Talal asad biography samples

1In Arabic “avowal” stands both for iqrār and iʿtirāf. But while iqrār implies admitting something—for instance, a witness admits seeing someone at a particular place and time—iʿtirāf carries a more confessional tone: the fragile “I” constructs in a confessional tone the web of relations that led to the crime under investigation. Thus while in iqrār the “admission” comes in the context of a line of questioning by the judicial authorities, the iʿtirāf is typically more diffuse, is not necessarily subject to the constraints of the judiciary, and more importantly, would not be limited to the case in question. There are confessions which are an outcome of the interviewing process, either by the police or investigating judge: the scribe would simply note that the suspect/accused/witness did “confess” that such and such a thing happened, hence this was not iqrār per se (an act of acknowledgment which was interpreted as such by the interviewer), but a full confession where the tone is more on the side of an “I admit.” In classical Islamic law, apostasy, confession, and expressing a belief can be established “only on the basis of the functioning of external signs (including public speech or writing, publicly visible behavior), never on the basis of inferred or forcibly extracted internal belief.”1 The externality of signs may also be a prime requirement of secular judicial testimony, in that no statement would be acknowledged in a court record unless publicly admitted by the subject to a judge or in a court hearing. Herein lies the ambiguity of statements that, at face value, were produced without any solicitation of a judicial authority, yet publicized in the context of a written document for the personal use of their inmate‑authors.

2Confessions could be either set within the framework of interviews conducted by police, the investigating judge, or the court hearings, or

David Scott and Charles Hirschkind Editors

Stanford University Press

powers of the secular modern

Cultural Memory in the Present

Powers of the Secular Modern Talal Asad and His Interlocutors

Edited by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind

stanford university press stanford, california 2006

Stanford University Press Stanford, California 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powers of the secular modern : Talal Asad and his interlocutors / edited by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind. p. cm. (Cultural memory in the present) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-8047-5265-6 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 0-8047-5266-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1.EthnologyPhilosophy. 2.EthnologyEastern Hemisphere Philosophy. 3. PostcolonialismEastern Hemisphere. 4.Secularization Eastern Hemisphere. 5.Asad, TalalCriticism and interpretation. I.Scott, David, 1958 II.Hirschkind, Charles. III.Series. GN345.P66 2006 306.01dc22 2005013565 Original Printing 2006 Last figure below indicates year of this printing: 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06

For Tanya

Contents

1 Introduction: The Anthropological Skepticism of Talal Asad

2 Secularization Revisited: A Reply to Talal Asad

3 What Is an Authorizing Discourse?

4 Fasting for Bin Laden: The Politics of Secularization in Contemporary India

5 Europe: A Minor Tradition

6 Secularism and the Argument from Nature

Citation preview

POWERS OF THE SECULAR MODERN

Cultural Memory

~~e -·

Present

Mieke Bal and Hent de Vries, Editors

POWERS OF THE SECULAR MODERN Tala! Asad and His Interlocutors

Edited by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

2006

Stanford University Press Stanford, California

© 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powers of the secular modern : Tala! Asad and his interlocutors I edited by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind. p. em. -(Cultural memory in the present) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN o-8047-5265-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN o-8047-5266-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ethnology-Philosophy. 2. Ethnology-Eastern HemispherePhilosophy. 3· Postcolonialism-Eastern Hemisphere. 4· SecularizationEastern Hemisphere. 5· Asad, Talal-Criticism and interpretation. I. Scott, David, I958- II. Hirschkind, Charles. III. Series. GN345.P66 2006 306' .m-dc22

Original Printing 2006 Last figure below indicates year of this printing: 15

14

13

I2

n

10

09

o8

07

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For Tanya

Contents

1

Introduction: The Anthropological Skepticism ofTalal Asad David Scott and Charles Hirschkind

2

Secularization Revisited: A Reply to Talal Asad jose Casanova

12

3 What Is an ''Authorizing Discourse"? Steven C. Caton

31

4 Fasting for Bin Laden: The Politics of Secularization in Contemporary India Partha Chatterjee

57

5 Europe: A Minor Tradition William E. Connolly

75

6 Secularism and the Argument from Nature Veena Das

93

7 On