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Unforgetting Chaitanya: Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal
Contributor(s): Bhatia, Varuni (Author)
ISBN: 0190686243     ISBN-13: 9780190686246
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE:   $161.50  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: September 2017
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Hinduism - History
- History | Asia - India & South Asia
Dewey: 294.551
LCCN: 2016055374
Physical Information: 1" H x 6.1" W x 9.4" (1.20 lbs) 312 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Indian
- Cultural Region - Asian
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
What role do pre-modern religious traditions play in the formation of modern secular identities? In Unforgetting Chaitanya, Varuni Bhatia examines late-nineteenth-century transformations of Bengali Vaishnavism-a vibrant and multifaceted religious tradition that traces its origins to the
fifteenth century Krishna devotee Chaitanya (1486-1533). Drawing on an extensive body of hitherto unexamined archival material, Bhatia finds that both religious modernizers and secular voices among the Bengali middle-class invoked Chaitanya, portraying him simultaneously as a local hero, a Hindu
reformer, and as God almighty. She argues that these claims should be understood in relation to the recovery of a pure Bengali culture and history in a period of nascent, but rising, anti-colonialism in the region.

Who is a true Vaishnava? In the late nineteenth century, this question assumed urgency as debates around questions of authenticity appeared prominently in the Bengali public sphere. These debates went on for years, even decades, causing unbridgeable rifts in personal friendships and tarnishing
reputations of established scholars. Underlying these debates was the question of authoritative Bengali Vaishnavism and its role in the long-term constitution of Bengali culture and society. At stake, argues Bhatia, was the very nature and composition of an indigenously-derived modernity inscribed
through the politics of authenticity, which allowed an influential section of Hindu, upper-caste Bengalis to excavate their own explicitly Hindu pasts in order to find a people's history, a religious reformer, a casteless Hindu sect, the richest examples of Bengali literature, and a sophisticated
expression of monotheistic religion.