Does Dissent Endure?

For someone not adequately apprised of the scholarly interests of its editor, the title given to this volume may prove somewhat ambivalent and open ended. After all, ‘devotion’ and ‘dissent’ are also broad sociological responses that could be revealed and read outside the domain of religion, as say in politics or everyday social relationships. On the other hand, I trust that within the world of Indian scholarship, Vijaya Rama-swamy is much too familiar a name to induce such errors of judgement. The present work is a collection of 17 essays and but for one (Essay #3), were all originally presented at an international conference convened at JNU, New Delhi, between 11th and 13th March, 2010. It is only fair to confess at the outset that with my limited knowledge of pre-modern religious traditions in India or of the vast variety of social concerns that surface within these, I could possibly comment only on some of the essays put together.