Religion, Power and Law in Twentieth Century India

Abstract Important works within History, Anthropology and Political Theory have tracked the genealogies of religion and politics (power), queried their construction as neat categories and underscored their imbrication. Drawing upon such works, this essay focuses on the long and convoluted interaction of a radical religion of Orissa, eastern India, and the law, in order to highlight how religion and state power impinge upon and shape each other. Through a situated analysis of the gradual institutionalization of Mahima Dharma over the twentieth century dictated by the requirements of law, and the ascetics need to forge a bounded community with a strong centre, the essay demonstrates how the contingency and particularity of religion and politics enable their constant redefinition, while their imbricated interface reinforces the idea of separation. The essay thereby extends Talal Asad's enquiry into the genealogies of the religious and the secular, of religion and power, by arguing that the enmeshment and constant reshaping of power by religion and religion by power shores up the idea of their separation.