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- Convenors:
-
Aminah Mohammad-Arif
(CEIAS (CNRS-EHESS))
Grégoire Schlemmer (IRD)
- Discussant:
-
Maya Warrier
(University of Winchester)
- Location:
- 27H35/36
- Start time:
- 23 July, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Through a comparative study of the life histories of individuals who have undergone a religious change (conversion, revivalism, etc.), we shall explore how, across religions, they rethink, readjust and reinterpret their religious conceptions and practices in accordance with the society they live in
Long Abstract:
Religious change is often analyzed through the prism of factors that may induce it, such as economic and political transformations, identity constructions and so on. Without denying the importance of these factors, we intend to examine here religious change from an emic perspective, taking into consideration the point of view of individuals and their understanding of these evolutions set back into their life histories. Subaltern studies have already insisted on the importance of giving back their agency to actors but most studies have mainly focused on the political field; here, we shall extend the approach to the religious field which has been much less explored. For that purpose, we will mobilize the concept of reflexivity, defined here as the intellectual approach whereby the actors by putting their practices and conceptions at a distance, gives themselves the means to have a space for reflection, assessment, and even for doubt and calling into question. Through a comparative study of the life histories of individuals who have undergone a religious change (through conversion, revivalism, etc.), we shall explore here how, across religions, these individuals rethink, readjust and reinterpret their religious conceptions and practices in accordance with the society they live in. The South Asian context is particularly interesting for such an analysis given the great plurality of cases derived from the confrontation, the interaction and the competition between a plethora of traditions and practices, evolving all the more in a context of huge economic, social and political transformations throughout the region.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Grégoire Schlemmer (IRD)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, we will examine the phenomenon of pluri-religious affiliation by taking as a case study the life trajectory of an individual from the Himalayas. We will see in particular how the reflexivity generated by this pluri-religious affiliation changed his views on his religion by birth.
Paper long abstract:
How can someone be simultaneously Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, 'animist' and communist, when living besides in a very remote Himalayan valley (the Hongu valley, at the foot of the Mount Everest)? In order to understand this phenomenon, I propose to focus on the life trajectory of Parsuram Lamlochha (1938-2008), a Kulung Rai who took up this challenge successfully. To see how he discovered and became a member of these religions, in accordance with his personal history (put back into the context of the regional and national history of Nepal), will provide us with a good example to better understand the phenomenon of pluri-religious affiliation. More generally, by examining local views about what religion means and how these religions are perceived, we will see how such accumulation is possible. We will see in turn how this experience of different religions has changed his relation to his religion by birth. Finally, we will discuss the importance of taking into account the individual relationship to religious practices in order to understand how religion affects the group, and vice versa.
Blandine Ripert (CNRS-EHESS)
Paper short abstract:
I will analyze the discourses of converted Tamangs about their preferences for one religion over another, by putting them back into the context of transformations in Nepal.In the process, I will show the reflexivity of their approach when they make comparisons between their new and former religions.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I will examine the individual trajectories of a number of Tamangs, an ethnic group living in Central Nepal (and speaking a language of Tibeto-Burman origin), who have undergone in recent years a process of religious conversion: in most cases, Buddhists either converted to Christianity or non-practicing Buddhists rediscovered their religion. In doing so, I will focus not on narratives about the conversion itself, but on the comparisons that the actors establish between their former religious practices, their new ones and the practices they could possibly have had, had they chosen another religion. It is indeed in this comparison between the religions that are available to them, in the meaning they give to the various possible practices and in the explanations of their preferences that their reflexivity is the most perceptible. I shall try to put these discourses into perspective in the relatively new context of confrontation, interaction and competition between different traditions available to this group, which is in a process of profound economic, social and political transformations.
Aminah Mohammad-Arif (CEIAS (CNRS-EHESS))
Paper short abstract:
This paper will examine how religious plurality triggers a reflexivity among young Muslims in Bangalore vis-à-vis their religious practices, which, in turn, may undergo a change.
