Asian Religions as Resources for Changing Mindsets

Abstract

This paper argues that Asian religious traditions provide us with resources for alternative ethics and methodologies of resisting capitalist excesses and social-cultural intolerances towards more convivial and viable human futures. It draws inspiration from two major developments. First, the works of Prasenjit Duara (2015) and Joel S. Kahn (2015) that posit Asian religious traditions as resources for generating alternative ethics as well as contemplative and embodied ways of knowing that direct self and collective capacities to overcome environmental sustainability and social-cultural incompatibilities. Second, everyday politics of resisting religious bigotries in contemporary Malaysia that turn to spiritual traditions for mindful ways of minimizing, bridging or transcending irreducible ethno-religious differences.