Between Being a Hindu and Becoming a Nationalist: Women as Custodians and Agents of Sanatan Dharma in the Bharat Sevashram Sangha Discourse

Abstract

The connotations of Sanatan Dharma have undergone significant evolution, shifting from the eternal principles outlined in classical literature to a version that emerged in nineteenth-twentieth-century Hinduism. While the orthodox Hindus perceived it as eternal, spiritual, and predominantly individualistic, their close allies, the Hindu nationalists embraced it as an integral part of nation-building based on a collective  Hindu identity. The interplay of these perspectives marked by friction and fusion, becomes particularly evident in the construction of an exalted ideal of Hindu womanhood. The sanatanis envisioned women as the harbingers of traditional gender roles rooted in scriptural teachings, they were seen as politically engaged partners in nation-building by the Hindu nationalists.

In light of this, this paper aims to explore how the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, a significant Hindu religious and male monastic organization in late colonial Bengal, addressed both perspectives and crafted an innovative interpretation of Sanatan Dharma. It was infused with such values that encouraged women to embrace their identities as ‘true’ Hindus first and subsequently emerge as ‘nationalists’ through the eternal principles of dharma, seva, and desh-bhakti. With a specific emphasis on the ways the Sangha addressed the issues of domesticity, conjugality, sexuality, motherhood and caste in reconciling women’s traditional roles with their nationalist obligations, this study delves into the question of why the Sangha recognized women, as equal, rather than the primary custodians of Sanatan Dharma in contrast to the Hindu nationalists. The study also examines the implications of this recognition against a backdrop of political shifts ‘threatened’ by communal polarization and external cultural influences in the troubled province of Bengal.