Axel Michaels > Quotes

“From this perspective, the phrase often heard in India—“all the same”—signifies not a lack of conceptual acuity or an exaggerated need for leveling, but rather a code of Hindu religious identity and a basic form of the Identificatory Habitus. The concept of habitus has the advantage of not reducing the “whole,” on the one hand, while preventing an overemphasis on details, the places, the historical uniqueness, on the other.19 It thus counters a favorite objection against comprehensive analyses of Hinduism, that they cannot encompass the multiplicity of India because they want to know either too much or too little: too much because they see one single thought prevailing everywhere; too little because, for the sake of particular principles, there is much they overlook.”
― Axel Michaels, Hinduism: Past and Present

“in this, however, is not only a matter of a convincing argument, but also of æsthetics. In a certain respect, the Identificatory Habitus is only old wine in new bottles. Indian society has repeatedly been defined as holistic, encompassing the opposites, inclusive, integrative, producing similarities—by Max Weber, Louis Dumont, Paul Hacker, Jan Heesterman, McKim Marriott, Sudhir Kakar, Brian K. Smith, and others. They have all emphasized another soul, structure, way of thinking, or code with regard to India. They have all tried to grasp the “essence” of India. The danger of constructing and imagining such a personal India—the main criticism of Ronald Inden27—is certainly not to be denied, nor is the danger of seeing this other India as a deviation from the West or drawing an overly harmonious image of India: Women or Untouchables see the alleged solidarity of the caste system less harmoniously than Dumont does.28 But anyone who intends to avoid completely the danger of Orientalism, and”
― Axel Michaels, Hinduism: Past and Present