New Books in Indian Religions · Marshall Poe

Karen Pechilis ed., "A Cultural History of Hinduism: Volumes 1-6" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

·1 hr·5 clips

Karen Pechilis shares how Bloomsbury Academic approached her to edit a groundbreaking six-volume cultural history of Hinduism.

This episode features an interview with Karen Pechilis, the general editor, and volume editors Jared Whitaker and Valerie Stoker about the six-volume reference work "A Cultural History of Hinduism." The project originated in 2015 when Bloomsbury Academic's editorial director approached Pechilis at an academic conference to expand their "Cultural History of..." series. The set is structured with six chronological volumes, each examining the same eight thematic topics, from "Sources of Authority" to "Global Context." A total of 55 international scholars contributed articles from countries including the U.S., India, Canada, and several European nations. Volume 1, edited by Jared Whitaker, covers "Antiquity" from 2000 BCE to 200 BCE, focusing on Sanskritic traditions in North India while acknowledging the deliberate exclusion of the Indus Valley civilization. Valerie Stoker edited Volume 4, "The Age of Empires," spanning 1500 to 1857, a period initially labeled "The Age of Colonialism" but reframed to highlight diverse imperial interactions. The editors engaged in extensive discussions about periodization, debating terms like "classical," "medieval," and "early modern" to avoid orientalist frameworks. A significant insight is the work's conscious problematization of the term "Hinduism" itself, with Whitaker noting his introduction states "there's no such thing as Hinduism" for much of the historical periods covered. The methodology emphasizes cultural history, focusing on performance, contestation, and the "motion" of cultural production rather than static social categories. Each volume contains around 70 high-resolution images, and the final "Global Context" chapter varies notably across volumes to address each era's unique transnational connections. The tone is collegial and reflective, with the editors praising Bloomsbury's support and Pechilis's calm leadership through logistical challenges like the pandemic and complex permissions. This episode is ideal for scholars, graduate students, or serious enthusiasts seeking a curated entry point into updated, critical scholarship on Hinduism's vast history. Listeners looking for a single, definitive narrative or a devotional perspective might find the work's nuanced and debated frameworks less satisfying.

As heard by us

A measured look at Hinduism's scholarly framing, with its edges kept in view.

This episode treats the six-volume Hinduism project as a question of boundaries as much as coverage. The editors move through the Bloomsbury set with enough care to make the scale feel manageable, and the best passages are the ones that let editorial structure do the arguing.

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Need a careful tour of a six-volume cultural history of Hinduism that treats the category as useful but still problematic?

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