SAC presents: Subho Basu & Sandeep Banerjee

Secularizing the Sacred and Exorcizing the Profane: Himalayas in the imagination of Bengali literati (1857-1902) Drawing upon iconic Bengali travel writing and pilgrim narratives, this paper demonstrates how the perception of Himalayas from being the bode of God gradually morphed into a hybrid construction whereby pilgrimage paths tracing the mythical routes supposedly followed by the Pandavas as they ascended to heaven were infused with secular meaning. Thus, Himalayas gradually became part of secular imagining of territoriality of putative Indian nation with profound implications for the claims of citizenship in future nation-state.