MODERN HINDUISM EDITED BY Torkel Brekke THE OXFORD HISTORY OF HINDUISM The Oxford History of Hinduism Modern Hinduism Edited by TORKEL BREKKE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 2019 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2019 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933440 ISBN 978-0-19-879083-9 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsiblity for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. Contents Notes on Contributors Introduction to the Series Introduction: Modernity and Hinduism vii xi 1 Torkel Brekke PART 1. EARLY HINDU REFORMERS AND REFORM MOVEMENTS 1. Early Modern Hinduism 17 Adrian Plau 2. Rammohun Roy and the Bengal Renaissance 36 Dermot Killingley 3. Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Modern Hinduism 54 Hans Harder 4. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati and ISKCON 72 Ferdinando Sardella PART 2. EXPRESSIONS AND LOCATIONS OF MODERN HINDUISM 5. Mürti, Idol, Art, and Commodity: The Multiple Identities of Hindu Images 93 Tanisha Ramachandran 6. Indian Cinema and Modern Hinduism 110 Gayatri Chatterjee 7. Hindu Pilgrimage and Modern Tourism 125 Knut Aukland 8. Hinduism and New Age: Patrimonial Oneness and Religious Cosmopolitanism Kathinka Froystad 9. Online Hinduism Heinz Scheifinger 141 162 Contents vi 10. Modern Hindu Diaspora(s) Vineeta Sinha 179 PART 3. POLITICS, ETHICS, AND LAW 11. The History of Hindu Nationalism in India Manjari Katju 203 12. Caste and Contemporary Hindu Society: Community, Politics, and Work Diyya Vaid and Ankur Datta 216 13. Hindu Law in Modern Times: How Hindu Law Continues in Modern India Werner Menski 244 14. Modern Hindu Dharma and Environmentalism Pankaj Jain 261 15. Hinduism in the Secular Republic of Nepal David N. Gellner and Chiara Letizia 275 Index 305 4 Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati and ISKCON Ferdinando Sardella INTRODUCTION Swami Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati' was a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru and pre- ceptor of the school of Krishna Caitanya (1486-1534).? He was born in 1874in Jagannath Puri in present-day Orissa as Bimala Prasad Dutta. In the course of his life he managed to build an influential religious institution, the Gaudiya Math and Mission, which strived to respond to the social, political, and religious challenges of India's late-colonial period. Bhaktisiddhānta's institution gradually reached an international platform and had centres in Rangoon, London, and Berlin. Later, through offshoots such as ISKCON (popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement) Bhaktisiddhānta's movement spread to most parts of the world and is now a well-established part of the unfolding layers of modern and global Hinduism. Bhaktisiddhänta belonged to the educated Bengali middle class, the bhadralok, which initially emerged in order to assist the British colonial administration. The bhadralok was mostly comprised of Hindus, and, although it initially included only wealthy landlords, it eventually came to incorporate a well-educated mixed workforce. The members of this class became respectfully known as babus, a title given to those possessing fluency in English. These laymen claimed authority through their newly acquired influence, learning, and merit, and the more progressive among them came to challenge ancient Hindu customs such as caste, early marriage, and sati. Among most of the bhadralok contemporaries of Bhaktisiddhānta, the primary philosophical orientations were towards non-dualism and Advaita Vedānta, which had been theoretically adapted to a new ideology of revival 1 Hereinafter 2 Hereinafter referred to as Bhaktisiddhãnta. referred to as Caitanya. The name 'Caitanya' is 'Gaudiya' refers to a Vaishnava from geographically 'greater Bengal. pronounced Chaitanya'. