Slides of an introductory talk on decolonizing approaches in the study of religion

1. Decolonizing the Study
of Religion
Dr Malory Nye
University of Glasgow

2. Summary
What is the study of religion about?
Religion is not a thing
The elephant in the room
What is decolonization about?
Decolonization of knowledge
Why is my curriculum so white?
Why is decolonization relevant to the study of
religion?
Colonial history of ‘religion’ & ‘world religions’
Intersectional approach: race, gender, religion

3. What is the study of
religion about?

5. https://medium.com/religion-bites/i-dont-study-religion-
so-what-am-i-doing-in-the-study-of-religion-
be2653682feb

6. Religion
Religion is not a thing
the word ‘religion’ describes a range of human
ideas and activities
no clear indication (or definition) of what
makes the context that we are looking at
‘religious’
a thing does something
‘religion’ is done by people (practised, thought
about, talked about) – religioning?

7. Study of religion/s
Study of people
Human centred
Not interested in reality (or otherwise) of
divine/god
Religion is simply what PEOPLE do
And a term we use to describe/categorise what
people do
Studies how they do religious activities, and how
they think and talk about such activities

8. Some examples…
What is about each of these that makes
us talk of them as ‘religion’?
Rather than as ‘politics’, ‘culture’,
‘economics’, etc.?

13. ‘Religion’ / ‘Religions’
When talking about ‘religion’ what are we looking at?
traditions
cultures
people
beliefs / belief systems
practices
politics
identities
all of the above?

14. Religions
easy to think of distinct religions as ‘natural
specimens’
things that exist in the world for us to observe
and get to know
thus to think Hinduism is… or Sikhism is…
BUT reality is more complex
diversity and history very important

15. Kumbh Mela, Hindu festival, in Allahabad, India 2013
gathering of 120 million pilgrims during 2 months of festival
e.g. … Hinduism

16. e.g. … Hinduism
Hinduism – a term used from late nineteenth
century
before that British called it Hindooism
also Brahmanism, Gentooism
and… before European colonialism:
did not have any particular name for wide
range of traditions

17. Hindus

18. Hindus

19. e.g. …
Sikhis
m

20. e.g. … Sikhism
Similarly Sikhism often dated from time of Guru
Nanak (1500)
and/or Guru Gobind Singh founding the khalsa
(1699)
but the idea of a distinct Sikh religion is much
more recent
19th century India – Sikhs became an important
part of British colonial rule (particularly as
soldiers)

22. So how do we put this together?
How do we study religion as religion
(and why)?
Parable of the blind men and the
elephant…

23. ‘Blind men and elephant’

24. Blind men and elephant
We assume there is a whole
Some thing that exists beyond the sum of the
parts
An elephant – not legs, trunk, tail, head, etc.
And that this whole thing is knowable and the
blind men can find this out (‘oh, it’s an elephant!’)
But what if what we are looking at has no whole
picture – e.g., if there is no elephant, just the

25. That is, we are sure there is an elephant (in
the room)
but what do we do when naming it as a
thing makes it a thing?
more precisely, saying a bunch of diverse
traditions, cultures, worldviews… amount to
being ‘religion’ (in general) and ‘a religion’
(e.g. Hinduism)

26. we squint carefully to put very complex
patterns of places, regions, people, cultures,
religions into a singular narrative?
Does the whole sum of it really make up an
elephant?
No simple answer to it, but….

27. Always think about the lens you
are looking through
… It’s never neutral

28. You are learning about the lens(es) as well
as what you are trying to see.

29. What is decolonization
about?

30. Decolonization
process of end of imperial/colonial rule (e.g. in
India/Pakistan, across Africa, SE Asia, Hong
Kong)
also much wider concept
recognition that colonial power did not end in
mid-twentieth century
colonialism (global power structures) still
working on various levels

31. Decolonization
current world order set up on principles of
colonialism
nation states and borders
world trade system
land ownership (particularly in settler colonial
nations such as US, Canada, Australia, NZ
etc.)
decolonization is not a metaphor (Tuck
&Yang)

32. Decolonization
a lot of focus in decolonization activism on the
symbols and memories of colonialism:
Rhodes Must Fall
Nelson’s Column
memorials of slave ownership
Confederate symbols in US

34. https://order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/What-should-we-do-with-controversial-statues-and-memorials-Join-the-public-debate-with-
@Freedland-@afuahirsch-@peterfrankopan-@DavidOlusoga-@ti.mp4?_=
ironic gif produced by Historic England

35. Decolonization
but also decolonization of knowledge
how we think and talk is the product of the
colonial era
the disciplinary formations of the university
largely emerged in nineteenth century
time of high colonialism in Britain and
dominance of scientific racism

36. Decolonization
examples:
philosophy and the enlightenment
how much was the bedrock of the liberal arts
rooted in the then contemporary assumptions
of race and white supremacy?
distinction between anthropology and sociology
exotic ‘other cultures’ v home (white
Christian) society

37. Decolonization
more widely,
how is our knowledge and understanding
taught, by whom, and using what sources?
#WhyIsMyCurriculumSoWhite?

38. Part of wide debate… Nov
2017
Lola Olufemi, women’s officer of
Cambridge University Students’

39. But the next day…

40. From a
Cambridge
academic in
the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/com
mentisfree/2017/oct/27/decolonise-
elite-white-men-decolonising-
cambridge-university-english-
curriculum-literature

41. Why is decolonization
relevant to the study of
religion?

42. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
Religious studies rooted in nineteenth century
colonialism
Study of Indian religions, African religions, etc
came out of the experience and necessities
of empire
Tomoko Masuzawa –Invention of (the idea of)
world religions

43. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
How religions are understood are product of
this system of knowledge
Religions as ‘specimens’ to be catalogued
and observed
The way scholars and practitioners talk about
religions (e.g. Hinduism, Sikhism, etc.) a
result of this

44. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
Decolonizing not a matter of trying to reverse
this or set the clock back to pre-colonial
but this history needs to be recognized and
understood
also find ways of conducting research and
framing arguments that listen to many voices

45. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
this would involve study of religion that is:
intersectional
studies from a perspective that explores
genders, race, sexualities, class, dis/abilities,
and postcolonial history
queering and historicising the concepts that we
take for granted

46. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
concept of religion/s = decolonized and queered
religion as separate sphere
religion-secular constructions
religion as belief/ritual
religious exclusivity (distinct/exclusive
religions)
Southern Theory/ies of religion?

47. https://medium.com/religion-bites/intersections-in-the-cultural-study-
of-religion-755ea64de22

48. Decolonizing the
study of religion?
how do people use
the term religion?
what work does the
term do?
what lens does the
concept create for us
to ‘see’ the world?

49. medium.com/
religion-bites

50. Thanks for listening!
Any questions?
medium.com/religion-bites