Abstract
HIFMs and their social leanings and efforts reveal aspects of hegemony and dimensions of Hindu nationalism. There are subtle hegemonies within an overarching syncretic, assimilative, and accommodative frame. The Hindu episteme, as also terminologies derived from them, are adapted and valorized. The same are then catapulted onto the national domain.
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Notes
- 1.
The entire oeuvre of practice, both discursive and material—the imagery of Bharat Mata, the valiant historical figures, and subservient mythical wives—all allow women to become avenging angels in moments of crisis. When these moments ebb away, they return to the mode of nurturing mothers and obedient wives (see Sethi, 2002).
- 2.
See de Vries and Sullivan (2007) for a further discussion on Foucault’s theological connections. Contemporary theology is proposed to be derived historically, situated structurally, based on believers/followers’ reference system of self and, hence, leading to a kind of paradigm of belief systems of a particular nature.
- 3.
Zavos’s (2001) essay on socioreligious reform and Hindu revivalism in the late-nineteenth-century India refers consistently to the idea of Sanatana Dharma as an indicator of ‘orthodox’ resistance to change in the context of a modernizing religion. His article questions this presentation of Sanatana Dharma as an unmediated reactionary force. It argues that Sanatana Dharma as orthodoxy in fact emerged as an influential feature of the modernization process, most particularly in the development of a doctrinally non-confrontational, pan-Hindu identity.
- 4.
Basu and Banerjee (2006) propose that Bengali elites drew on traits of hegemonic masculinity utilized by the British colonial rulers to justify their presence and embarked on a cultural quest for manhood and political virility. This narrative of indigenous masculinity (represented as warrior monk and Hindu soldier) illustrating thereby the dynamic dance between the gendered metaphors used to imagine the liberated nation. Another reference could be Ashis Nandy’s The Intimate Enemy.
- 5.
Particular reference needs to be made of Swami Vivekananda’s efforts. Despite the imbrications in the colonial process and the unavoidable transformations in the social and ideological constructions through his voyages, Vedanta and Indic ideals were used to resist the typification and subjectification of indigenous people as passive objects in the ‘Occident precipitated Orientalist discourse’ (Basu, 2002).
- 6.
Post the Yagnapurushdas schisms, the sect has been dominated by Patidars, Thakkars, Kathis, and Rajputs, and class dynamics have been further intensified within the sect social structure by the diaspora commune. Hence, the original schism in the name of the tailor-mahant Pragji Bhagat intending to subsume all followers from the traditional lower caste into the sampradaya (with reformist attitudes and the agenda of proselytization and sect expansion) has over the years assumed newer fixations and categories of hierarchy.
- 7.
Sufi and Hindu ethics are compared continuously to demonstrate a comparison, with Allah Malik and Sabka Malik Ek epithets as well as Shraddha–Saburi tenets providing the necessary components.
- 8.
Furthermore, through the historical references made by Saibaba on the life of Chokhamela, his assertions of Hindu–Muslim tolerance, a vision of universality grounded not only in the belief of oneness of God but also in the intuition of oneness of human nature provides pluralistic shades to the Saibaba Sansthan repertoire.
- 9.
What was Chinmayananda’s unique addition to the repertoire was the scientific interpretation (the BMI format) whence worldly material objects along with scientific enquiry force individuals to remain limited by the conditionings of the body, mind, and intellect. The Vedanta knowledge is the key to transcending this limiting state to experience the divinity within.
- 10.
The Hindu past is reconstructed in order to demonstrate the universality of Hindu ideals and practices in history: nationalism to Swami Vivekananda was an act of self-revelation, of going back to the origin of the Hindu self, and a Hinduism rising to self-consciousness. What Vivekananda Kendra capitalizes on is Swami Vivekananda’s reversion to an ancient mode of Hindu religiosity (lost through historicity and re-found in the cultural treasure trove) eulogized sufficiently to form a postulate of universal enlightenment. Furthermore, as per Basu (2002), Swami Vivekananda’s link between religion and nationalism is related to a deeper antinomy of a link between Hinduism and rationalism through a relationship of non-contradiction.
- 11.
On the international platform, pilgrimage to Amritapuri, international migration (as per the statistics, around one-third of the Amritapuri residents are foreign nationals), and media images of the hugging saint Mata Amritanandamayi, as also international entourages of Amma and her monastic disciples, have lent a transnational experience to Amritanandamayi Mission.
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Pandya, S.P. (2019). Faith Trappings: Shades of Hegemony and Hindu Nationalism. In: Faith Movements and Social Transformation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2823-7_6
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