The Emergence of Modern Hinduism

This book, which follows the author’s earlier monograph on traditional Tamil siddha medicine, explores the transformation of Hindu religious traditions in nineteenth-century south India. It calls attention to the diverse genealogies of modern Hinduism, particularly those colonial-era developments that are not easily encompassed within narratives of Western-inspired reform. The predominant historiography tends to focus on elite, cosmopolitan Hindu religious leaders and associations (e.g., Rammohan Roy, the Brahmo Samaj, Swami Vivekananda, etc.), whose ideologies are often understood to constitute a radical departure from earlier Hindu traditions. This disproportionate emphasis on reform expressions, the book argues, “reinforce[s] dichotomies between Western modernity and Indian tradition, emphasizing the role of the West in Hindu innovation and consigning expressions of Hinduism that were largely untouched by Western ideas to the realm of static tradition” (2). By examining changes taking place in contexts more firmly grounded in preexistent traditions, the book aims to offer an alternative narrative of Hindu religious modernization in the nineteenth century.

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