In the Presence of Sai Baba: Body, City, and Memory in a Global Religious Movement

423 Pages·1·5.594 MB·English

by  Smriti Srinivas

In the Presence of Sai Baba
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__PPrreelliimmss__ii--iivv..iinndddd ii 1122//2200//22000077 44::1111::0011 PPMM
Numen Book Series
Studies in the History of Religions
Series Editors
Steven Engler (Mount Royal College, Canada)
Richard King (Vanderbilt University, U.S.A.)
Kocku von Stuckard (University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands)
Gerard Wiegers (Radboud University Nijmegen,
The Netherlands)
VOLUME 118
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__PPrreelliimmss__ii--iivv..iinndddd iiii 11//88//22000088 11::2244::1133 PPMM
In the Presence of
Sai Baba
Body, City, and Memory in a
Global Religious Movement
By
Smriti Srinivas
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__PPrreelliimmss__ii--iivv..iinndddd iiiiii 1122//2200//22000077 44::1111::0044 PPMM
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Despite our efforts we have not been able to trace all rights holders to some
copyrighted material. The publisher welcomes communications from copyright
holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions,
and to settle other permissions matters.
A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
ISSN 0169–8834
ISBN 978 90 04 16543 4
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by
Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__PPrreelliimmss__ii--iivv..iinndddd iivv 11//88//22000088 11::2244::2266 PPMM
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... vii
Note on Translation .................................................................... xi
List of Abbreviations .................................................................. xiii
List of Figures, Maps, Tables, and Diagrams ........................... xv
Introduction ................................................................................ 1
Chapter One: The Mendicant of Shirdi ................................... 23
Chapter Two: The Arrival of the Avatar .................................. 49
Chapter Three: The Sense of the Presence .............................. 76
Chapter Four: Healing, Service, and Character ........................ 111
Chapter Five: The Ideal Polis .................................................... 162
Chapter Six: Producing Space in Bangalore ............................. 216
Chapter Seven: Somatic Regimes of Citizenship in Nairobi .... 254
Chapter Eight: Sites of Sociality in Atlanta .............................. 292
Conclusion .................................................................................. 333
Appendix: Overseas Sai Centers and Groups ........................... 347
Bibliography ................................................................................ 353
Index ........................................................................................... 373
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd vv 11//44//22000088 66::5533::4488 PPMM
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd vvii 11//44//22000088 66::5533::4499 PPMM
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book, a project that has involved me for about a decade, evolved
through the support of many institutions and persons.
The Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bangalore provided
me with a research grant (1994–95) that funded my fi rst exploration
into Shirdi Sai Baba devotion in southern India. My transnational
fi eldwork on the Sai Baba movement in India, Kenya, and the United
States was funded by a research grant from the Mershon Center at
Ohio State University (2000–01), a Ohio State University Seed Grant
(2001–02), an American Academy of Religion Individual Research
Grant (2001–02), a New Faculty Research Grant from the University
of California, Davis (2002–03), and Small Grants in Aid of Research
from the University of California, Davis (2005–06, 2006–07). I would
not have been able to complete the writing of this manuscript without
the time made available by a Faculty Development Award at the Uni-
versity of California, Davis (2005–06) and a National Endowment for
the Humanities fellowship (2005–06).
Members of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization, the Sathya
Sai Central Trust, and Sai devotees in several countries contributed
generously to this project and shared their understandings of Shirdi
and Sathya Sai Baba, the Sai tradition, or their devotion with me.
In particular, I owe a debt of gratitude to devotees at Sai Darshan
