ABSTRACT
Ever since Europe’s engagement with India began, Hinduism has come
to be constructed in manifold ways both by Europeans and Hindus.
Western perceptions of Hinduism have been diverse, complex, and
ambivalent-ranging from romantic appreciation to denigration. There are
both continuities and discontinuities between precolonial, colonial, and
postcolonial portrayals of Hinduism. The study of religion, especially the
European encounter with Hinduism, is closely linked with and informed by
colonialism; by European Enlightenment notions, such as modernity, linear
progress, the search for the origins, and privileging the written word; and
by such theories as common origins and evolution and various Protestant
theological presuppositions.
