Dimensions
162 x 227 x 14mm
Many introductory textbooks on Hinduism begin with questions of definition (what is Hinduism? Who are Hindus?) before going on to a discussion of historical origins. They often begin with descriptions of the Indus River civilization (2500-1500 BCE) and the Vedas and proceed through a religious textual history of Hindu traditions (focusing on Sanskritic/Brahminic textual traditions of upper castes). However, most Hindus do not experience or talk about their religious traditions along the trajectories of these kinds of textual histories. They may invoke the authority of what they consider to be "ancient texts" or "the old ways" and "custom," but they experience these as contemporary practices. And so this book will begin with practice rather than textual histories and historical time lines, although historical contexts will be referred to throughout the book (such as the colonial constructions of "Hinduism," the development of Ganesh Caturthi as a political development, etc).
Over many years of ethnographic fieldwork in India, when speaking in Hindi, I have not been asked "what do you believe," but rather have been frequently asked "what were you born" (literally, "what is your caste/jati?), a question implying "what do you do/practice?" And this practice is assumed to permeate one's everyday action, from hygiene to food, dress to ritual. Indeed, the Indian language term used to translate "religion," dharma, implies action, practice, and ethics rather than a requisite set of beliefs. There is little consensus among Hindus as to what are inherent or minimal "Hindu practices," nor is there a consensus of interpretation of shared practices. Hence, the categories and examples of contemporary Hindu practice described in this book are necessarily selective and suggestive.
The focus of this book is contemporary Hindu practices from an ethnographic perspective, starting with contemporary, lived everyday experience (what Hindus say and do) of specific people in specific places and times. Such a perspective reveals the fluidity, flexibility, and creativity of Hindu practices as well as some broad structures and parameters that may cross/be shared across space and time.
Each chapter will be framed with introductory and contextual material for the topic at hand, before an elaboration of that topic through my own fieldwork data from central India (Chhattisgarh), the Deccan Plateau (Hyderabad), and South India (Tirupati). Each chapter will also introduce important theoretical concerns or interpretive models that have developed in the academic study of religion and Hinduism.
