Trumpism, Brexit and much else that is alarmingly xenophobic, the rallying cry is the uniqueness of the West; not the universality of its ‘civilising mission’ but the right of its polities to pursue freedom and happiness as gated communities. One instructive example of the prevailing provincialism comes from a very comprehensive statement on the ethos of modernity, entitled: A Secular Age, in which Talal Asad, indisputably one of the most original and incisive interlocutors in the academic discussion on religion and secularism, does not merit a single referral! The loss, we may contend, is that of the learned author and of his admirers in the ‘NorthAtlantic’ Oecumene. For others, specially the attentive students of Asad, any contribution by Talal Asad, is a sumptuous intellectual feast, an edifying moral enrichment and a veritable cause for celebration. The present volume, Secular Translations, is no exception; it fully redeems the author’s reputation as an acute analytical mind, even if it also discloses him as a conservative critic of the civilisational malaise.