Sadhus in Democratic Politics in Late 20 Th Century India
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"WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN" Sadhus in Democratic Politics in Late 20 th Century India MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE by OF TECHNOLOGY JUL 1 6 2009 Rajesh Pradhan S.M.Arch.S. Architecture & M.C.P. City Planning LIBRARIES Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2009 ©2009 Rajesh Pradhan. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. ARCHNES Signature of Author: SDep ment of Political Science / ,,ebTer 21, 2008 Certified by: .................... ........ .................. Melissa Nobles Associate Irofessor of Political Science Thesis Supervisor Accepted by:.. ..................................... Roger Petersen Associate Professor of Political Science Chair, Graduate Program Committee "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN" Sadhus in Democratic Politics in Late 20 th Century India by Rajesh Pradhan Submitted to the Department of Political Science on October 21, 2008 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Supervised by Melissa Nobles, Associate Professor of Political Science ABSTRACT This empirical study examines the political significance of religious leaders-known commonly as sadhus-in a huge and mature democracy like India. During the late '80s and the '90s, a flurry of sadhu activism coincided with the dramatic rise of a previously insignificant political party, the Bhartiya JanataParty (BJP). As a conservative Hindu nationalist party, the BJP allied with many sadhus, came to power at the center and in many states, breaking the monopoly that the relatively secular Congress party had held for more than four decades. The sadhus and the BJP came together over the controversy of whether a Hindu temple had been destroyed to build a 16 th century mosque (the Ram Janmabhoomidispute). It propelled a few sadhus-who I describe as spiritual agents, whose essential identity is based on individualism, freedom from making long-term commitments, and yet committed to transcendental causes-to band together under contingent conditions and the availability of a platform to voice their discontent. However, both the coalition between pro-BJP sadhus and the BJP, as well as the desire to build the temple, unraveled over the next decade. Not only did the newly emergent BJP broaden its political base by distancing itself from a single issue, but the unity among sadhus also splintered. This thesis is an empirical and agent-centered approach to examine nationalism and a particular strain of religious fundamentalism. It examines the commonalities and differences among sadhus themselves as factors that explain both the unity among sadhus in one period and the splintering of that unity at another time. Sadhus are individualistic, free-floating, religious individuals who became sadhus not to pursue any social cause, but to live a life free of responsibilities and in tune with their inner callings. Aside from the role of outside forces and differences among sadhus over key political issues, I argue that essentially it is the elements common to the identity of sadhus as sadhus that temper theirfundamentalist tendencies. Looking forward, the crouching Hindu serpent, like the famed kundalini in yoga, best characterizes this strain of sadhu-led Hindu fundamentalism, ever poised to rise and recoil. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I started this dissertation under the guidance of (Late) Prof. Myron Weiner in 1993. He, like other committee members (Prof. Stanley Tambiah at Harvard, and Uday Mehta and Michael Fischer at M.I.T.) were disappointed when I gave up writing the thesis in 1996, even after conducting the first round of field interviews. Needless to say, my friends and family members were equally perplexed. After fourteen years of unexplained silence, I re-emerged, primarily because of my wife's prodding. Once I had decided to engage with the thesis once again, my old and new committee members (Melissa Nobles, Roger Petersen, and Michael Fischer) gave me the chance to move ahead, instead of me looking backwards to what had immobilized me earlier. If I had to list people who were responsible either for my renunciation of my dissertation or for its revival, the list would be very long, given the fact that this study took 15 years to complete. I thank One and All. I thank all who helped me meet the sadhus I did, and the sadhus themselves. But, above all, I wish to thank five individuals: my wife, who, in late 2007, made it clear that I must resurrect my thesis or else....; my son, who in his crisp lawyerly way, gave me the most terse comments on my thesis; my other shaggy-haired musician son, who always thought I could do better; my younger brother, who kept pouring undeserved comments on my thesis in order to motivate me; and, finally, Myron himself, a person I felt I had betrayed by giving up the thesis in 1996. I am grateful to my parents, who had given up on me, but kept pushing me despite all my handicaps. And to the lingering shadow of my grandfather, Baba, who taught me the aesthetics of repetition, and the economy of words. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Political Significance and Problem Statement ............................................................ The Identity of Sadhus and the Theoretical Argument ....................................... 8.. Sadhus' Shifting Involvement in post-Independence Politics: A Background Sum m ary ........................................................................ 9 Research Aim s and M ethodology............................................................... 13 On the Selection of Sadhus Interviewed....................................................... 14 Political Significance of the Thesis, Restated................................................................. 16 Framing the Issue: The Religion versus Politics Debate ....................................... 18 The Manifestations of the Religion-Politics Dynamic: Anti-Modernity, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism......................................... ...................... 22 Framing the Issue of "Individualism" of Sadhus ............................................................ 28 Structure of the Thesis R eport .................................................................... ................. 31 Chapter II: Sadhus and the Institution of Sadhus ..................................................... 33 Introduction to Sadhus as Commonplace Features in Indian Life..................................33 The Postcard Image of Sadhus................................................ ........................................ 33 A Background on Sadhus' Origins, Organizations, Functions, and D om inant Im ages ........................................................................... ........................ 35 Sadhus in the Popular Imagination ....................................................... 41 The Commonality: Not a Mixed Lot but Inherently Self-Contradictory .......................... 56 Chapter III: Sadhus and the Emergence of Religious Nationalism in late 19 th Century and Early 2 0th Century India .................................... ...... .................. 58 Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883): Religious Scholar and Atheist ................. 59 Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950): Warrior and Mystical Yogi .............................................. 65 Swami Vivekanand: 1863-1902. Multiculturalist and Unapologetic Nationalist ............ 71 Guru Golwalkar (1906-1973): Sadhu as a Protean Fascist ............................................ 76 Sum m ary of the Four Sadhus.......................................................................................... 84 Chapter IV: The Re-Emergence and Splintering of Religious Nationalism: Sadhus in the Ramjanmabhoomi Conflict and Later........................................86 Political Competition, Post-1949: The Re-Emergence of Hindu Nationalism............. 89 Hindu Nationalist Politics, post 1986: Who is the Friend and Who is the Foe?.. .......... 96 Enter Dramatic Dragons: Intellectual Debates and Street Theatre .............................. 102 The Splintering of Religion as a Political Force: The Post-Demolition Chronology...... 114 Conclusion -- The Sum Total of Many Sum Totals: More than One Hundred Years of Religious Nationalism ..................................... 123 Chapter V: Conversations with Sadhus: Empirical Analysis of the Rise and Splintering of Hindutva................................................ ........................ 125 Sam ple and M ethodology ............................................... ........................................... 126 PART I: The Rise of Religious Nationalism: Conversations with the M overs and Shakers .................................................................................... 129 Ramchandra Paramhans: A Lifelong Commitment to Ram and a Campaign for Raising Hindu Awareness Against Historical Wrongs ............................... 129 Uma Bharati: A Campaign Against Historical Wrongs - and a Democratic Surge in Hindu Sentiments .................................... ................. 134 Mahant Avaidyanath: A Fight to Safeguard Hindu Culture and Strengthen H indu Society.................................................... ............................................