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India's many Puritans: Connectivity and friction in the study of modern Hinduism
Author(s) -
Hatcher Brian A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12369
Subject(s) - hinduism , colonialism , scholarship , south asia , protestantism , invocation , assemblage (archaeology) , protestant work ethic , sociology , aesthetics , history , religious studies , philosophy , law , political science , ethnology , anthropology , politics , archaeology , capitalism
Taking note of the widespread usage of terms such as puritan , puritanical , and puritanism in the study of modern religious movements in South Asia, this essay builds upon the work of J. Barton Scott and Anna Tsing to open up reflection on the trans‐colonial passage and critical operation of such terms. Learning that Max Weber's famous invocation of the Protestant ethic was preceded by colonial‐era reflections on puritanism in South Asia, we are led to explore patterns of connectivity and friction associated with the global circulation of discourse surrounding the puritan. By coining (after Scott) the concept of a puritan assemblage and considering how it shapes scholarship on the Swaminarayan Sampraday and the Brahmo Samaj, we call attention to the way processes of redescription and translation work to create enabling and exclusionary frames for understanding modern Hinduism.