Hindu Apologist or Modern Reformer? Arvind Sharma on Hindu Women

Abstract

Using a case study of Arvind Sharma’s thinking on striyaḥ (women), a subject he claims he has not written about aside from the topic of sati, this essay analyzes the epigrams and prefaces found in his fifteen edited books on women as a point of departure to tease out his larger scholarly project: not only to understand why India became colonized and Hinduism moribund, but also how to overcome their lingering effects without alienation from past culture. Toward this end, the essay focuses on how Sharma tackles stereotypes by restoring complexities to the historical record, using the multiple methods of religious studies, taking on the mantle of engaged scholar as a “threshold response,” and entering the public sphere on issues of justice and affirmative action. Juxtaposition of pivotal events recorded in his autobiography with these scholarly discussions suggests that his cryptic insights on women’s history and liberation is core to his thought, a case of “reciprocal illumination” as it were. All this raises the question of whether Sharma is a Hindu apologist or a reformer.