Abstract

The Bengali newspaper Samācār Candrikā from 1830 to 1831 offers a glimpse at the emergence of the Modern, popular Hinduism now evident in Hindu nationalism in India. Preserving orthodox Hindu responses to the reforms advocated by the rational Hindu monotheism of the Brahmo Samaj and evangelical Christian missionaries, the newspaper stressed the unifying Character of Hindu ritual, the spiritual significance of caste, and the traditional gender relations symbolized by widow immolation even after its 1829 abolition. The paper's greatest contribution to historians' understanding of the construction of Hinduism as a coherent entity is its clear testimony to the essential role played by Hindus themselves in that process, often associated with Orientalists and missionaries.

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