Al-Biruni
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The Dance of Indian Modernity and Tradition
The Emissary argues for a middle path between nostalgia for a golden age and contempt for the past, holding that Dharma is the idea that has sustained Indian identity, while…
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Why Hinduism is not inchoate paganism
Razib Khan rejects the view that Hindu identity is merely a reaction to Islam and the British, arguing from cross-cultural cases such as Rome, Iran and Japan that it is…
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The limits of semantics; Hindus before Hinduism
The author argues that the claim that the British ‘invented’ Hinduism rests on a narrow, philosopher-driven idea of religion, pointing to al-Biruni’s recognisable description of Hindu belief, practice and communal…
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The invention of Hinduism 1,000 years ago by a Muslim
Razib Khan criticises the Eurocentrism of postcolonial discourse and offers extracts from the Central Asian polymath Al-Biruni on Indian religion, as one of the earliest extensive outsider accounts of the…
