German Visions of India, 1871-1918

The wide-ranging fascination with India in Wilhelmine Germany emerged during a time of extraordinary cultural and political tensions. This study shows how religious (denominational and spiritual) dilemmas, political agendas, and shifting social consensus became inextricably entangled in the wider German encounter with India during the Kaiserreich.

PART I: PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CHAMPIONS AND THEIR VISIONS OF INDIA 1. Restoring Spirituality: Buddhism and Building a Protestant Nation 2. Catholic Visions of India and Universal Mandates: Commandeering the Nation State PART II: BREAKING OUT OF THE IRON CAGE: FRINGE RELIGIOUS INNOVATORS AND THEIR DETRACTORS 3. Responding to Science and Materialism: Buddhism and Theosophy 4. Buddhism's Catholic and Protestant Detractors PART III: THE RADICALIZATION OF GERMANY'S INDIA 5. Ambivalent Visions of the British Raj: Spirituality and Germany's Colonial Champions 6. Prescriptive History and the Radicalization of Community-Building