Swami Karpatri and Temple Entry: Gurus, Caste and Orthodox Hinduism in Twentieth Century India

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways in which charismatic leaders, or gurus shaped heterogenous orthodox Hindu associations and their extensive networks from the early twentieth century. Specifically, it argues that the stakes, meanings and goals of ‘orthodox Hinduism’ or sanātana dharma was contested between Sanatanis and gurus from different sampradāy through heated conversations on the relationship of caste and sanātana dharma in colonial and postcolonial India. Broadly, gurus across castes expressed their distrust with hegemonic discourses of orthodox Hinduism for threatening the ‘autonomy’ of their religious traditions. Their position on space and place of caste in monasticism fashioned their engagement with orthodox Hinduism in a period of ‘caste reform’ and Hindu sangathan (unity) which escalated from the 1920s.  In particular, my paper foregrounds Brahmin gurus such as Swami Karpatri, who together with his associations (the All-India Dharm Sangh and the Ram Parishad) played a central role in the socio-religious and political landscape of orthodox Hinduism and public movements gathered around caste in colonial and postcolonial India.  After discussing Karpatri’s understanding of the relationship between varnāśramadharma, sanātana dharma and politics, the paper locates this discussion in an analysis of the role played by the Dharm Sangh and Ram Rajya Parishad in the temple-entry movement in the 1940s and 1950s. Karpatri’s position on temple-entry pitted him and his organizations against anti-caste gurus, ‘reformist’ Sanatanis, the Congress, as well as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh in very particular ways.