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This book offers a focused examination of the Bengali Vai¿¿ava tradition in its manifold forms in the pivotal context of British colonialism in South Asia.
Bringing together scholars from across the disciplines of social and intellectual history, philology, theology, and anthropology to systematically investigate Vai¿¿avism in colonial Bengal, this book highlights the significant roles-religious, social, and cultural-that a prominent Hindu devotional current played in the lives of wide and diverse sections of colonial Bengali society. Not only does the book thereby enrich our understanding of the history and development of Bengali Vai¿¿avism, but it also sheds valuable new light on the texture and dynamics of colonial Hinduism beyond the discursive and social-historical parameters of an entrenched Hindu "Renaissance" paradigm.
A landmark in the burgeoning field of Bengali Vai¿¿ava studies, this book will be of interest to scholars of modern Hinduism, religion, and colonial South Asian social and intellectual history.
List of contents
Introduction: Vaiṣṇavism in Colonial Bengal: Beyond the Hindu Renaissance; Part One: Recovering the Legacy: How Vaiṣṇavas Adopted Colonial Modalities; 1 The Afterlife of an Avatāra in Modern Times; 2 Theorising Bengal Vaiṣṇavism: Bipin Chandra Pal and New Perspectives on Religious Life and Culture; 3 Vaiṣṇava Institutional Processes in Colonial Bengal; 4 Baba Premananda Bharati: His Trajectory into and through Bengal Vaiṣṇavism to the West; 5 Claiming High Ground: Gauḍīya Missionising Rhetoric on the Adhikāra of Worship; 6 Directions for Future Research on Vaiṣṇavism in Colonial Bengal; Part Two: Contending the Portrayal: How Ethics Shaped This Religion of Love; 7 The Power of the Secret: The Tantalising Discourse of Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Scholarship; 8 Sahajiya Texts of Nadia: Beyond Reform and Revival; 9 Love of Woman: Love of Humankind? Interconnections between Bāul Esoteric Practice and Social Radicalism; 10 Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern and Modern South Asia: The Case of Bengali Vaiṣṇavism; 11 Colonial Morals, Vaiṣṇava Quarrels: Tracing the Sources of Nineteenth Century Anti-Sahajiyā Polemics
About the author
Ferdinando Sardella is Assistant Professor at Stockholm University, Sweden. He is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, University of Oxford, UK.
Lucian Wong is a Post-Doctoral fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), University of Oxford, UK and is Co-Director of the Bengali Vaiṣṇavism in the Modern Period Project of the OCHS.
Summary
This book offers a focused examination of the Bengali Vai??ava tradition in its manifold forms in the pivotal context of British colonialism in South Asia.
