India's Middle Class by Christiane Brosius

Author:Christiane Brosius [Brosius, Christiane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology, Urban
ISBN: 9781136704840
Google: -mGrAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-06-12T04:42:03+00:00

Rituals as Heritage, Catharsis and Helping Hand

Let us take recourse to the ‘essentialised’ idea of ritual in BAPS worship before we investigate its variations and improvisations as a means of distinction. Ritual is presented almost as if it was the DNA of modern Indians, the ‘script’ according to which Culture (with a capital ‘C’), world and life make sense. One central aim of BAPS, also true of the ACC, is to convert ritual as a signifier of modernity. It is expected that through this, pride, respect and recognition of spiritual people would be restored as opposed to their reputation as social (backward) ‘misfits’. A senior BAPS swami who maintains that rituals protect culture and soul, society and individual they writes:

Rituals represent the bark of a tree. The tree cannot survive long without its bark. Neither can any religion or society (survive) without its rituals. Rituals are gestures and symbols of social, political and religious events of the distant past and are also useful in teaching abstract ideas and concepts … making them understandable and accessible to the masses … Rituals are our riches. To renounce them would be to invite cultural poverty and religious ignorance … Rituals also serve to prevent social disintegration by bringing thousands of people together with a spirit of oneness … Thus, as an almost complete and holistic nourishment, rituals educate, coordinate and sublimate our lives (Sadhu Vishwamurtidas 2003: 57–58).

The notion evoked here is one of utter importance for rituals of today's times and societies. It plays on the idea of ritual as a healing device, as an intangible cultural heritage that must be preserved and revitalised to prevent societal dilution.

The standard set of rituals referred to earlier reflects a particular process of transformation of religious practice in the context of the experience of modernity and migration. To be sure, BAPS, and thus the ACC, could not be understood without acknowledging the crucial role of the transnational networks and activities of Indians overseas. There is a shift from religious practice and belief to cultural heritage and spirituality as pillars of life conduct and public interest. In his study on the Hindu diaspora, Steve Vertovec maintains that Brahmin-dominated practices have been widely established as a kind of ‘canon’ for Hindus living abroad, shaping a global religious ecumene: the performance of puja (with Sanskrit elements), with arati and samskaras (life-cycle rituals), yagnas (sacrifices), readings from sacred texts, and massive communal meals and rituals (2000: 53). Kathas (recitals of sacred love) too play a central role, even though they introduce non-Brahminical elements. Looked at closely, we find these elements in the philosophy of BAPS too. Besides, the label ‘Vedic’ is attached to ritual, tradition and culture at the ACC in order to legitimise BAPS as a custodian of Indian (Hindu) Culture. Rituals appropriated from the past affirm some kind of ‘hereness’ (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998: 153). Rituals make the past come alive as a repertoire of Indianness, as nostalgia without memory (Appadurai 1997). But much more than this, rituals also come

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