A Place for Utopia

"A Place for Utopia's effort to engage religiosity as a foundational force is significant. And, although there is a vast literature in humanities and social sciences on utopic forms and their realizations, past and present, this book is distinctive in its breadth and in its transcultural scope."—Mary Hancock, author of Politics of Heritage from Madras to Chennai

"A Place for Utopia digs deep into an archive that details the intricate circuitries of ideas, projects, and institutions affiliated with critical strands of somatic practices and spiritual thought largely centered on and in India. This is a unique book in contemporary urban studies."—AbdouMaliq Simone, author of Jakarta: Drawing the City Near

"Srinivas establishes historical and intellectual linkages among an astonishing array of ideas and practices that nevertheless shared a focus in common: the development and furtherance of spiritual capacities amidst the tumult of urban life. This book underscores the breadth and durability of an under-appreciated intellectual tradition within modern urban thought—one that might broadly be called organicism—by placing it within a transnational religious frame. A truly engaging read."—William J. Glover, author of Making Lahore Modern: Constructing and Imagining a Colonial City

"A work of deep and prescient intellectual insight, Srinivas focuses on the question of how utopias are produced and experienced in practice and the imagination. She artfully weaves together a set of fascinating questions about the place of the future in the present, challenging us to think critically about how the body, urban environments, and religious experience are at once grounded in the reality of everyday life and how they transform this reality by anticipating the possibility of transcendence."—Joseph Alter, Yale-NUS College