[Urban-Media] [Fwd: Fwd: bangalore diss]

[Shekhar Krishnan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: bangalore diss
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 21:41:53 -0400
From: eric lewis beverley <beverley at fas.harvard.edu>
To: Shekhar Krishnan <shekhar at mit.edu>, Nikhil Rao <nrao at wellesley.edu>
CC: mfischer at mit.edu
References: <31456878.1144285328229.JavaMail.vsprod at delisrv1.prod.il.pqe>



Begin forwarded message:

> From: ProQuest <noreply at il.proquest.com>
> Date: April 5, 2006 9:02:08 PM EDT
> To: beverley at fas.harvard.edu
> Subject: bangalore diss
>
>
>
> 'Divine enterprise': An ethnographic study of popular Hinduism
> Srinivas, Tulasi.  Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2001.  390  
> pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- Massachusetts: Boston  
> University; 2001. Publication Number: AAT 3002613.
> Advisor:	Berger, Peter
> School:	Boston University
> School Location:	United States -- Massachusetts
> Index terms(keywords):	Hinduism, India, Modernity, Priests, Caste
> Source:	DAI-A 62/01, p. 227, Jul 2001
> Source type:	DISSERTATION
> Subjects:	Cultural anthropology, Sociology, Religion
> Publication Number:	AAT 3002613
> ISBN:	0493113258
> Document URL:	http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb? 
> did=728446131&Fmt=2&clientId=11201&RQT=309&VName=PQD
> ProQuest document ID:	728446131
>
> Abstract (Document Summary)
> This is a study of 'popular' Hinduism as it is practiced in the  
> public space of urban Hindu temples in the city of Bangalore in  
> South India. The literature on Hinduism assumes that Hindu priests  
> are the curators of an unchanging tradition, and that they oppose  
> change brought about by forces of modernity. Contrary to these  
> understandings of the priesthood, the study shows that the priests  
> in particular Hindu temples of Bangalore city, are at the forefront  
> of inventing strategies that transform Hinduism from within, and  
> they reinvent and reinterpret Hinduism on a daily basis. Therefore  
> this study is an attempt to understand this disparity between the  
> reality of the field, and the constructed image of the priesthood.
>
> The study also addresses the forces that shape and change religion,  
> and the implications of this reconstitution of religion for our  
> understanding of modernity and globalisation. The study highlights  
> the transformation in the social world of the Hindu temple, teasing  
> out a new perspective on the changing nature of class and status in  
> contemporary India, and linking it to concepts of entrepreneurship,  
> competition, recruitment, status, social mobility, and culture.
>
> The study examines the four actors in the temple--the priests, the  
> devotees, the deity and the Government and their relationships with  
> one another. This is an argument of everyday interaction as being  
> transformative, as being the site where the re-workings of society  
> happen. The study demonstrates how 'tradition' and 'modernity' are  
> not oppositional categories for the actors in the temples but are  
> used fluidly as constitutive elements of strategies to redefine  
> Hinduism.
>
> Copyright © 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All  
> rights reserved. Terms & Conditions
>
> Please do not reply directly to this email. Use the following link  
> to contact ProQuest:http://www.proquest.com/division/cs-support.shtml
>



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Shekhar Krishnan
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