in Bangalore, the Atlanta Sai Center, and the Sai Center in Nairobi.
I would also like to thank Brigadier S.C. Bali, Mr. K. Chakravarti,
Mr. Nagesh Dhakappa, Dr. Anil Gokak, Ms. Prashanti Goswami, Mr.
Hejmadi Sr., Col. S.B. Jogarao, Mr. A.S. Krishnamurthy, Mr. Kekie
Mistry, Prof. V.N. Pandit, Mr. K.S. Rajan, Mr. Ravi Kumar, Dr. Partha
Sarathi, Mr. C. Sreenivas, and Mr. A. Srivathsan. All interpretations
of the Sai movement in this book, however, are my own.
I was invited by various individuals and groups to present academic
papers on the Sai Baba tradition that fed into the conceptualization
and writing of this book. Vasudha Dalmia and Srilata Raman invited
me to present my early thoughts on the Sai Baba movement at the
University of Tübingen in 1995 and 1997. In 1996, I presented a
paper that focused on root paradigms in the history of the Sai tradi-
tion at a seminar on “Knowledge and Language” organized by Dr.
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd vviiii 11//44//22000088 66::5533::4499 PPMM
viii acknowledgements
E. Annamalai, Dr. Hans Raj Dua, and Dr. Ranjit Singh Rangila at the
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. Catherine Clementin-
Ojha and Gilles Tarabout invited me to share my work on urban religi-
osity and Shirdi Sai Baba at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
Unité Associété CNRS, Paris, in 1996. In 1999, Leslie Orr organized a
stimulating meeting on my Sai Baba research in the Department of
Religion at Concordia University, Montreal, through the Indo-Cana-
dian Shastri Foundation. Thomas Bender invited me to a terrifi c and
convivial conference on “Locating the City” at Antalya, Turkey, in
2001 that allowed me to pull together ideas on space and religion in
Bangalore city. I was invited to give a public lecture on transnational
networks and the global imagining of faith in the Sai Baba movement
at the French Institute for Research in Africa, Nairobi, in 2001. My
understandings of darshan, sacred presence, and the senses were refi ned
and stimulated by a lecture invitation at the Ohio University in 2002;
a wonderful symposium on “Global Saints, Local Lives” at the UCLA
Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles organized by Al
Roberts and Polly Roberts in 2003; a meeting at the Center for South
Asia, University of Washington, Seattle in 2005; Christoph Emmrich’s
kind invitation to participate in a lecture series on “Ritual in South
Asia” at the University of Heidelberg in 2005; and an invited talk at the
Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford,
in 2006. Patrick Legales was instrumental in my presentation on Sai
devotion in Nairobi at the plenary session of the International Socio-
logical Conference, RC 21, in Paris in 2005. I would like to express
my thanks to all these scholars for their support and the audiences at
my talks for their comments and input.
I would also like to thank the many scholars who have read parts
of this work in various forms, answered my questions or requests for
information as this work progressed, raised critical issues, and sup-
ported me in other ways during this process: Elisabeth Arweck, Tom
Bender, Xiaomei Chen, Lawrence Cohen, Vasudha Dalmia, Veena
Das, Jim Drobnick, John Eade, Dick Eaton, Jennifer Fischer, Daniel
Gold, Paul Greenough, Mark Halperin, John Hawley, Alf Hiltebeitel,
Lindsay Jones, Alexandra Kent, Phil Lutgendorf, Alamin Mazrui, Chris
Mele, Catherine Clementin-Ojha, Leslie Orr, Al Roberts, Anuradha
Shah, Michael Shapiro, Fred Smith, Mike Spurr, Jennifer Terry, Shiv
Visvanathan, Joanne Waghorne, and Phillip Wagoner.
V. Geetha, May Joseph, Srilata Raman, and Shubha Ramnath have
been intellectual comrades and friends over the past two decades. Smita
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd vviiiiii 11//44//22000088 66::5533::5500 PPMM
acknowledgements ix
Srinivas and Dashiell D. Dog have been loving buddies. As always,
my parents, S.N.S. Murthy and Nirmala Murthy, have inspired and
sustained me spiritually and intellectually. Without the unselfi sh labor,
demanding critique, and insightful comments of James Heitzman, my
companion in all things and in my fi eldwork for this book, I would not
have been able to complete this project. Finally, I can only voice here
the beautiful sentiments of Purandaradasa: Na munde, Ranga, Ni enna
hinde (“I am in front, Ranga, You are behind me”).
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd iixx 11//44//22000088 66::5533::5500 PPMM
SSRRIINNIIVVAASS__FF11__vv--xxxx..iinndddd xx 11//44//22000088 66::5533::5500 PPMM