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati and ISKCON 73 and reform of Hinduism by key personalities such as Rammohun Roy and Swami Vivekānanda. The bhadralok were in search of new religious and cultural identities that could incorporate to various degrees Western ideas in a way that was compatible with Hinduism. Caitanyaite Vaishnavism was generally regarded by progressive Bengalis as a less viable option, owing to its reputation as too traditional and otherworldly. Inaugurated in the sixteenth century, it is the tradition of bhakti that arose from the life and teachings of Caitanya and included approximately one-fifth to one-third of the Bengali population of the late nineteenth century. Bhaktisiddhānta spearheaded a religious movement that claimed to hark back to a seminal understanding of pre-colonial Indic thought. His ideas centred around Vedantic perennialism popular at the time, but, contrary to the mainstream monistic interpretations of the Bengali renaissance in the nineteenth century, they reflected the world view of the theistic Upanishads and the Bhāgavata Purāna. Bhaktisiddhäānta regarded the self, the ātman, as distinguished from the body and mind, and ontologically as a metaphysical person; he also viewed the personal loving relation between the perennial self and the divine couple Rādhā and Krishna as the basis of existence. The above- mentioned personalist understanding is part of a shared Vaishnava world view popular among North Indian saguna bhakti practitioners, and particularly among the educated mainstream, non-tantric Gaudiya Vaishnavas of Bengal, Vrindavan, and Eastern India. Bhaktisiddhānta dedicated his adult life to the propagation of Caitanyaite Vaishnavism. He did this primarily through the establishment of a pan-Indian religious institution, the publication of newspapers and journals in Indian languages and in English, the printing and distribution of classical and medieval texts, and the writing of new commentaries. Throughout his life he travelled widely about India, lecturing and initiating disciples, and won the esteem of both Indian and European figures." Through the work of the Gaudiya Math and the Gaudiya Mission (the names of the institution that he created), Bhaktisiddhānta's voice gradually gained prominence in India. Nonetheless, after his death in 1937 his movement declined, owing to a crisis of succession that ended in a schism. Some thirty years later, however, a new series of events propelled his movement to worldwide attention and spread his perspective on the teachings of Caitanya throughout the world, making tens of thousands of non-Indian and Indian followers. O'Connell (2013: 151). See BhaktisiddhäntaSarasvati, Shri Chaitanya'sTeachings,pts I and II, ed. Swami Bhakti Vilāsa Tirtha (Madras: Shree Gaudiya Math, 1989), 315-78. Ferdinando Sardella 74 EARLY LIFE Bhaktisiddhānta was born on 6 February 1874 in Jagannath Puri on the southern shore of the Bay of Bengal.° He was the seventh child of theBengali Kedarnath Datta known as Bhaktivinoda (1838-1914) and his wifeBhagavati Devi. Bhaktivinoda named his son 'Bimala Prasad'. Bhaktisiddhanta's father was a deputy magistrate in the British administration and one of the key religious influences of hislife Bhaktivinoda was born in the village of Ula, today known asBirnagar: Bhaktivinoda's parents, Ananda Chandra Datta and Jagat Mohini Mitra,were members of the influential kāyastha caste, which for generations hadworked as scribes and writers in the royal courts of India, and were often knownas wealthy landowners. In 1852, worsening financial circumstances forced Bhaktivinoda to move to the home of his maternal uncle in Calcutta,where he lived until 1858.° From there he began to explore the urban world originally createdbyythe East Indian Company, in search of education andemployment, and entered the swelling ranks of the bhadralok. There he met the prominent educator and scholar Ishvar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), under whose guidance he studied the history of India.l0 In 1856, Kedarnath Dattabegan attending the Hindu School, where he befriended the two prominent brothers Satyendranath (1842-1923) and Gajendranath Tagore, as well as Keshub Chandra Sen (1838-84), the future reformer of the Brahmo Samaj.""Kedarnath showed a poem about Porus, the Paurava king who nobly fought against Alexander the Great, to the well-known Scottish educationalist Alexander Duff (1806-78). Duff appreciated the poem and took the boy under his wing, helping him to study the works of John Milton (1608-74). Kedarnath also made a study of the works of Thomas Babington Macauley (1800-59), 5 Unless otherwise mentioned, the following description is based on 'Äcārya Carita', a biographical article that appeared in the issue of Gaudīya, 15/23-4 (16 January 1937), 9-40. The magazine was the official periodical of the Gaudiya