Research on Contemporary Indian Gurus: What’s New about New Age Gurus?
This essay takes contemporary Indian gurus and literature about them as its subject, particularly gurus who have risen to prominence post-1965, and begins to contemplate the moniker, ‘New Age’ guru, a prevalent gloss used in popular Indian news media, to raise some questions and highlight apparent g...
| Published in: | Religion compass |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2010
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| In: |
Religion compass
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay takes contemporary Indian gurus and literature about them as its subject, particularly gurus who have risen to prominence post-1965, and begins to contemplate the moniker, ‘New Age’ guru, a prevalent gloss used in popular Indian news media, to raise some questions and highlight apparent gaps in the field. This examines briefly literature regarding the earliest global Indian gurus such as Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda. Building on the legacy of the mystical and spiritual authority of the East, and having had the way paved by Vivekananda, today’s New Age Indian gurus, even those who rarely leave India, negotiate their charismatic spiritual authority through global networks. Scholarly literature on Indian gurus has engaged discourses across the academic disciplines to address theoretical topics such as cosmopolitanism, diaspora, globalization, religious pluralism, and gender, and this literature has contributed to our understandings of social realities of Hindu Nationalism and the Indian middle class. These scholarly conversations are by no means complete, and more attention to Indian gurus, especially multi-sited studies of guru-led movements at various stages of development, will benefit its continuation. However, new conversations need to begin as well, and this essay suggests that new enquiries on contemporary Indian gurus should begin to address the term ‘New Age’ and what this means in various contexts as it applies to guru-led movements. Particularly, we should be asking what ‘New Age’ means for Indian gurus themselves and for their constituencies in India and around the globe. The already messy modifier, ‘New Age’ undergoes its own transformations as it traverses transnational terrain, religious sensibilities, histories and worldviews around the figure of the New Age guru. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00245.x |