Unforgetting Chaitanya

Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal

Varuni Bhatia

Extends groundbreaking analyses of the relationship between iconic saintly figures from the past and their modern and secular interpretations
Sheds new light on the historical transformations of a religious tradition from eastern India
Brings a new perspective to the study of devotion (bhakti) in India

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal

Varuni Bhatia

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.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal

Varuni Bhatia

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal

Varuni Bhatia

Author Information

Varuni Bhatia is Assistant Professor of Hindu and South Asian Studies at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Vaishnavism and Cultures of Devotion in Colonial Bengal

Varuni Bhatia

Reviews and Awards

"Unforgetting Chaitanya is a worthwhile reading for anyone interested in religion and the colonial encounter, rich in information and insight and gracefully written."--Aleksander Uskokov, Reading Religion

"What Bhatia has done for Chaitanya in Bengal should be applied elsewhere by other scholars to observe the ways figures of India's past become antennae for colonial era re-imaginings of India, present and future. Bhatia's careful work, so well documented and conceived, forms an admirable book that is both essential for the knowledge and ideas it conveys, and important for the model it provides for other scholars."--Christian Lee Novetzke, author of The Quotidian Revolutions: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India

"Brilliantly marshaling religious, historical, literary, and journalistic sources, Varuni Bhatia presents a compelling assessment of Vaishnavism's place in the making of a modern Bengali Hindu identity. Keenly sensitive to the nuances of caste and linguistic distinctions, she reveals a little-known side of middle-class Bengal."--Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

"Taking up the life histories and literary output of two late-colonial intellectuals, Varunia Bhatia foregrounds the sense of loss and longed-for recovery around a figure central to Bengali cultural understanding. Unforgetting Chaitanya is an engaging exploration of memory, affect, and argument in the work of regional and national self-fashioning."--Brian Hatcher, Professor and Packard Chair of Theology, Tufts University