The Legacy of Vai¿¿avism in Colonial Bengal

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.

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 Vai--avism in the Modern Period Project of the OCHS.

Introduction: Vai--avism in Colonial Bengal: Beyond the Hindu Renaissance; Part One: Recovering the Legacy: How Vai--avas Adopted Colonial Modalities; 1 The Afterlife of an Avatara in Modern Times; 2 Theorising Bengal Vai--avism: Bipin Chandra Pal and New Perspectives on Religious Life and Culture; 3 Vai--ava Institutional Processes in Colonial Bengal; 4 Baba Premananda Bharati: His Trajectory into and through Bengal Vai--avism to the West; 5 Claiming High Ground: Gaüiya Missionising Rhetoric on the Adhikara of Worship; 6 Directions for Future Research on Vai--avism 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 Vai--ava Sahajiya Scholarship; 8 Sahajiya Texts of Nadia: Beyond Reform and Revival; 9 Love of Woman: Love of Humankind? Interconnections between Baul Esoteric Practice and Social Radicalism; 10 Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern and Modern South Asia: The Case of Bengali Vai--avism; 11 Colonial Morals, Vai--ava Quarrels: Tracing the Sources of Nineteenth Century Anti-Sahajiya Polemics