Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Neusprachliche Südasienstudien
SAI|Südasien-Institut
Arian Hopf

Dr. Arian Hopf

Room: 130.02.10
Phone: +49 (0)6221 54 15277
E-Mail: hopf@uni-heidelberg.de

Research

Research Focus

- Language ideology: Urdu as symbol of an indo-muslim culture and identity marker for Pakistan
- Islamic popular literature in Pakistan
- History of Urdu literature

The Dynamics of the Concept of Religion in Colonial South Asia: An Analysis of the Conceptions of Religion and Islam During the 19th and Early 20th Century with Focus on the Aligarh Movement (Dissertation, LGF Graduate College, finished)

The Dynamics of the Concept of Religion in Colonial South Asia: An Analysis of the Conceptions of Religion and Islam During the 19th and Early 20th Century with Focus on the Aligarh Movement Religion is commonly perceived as an unequivocally defined concept. However, a historic perspective raises questions about this understanding and reveals religion as a concept that developed only in a process of negotiation with other religions. In particular, the 19th century is of special interest in this regard, as the colonial encounter intensifies tremendously in South Asia. The religions of South Asia are scrutinised, categorised and compared to Christianity by Europeans, which leads to the development of religion as abstractum. Missionary and orientalist critique as well as modern science pose to be an entirely new confrontation for the Muslims of South Asia. This book aims to analyse Muslim responses to this confrontation, which imply a translation of Islam as a religion as well as an adaption of the concept of religion itself. The Aligarh Movement is of particular interest in this regard, as it intensively engages in these debates, trying to integrate a re-interpretation of Islam in these discourses.
The project is finished and the dissertation has been published at CrossAsia: Translating Islam, Translating Religion: Conceptions of Religion and Islam in the Aligarh Movement (also online available)

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

Publications

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