The political theology of bhakti

A special modus operandi in relationship with the deity and a multifaceted phenomenon in the religious and political life of India, in the last century bhakti has been interpreted as an integrating “movement” and an ideal of egalitarianism. It has been ascribed a huge role in democratizing the country and transforming the heterogeneous social groups comprising disparate ethnicities into a unified society and a nation. In the Marathi-speaking region, the cult of the god Vitthal/Vithoba, the Varkari poetic tradition that ensured its continuity (13th to 17th centuries), and the codification of its leading authors in the Bhaktavijay anthology (18th century) were by the beginning of the 20th century declared to be the spiritual foundation of Maharashtra, on which its identity and statehood grew. In the second half of the 20th century, the processes of bhakti’s adaptation to new forms of postcolonial reality, including the implementation of the “Mandal politics”, i.e. the practice of “positive discrimination”, renewed the potential of bhakti. Expressed in terms of percentages of support for “Other Backward classes” and “Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes” in providing jobs in the state apparatus and public sector, this policy has contributed significantly to equalizing the rights of the “former untouchables,” but has also exacerbated caste tensions. Part 2 examines the posthumous rise of the poetess Janabai in the context of the socio-political and ideological shifts of the second half of the 20th century, vitalized by her inclusion in the vanguard of the “bhakti movement” of equality and a simultaneous search for her caste origin

Caste · Ethnic group · Ideology · Politics · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Indian History and Philosophy