Math. The issue appeared just a fewdays after Bhaktisiddhānta's demise. An English translation of this and later biographical articlesthat appeared in the periodical Gaudiya are found in Swanmi Bhakti Śrirūpā Bhāgavata (ed.),Advent Centenary Souvenir of Shri Shrila Prabhupad 1874-1974 (Baghbazar, Calcutta: GaudiyaMission, 1974), 1-37. • Bimala Prasad' and Bhaktisiddhānta' will hereafter indicate the same person at different stages of life. The title 'Bhaktivinoda' is honorific and was bestowed upon Kedarnath Datta in 1886 in recognition of his learning and scholarly accomplishments. In 1876, Kedarnath Datta wrote a genealogical work in Sanskrit verse, the Datta-vamśamālā. See also Marvin (1996: 55-8). Many Hindu revivalists and reformers like Swami Vivekänanda, as well as nationalists such as Subhas Chandra Bose, were born kāyasthas. For a general history of Bhaktivinoda's kāyastha clan-Dutt or Datta are its alternative spellings-see Hopkins (1989). Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda, Svalikhita-jīvani (Calcutta: Lalita Prasad Datta, 1916),54. The uncle's name was Kashiprasad Ghosh (1809-1873); he lived on Bidan street in Calcutta. 10 Bhaktivinoda, Svalikhita Jivanī, 67. 11 Bhaktivinoda, Svalikhita Jivanī, 68. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati and ISKCON 75 William Hazlit (1778-1830), and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881),1" In 1866, after passing the required examinations, he began as a Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector of the seventh grade, inaugurating an ascent to the higher ranks of colonial service under great physical and mental pressure.1 By the time of his retirement in 1894 he had been relocated twenty-five times, finishing his career as a Deputy Magistrate of second grade. Bimala Prasad began his education at an English school in Ranaghat, and in 1881 was transferred to the Oriental Seminary in Calcutta. In 1881, when he was a young student, Bhaktivinoda gave young Bimala prayer beads (japa māla) made of a sacred tulasĩ plant from Jagannath Puri. Bhaktivinoda founded in Calcutta in the same year the Viśva Vaişnava Sabhã (the World Vaishnava Association),14 Sisir Kumar Ghosh, the editor of the renowned English daily Amrita Bazar Patrika, and Bipin Bihari Goswami, a Brahman guru from Bhagnapara in the Nadia district, became active supporters, and requently participated in the meetings of theassociation.!5 Young Bimala also attended and through his father met many of the leading Vaishnavas of Bengal, as well as prominent figures among the bhadralok. In 1885, Bhaktivinoda founded a research centre, the Vaishnava Depository, with a library and an archive intended for the preservation of manuscripts and other resources for the study of the Caitanya tradition. The centre included a press that was used to publish and propagate the religious views of the Viśva Vaişnava Sabhā. One of the publications of the new press was the Saijanatoşani. The periodical contained news of Bhaktivinoda's missionary activities and his devotional poetry as well as writings on Vaishnava history and theology. Although stilla boy, Bimala Prasadwas given the taskof proofreading the magazine. Bimala Prasadpassed the demanding entrance examination for the Sanskrit College and, apart from Sanskrit, he studied mathematics, Indian philosophy, and ancient history. Bhaktivinoda applied the managerial skills he had acquired through his civil service to a new institutional venture, and in October 1893 founded the Navadvipadhāma Pracāriņī Sabhã (Society for the Propagation of the Sacred Site of Nabadwip). The new society promoted a new birthplace of Caitanya in Mayapur, on the basis of Bhaktivinoda's calculations and historical research, rather than the traditional site in Nabadwip promoted by the local Brahmans on the opposite shore of the Ganges. In 1891, at the age of 17, Bimal Prasad, now Siddhānta Sarasvatia title conferred on him in 1889 by his astronomy teachers-started his own tutorials in astronomy.l" Bhaktivinoda, Svalikhita Jivani, 71. 14 Marvin (1999: 97). 15 Bhatia(2008:187-8). 15 Sardella (2014: 195). Sajanatoşani, 5/11 (1893), 201-7. Swami Bhakti Vikāsa, śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Vaibhava: The Grandeur and Glory of Śrila Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Thäkura (Surat: Bhakti Vikas Trust, 2009), i. 13.