Paper long abstract:
Re-Islamization is a form of internal conversion whereby the religious practices of the actors, and their meanings, undergo a transformation. It also comes along with a conscious identification to Islam as the believer substitutes to his "inherited" faith a consciously "chosen" faith. In order to better understand this process, we will take as case studies the individual trajectories of a few "born again" young Muslims in Bangalore and examine the narratives of their experience of re-Islamization. In doing so, we shall mobilize in particular the notion of reflexivity so as to see its role in the religious change of the concerned individuals. In other words, what role does the putting at a distance of religious practices play in the process of re-Islamization? How is this expressed in the discourses of the young Muslims? What are the effects on their practices? We will also pay attention to the local context marked by an important religious plurality, and where Muslims are in a minority. We shall examine in particular how this religious plurality, combined with the minority condition, potentially triggers a reflexivity among young Muslims vis-à-vis their religious practices, which, in turn, may undergo a change.
Raphaël Voix (Centre for South Asian Studies, Paris, CNRS-EHESS)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I shall examine the narratives of different individuals who converted to Ananda Marga, a Bengali contemporary Saivite sect, through a vow of renunciation.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I shall examine the narratives of different individuals who converted to an exclusive cult, Ananda Marga, a Bengali contemporary Saivite sect, through a vow of renunciation. By examining individual life histories in a comparative perspective, I will question the way these actors understood their own commitment but also what they make out of this reflexivity. I will show that the change of religion is not understood as a change of doxa but as a change of praxis: renouncing the world is experienced here as a way to engage oneself differently in the world. Finally I will underline how one's own reflexivity can be used as a tool for propagating one's own religion.
Hanna Kim (Adelphi University)
Paper short abstract:
Lifetime devotees, or ajivan sevaks, dedicate their lives and resources to the BAPS-Swaminarayan Sanstha. Tracing the life histories of these devotees highlights the individual as well as the historical and structural factors contributing to a successful transnational Hindu community.
Paper long abstract:
Throughout the transnational Hindu community known as BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, there is a core of approximately fifty-five thousand devotees, drawn from one million followers, who regularly volunteer their time for BAPS events and activities. Within this group, there is a much smaller cohort of women and men who have chosen to dedicate their lives, full-time, in voluntary service to BAPS. These devotees are known as "lifetime" devotees or ajivan sevaks. Coming from different caste, class, economic, and national backgrounds, lifetime devotees bring their occupational and other skills as well as the valuable resource of time; furthermore, since these devotees must also be self-supporting, they are not dependent on BAPS but rather they are valuable sources of specialised knowledge and abilities and are highly admired and respected. This paper shares the life histories of several ajivan sevaks and traces the paths leading to the decision to be neither a sadhu (for men only) nor a householder in the usual understanding of this category. Who are these devotees and what points of convergence and difference are reflected in their life histories? How do the devotees' lives implicate and embody the personal along with the histories and political-economies of India and elsewhere? Contextualising the life-course of ajivan sevaks highlights the particularities of personal worlds as well as their connections to larger societal realities. This paper also argues that the ethnographic life history methodology promotes an empirically-grounded and humanising understanding of religious subjectivity that goes beyond the psychological and material.
Vítor Hugo Adami (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
Paper short abstract:
Through a comparative data collected in multisited fieldworks in Hare Krishna communities in Brazil, England, Spain and India, I will explore how devotees can readjust different modes of institutionalization in order to keep their identities locally and spread their communities in a global way.
Paper long abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to consider to what extent individuals might be institutionalized by a religious tradition. I assumed two modes of institutionalization: the private mode and the public one. Following this approach, a brief description of three life histories of western individuals who joined at Gaudya Vaishnavism (ISKCON) will expose these modes of institutionalization. Based on changes in their life experiences, across the knowledge of such tradition, they readjusted and reinterpreted their religious conceptions and practices in accordance with a local and a global mode of institutionalization. However, a brief consideration will be carried out in order to give evidences of these institutional dynamics that, simultaneously, create equality and alterity for individuals own a meaning of religion identity and a sense of ownership into a religious community.