Intersections between Race/Caste and Religion in Literature

The intersection between religion and race may seem unlikely at first, but history shows a continuous pattern where religion aligns with social hierarchies like race and caste. Geraldine Heng (2018) highlights how religion, especially in medieval times, played a key role in race-making by linking religious difference with racial difference. Heng takes the concept of race beyond just epidermal race and to a period before ‘race’ as a term comes into use. Paul Taylor (2022) adds that the idea of heritable human difference emerged in the 15th century, marking a shift from anti-Judaism to race-based prejudice through the notion of ‘anti-Semitism’. This shift is illustrated by the term ‘raza’ in the 1611 Spanish dictionary, which referred to both horse breeds and Moorish or Jewish ancestry. Taylor reveals how, for the Iberian Christian rulers, there was something deeply different about the conversos (Jewish converts) and moriscos (Muslim converts) who had been forced to convert to Christianity. Similarly, Gil Anidjar (2007) argues that the concept of ‘Semites’ has been constructed and used in ways that reveal underlying cultural, racial, and political tensions, challenging the notion of Semitic identity as a natural category. 
In the eighteenth century, the relationship between religion and race continued to evolve. Stefan Wheelock (2015) demonstrates how Black antislavery writers like Ottobah Cugoano utilized religion for political critique and liberation, while Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X further illustrated the centrality of religious thought in modern Black liberation movements. In India, Gail Omvedt examines how caste and religion intersect in the works of reformers like Ambedkar and Phule. Omvedt (1971) emphasizes that Phule saw religion as a basis for a liberation movement, critiquing traditional Brahmanical literature for promoting caste through religious doctrines. The many ways in which ancient Brahmanical literature propagates caste through the guise of religion are best critiqued in the multivolume works of B.R. Ambedkar. 
From a literary perspective, novels often explore themes of spirituality and faith in relation to race and caste. How are these themes and concerns depicted? How do race- and caste-oppressed individuals navigate their identities through religious or secular frameworks? In other words, how do we engage with these questions in a post secular era? This seminar seeks to engage with race and religion in broad and global terms. On this note, Loomba (2013) suggests the comparison of caste and race allows us to track the politics of comparison and the politics of denial of comparison. Once the association of race with color is removed, Loomba suggests, the term retains a broader range of possibilities to understand the problem of racism in different times and contexts. If you have questions, please write to [email protected]