Divine Exposures: Religion and Imposture in Colonial India by Joshua Barton Scott Department of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. Bruce Lawrence, Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Leela Prasad ___________________________ Dr. Richard Jaffe ___________________________ Dr. David Gilmartin ___________________________ Dr. Srinivas Aravamudan Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 i v ABSTRACT Divine Exposures: Religion and Imposture in Colonial India by Joshua Barton Scott Department of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. Bruce Lawrence, Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Leela Prasad ___________________________ Dr. Richard Jaffe ___________________________ Dr. David Gilmartin ___________________________ Dr. Srinivas Aravamudan An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 Copyright by Joshua Barton Scott 2009 ABSTRACT My dissertation asks how narratives of religious fraud have been used to rethink Hinduism. It begins in a theoretical register by arguing that the unmasking of charlatans serves as a metonym for the secularizing procedures of modernity more broadly. Tales of charlatans’ exposure by secularist skeptics promise a disenchanted world freed from the ill-gotten influence of sham divines; such tales evacuate the immanent frame of charismatic god-men, thereby allowing the extension and consolidation of secular power. I trace the trope of charlatanic exposure, beginning with Enlightenment anxieties about “priestcraft,” continuing on to nineteenth century criticisms of religion, and then making a lateral move to colonial India. I suggest that by the 1830s it had become difficult for many English critics to extricate the problem of priestly imposture from the broader problematic of empire and, more specifically, from the specter of the “crafty brahmin.” I track the cultural crosscurrents that conjoined English and Indian anticlericalisms, not only to insist on the centrality of colonial thinkers to the constitution of modernity, but also to reconsider modernity’s putative secularity. The “anticlerical modernity” that I identify brings religious and secular skeptics together in a shared war on sacerdotal charisma, best observed at the interstices of empire. The dissertation disperses the intellectual lineage of the “imposture theory of religion” by rerouting it through colonial India. The imposture theory, or the notion that religion is but a ruse concocted by crafty priests to dupe gullible masses, was central to the emergence of secular modernity and its mistrust of religion. Closely associated with the English and French Enlightenments, it was also pervasive in British polemics against Indian iv religions. My dissertation demonstrates how in its colonial redeployment the imposture theory came to abut Indic imaginaries of religious illusion, ranging from folkloric spoofs of gurus’ authority to philosophical debates about the ontological status of “maya.” Starting from the religious controversies of the colonial era, my interrogation of Indic illusion extends from the ninth century philosopher Shankaracharya to the sixteenth century saint Vallabhacharya to the twentieth century guru Osho. Its focus, however, is on three nineteenth century religious reformers: Karsandas Mulji, Dayanand Saraswati, and H.P Blavatsky. Through archival research, textual analysis (in Hindi, Gujarati, and English), and theoretical inquiry, I insinuate these three colonial thinkers into the history of the imposture theory of religion. In doing so, my aim is to contribute to scholarship on the genealogy of religion, particularly in colonial contexts. v CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………........................................................................... iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………….. vii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………… 1 1: The History of Priestcraft in All Ages and Nations………………………………. 40 2: Priestly Despots…………………………………………………………………………………….. 71 3: Guru is God……………………………………………………………………………………………. 112 4: Pur!"ic Popery……………………………………………………………………………………… 171 5: A Skeptic’s Medium………………………………………………………………………………. 217 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………… 266 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………… 281 Biography…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 303 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee. Bruce Lawrence, ever encouraging, was a great support throughout the research and the writing of this dissertation; I was lucky to have him as chair. Leela Prasad, Richard Jaffe, David Gilmartin, and Srinivas Aravamudan all provided incisive feedback on the dissertation itself, as well as invaluable support throughout my career as a graduate student. I also benefited immensely from the support and advice of other Triangle-area faculty. In particular, I would like to thank Tom Tweed, Randall Styers, Sandy Freitag, and Satti Khanna. My dissertation research was made possible by fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and Duke University. I thank all of those institutions for their generous financial support. Jawaharlal Nehru University provided me with an institutional base in India, and I would like to thank Susan Viswanathan in particular for all of her help during the nine months in which I was affiliated with JNU. Additionally, I would like to thank the staff of the following libraries and archives: the British Library’s Asian and African Studies Reading Room, Cambridge University Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Archives of India, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the Maharashtra State Archives, the Cama Institute, the Forbes Gujarati Sabh!, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, and the Theosophical Society’s Adyar Library and Research Centre. The staff of the Forbes Gujarati Sabh! deserves particular thanks for their truly remarkable assistance. Portions of Chapter 5 have previously appeared in article form as “Miracle Publics: Theosophy, Christianity, and the Coulomb Affair,” History of Religions 49:2 (November 2009): vii 172-196 (© 2009 by the University of Chicago Press). I thank the University of Chicago Press for permission to reproduce that material here. While abroad, I benefited from the advice of several senior scholars. Particular thanks are due to Usha Thakkar, Amrita Shodhan, and Geraldine Forbes. At an earlier phase of the project, Ashis Nandy and Makarand Paranjape offered both encouragement and logistical support, and I thank them both. My year in the archives would have been far drabber without the company of friends. For the pints in London and Cambridge, and also for the housing, I would like to thank Robert Ricks, Hilary Smith, Cornelius O’Boyle, Alice Fodor, Michael Thompson, Will Erikson, and Caitlin Anderson. The Delhi winter was made warmer by Dann Naseemullah, Surita Parashar, Julie Hughes, Brandon Marsh, and Paul Staniland, as well Prabha and the staff of Manushi. Special thanks go to Leo Mirani for showing me such a very good time in Bombay. Thanks also to Anuja Ghosalkar, Rasheed Wadia, Raghu Karnad, Girish Karnad, and Munni Kabir for their hospitality in that city. Back in the States, many friends provided me with invaluable research advice: particular thanks are due to Matt Cook and Pinki Vaishnava. For sharing work or providing useful leads, thanks go, in addition to those above, to James Tabor, Mitra Sharafi, and Chris Pinney. Additionally, I would like to thank Leela Gandhi, who proved both an inspiration and a calming influence during the anxious final months of my Ph.D. Completing a Ph.D., seldom a straightforward task, requires forms of support far more intangible than those enumerated above. Without the steadfastness of friends, I would not have gotten this far. Here, I will simply pause to thank my graduate school colleagues for seeing me through: Susanna Drake, Lori Baron, Kyle Smith, Kristi Upson- viii Saia, Kate Blanchard, Ali Aslam, Jacob Remes, Mari Armstrong-Hough, Mitch Fraas, Brett and Cristina Wilson, Youshaa Patel, SherAli Tareen, Isaac Weiner, and Jenna Tiitsman. Without my family, I cannot imagine ever having embarked on the academic life to begin with: thanks to Catherine and John Bishir for giving me a home in Raleigh, and to Jean, Thornton, and Lucile Scott for homes in all the other places—for, that is, a lifetime of love and support. Finally, thanks to Daniel Elam for following me, and this project, over some very long distances. Whether in Chapel Hill or Durham, London or Delhi, Bombay or Chicago, he’s been an incomparable companion. ix INTRODUCTION: THEORIZING IMPOSTURE The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of men is a demand for their real happiness. The call to abandon their illusions about their condition is a call to abandon a condition which requires illusions. Karl Marx, 1843 1 The divine “pretender” stood exposed, and he knew it. His head and hands ceased their ecstatic gyrations, and he confessed to the crowd that the Goddess had left him. The Rev. William Bowley was pleased. A man on a mission, he had rushed to the banyan tree earlier that 1820 morning, upon learning of the blacksmith