85 – Subaltern Religions and Hindutva: Traditions of Autonomy, Seductions of the State
This panel explores the trajectories of subaltern religions of India over the past decades in the face of assertive Hindutva politics.
Some of these movements have been portrayed in mainstream media as victims of Hinduization, joining the ranks of pro-Hindutva political parties—allured by a “fascinating Hindutva” (Narayan 2009). Others have continued to deploy their traditional tool-box of strategies—amphibiousness, concealment, deception, metaphorization etc. —to maintain an ambiguous stance. In this panel, we bring together several case-studies to address the relationship between subaltern religious groups and the state in contemporary India.
How did Dalit religions, Adivasi traditions and minor religious sects respond to, oppose, or accommodate right-wing Hindu nationalism?
Many of the religious movements followed by the Dalit and tribal communities in the Indian subcontinent had deliberately moved away from dominant religions to form breakaway sects of their own or had been practiced as indigenous to the group. Over the last few decades, with the rise of the Hindu Right in many parts of India and a general hardening of religious identities, some of these sects have moved closer to or into the fold of Hinduism. This has meant the rewriting of indigenous epics or myths in some cases, or the transformation of the community-specific gurus or deities to include other gods taken from the Hindu pantheon. In some cases, the stories have undergone changes to make it possible for a dissenting sect to be identified as a Hindu sampradaya. This panel will bring together specific case-studies of Dalit, Adivasi and subaltern religious communities to understand how their faith, narratives and ritual practices have responded to the pressures and the promises of right-wing Hindu nationalism.
