Imagined Religious Communities and the “Culture of Bible-Readers”: Hinduism’s Challenge to European Religious Studies

This paper will discuss the challenges posed by modern conceptions of Hinduism - in particular Heinrich von Stietencron’s conception of a “collection of religions” and Romila Thapar’s application of Benedict Anderson’s theory of “imagined communities” to Hinduism-to the European style of religious studies, particularly at the undergraduate level.