Bhakti, Caste and Subalternity in India's Northeast

Beschreibung

‘Highlighting the importance of local histories, this original and courageous contribution to the study of Hinduism shows how contemporary Hindu-ness remains shaped by ritual hierarchy and exclusion despite Vaishnavism’s anti-caste ideals.’
—Surinder Singh Jodhka, Former Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

‘This insightful monograph will become a foundational text for our understanding of the dynamic intersections of religion, culture, and power in northeast India.’
—Ankur Barua, Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

‘Dr. Barman challenges the long-held view that the medieval Bhakti movement established Assamese society on an egalitarian basis through a searching examination of its articulations and their concrete expression in institutions, customs, and social-stratification. The work displays painstaking industry and conceptual analysis of a high order.’
—Hiren Gohain, Former Professor and Dean, Gauhati University, India

This book challenges Eurocentric foundations of the sociological category of “sect,” demonstrating why it is inadequate to understand Hindu sectarian formations. It argues that caste is central—not peripheral—to how sectarian orders within Hinduism emerge, persist, and transform. By foregrounding Assamese Vaishnavism—a Bhakti tradition that emerged in the 15th century and has now become emblematic of the region—the book places Assam, often marginalised in accounts of Indian religious traditions, at the centre of analysis. It offers a critical account of Bhakti by tracing its entanglements with local caste hierarchies and broader historical processes, thereby reframing Vaishnavism through the social and political specificities of postcolonial Assam. Moving beyond dominant framings of India’s Northeast that primarily emphasise tribes, ethnic conflict, migration, folk culture, and heritage, the book advances a sociological enquiry into institutionalised religion, the enduring vitality of caste, and the state’s role in mediating identity and belonging in the region through an ethnographic lens. Religion appears here not only as a matter of faith or an epiphenomenon of culture but as a contested field persistently shaped by caste, the state, and discourses of power. This book speaks to scholars and students of sociology of religion, anthropology of Hinduism, Religious studies, Subaltern studies, Dalit studies, and South Asian studies.

Daisy Barman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Bengaluru, India. 

This book challenges Eurocentric foundations of the sociological category of “sect,” demonstrating why it is inadequate to understand Hindu sectarian formations. It argues that caste is central—not peripheral—to how sectarian orders within Hinduism emerge, persist, and transform. By foregrounding Assamese Vaishnavism—a Bhakti tradition that emerged in the 15th century and has now become emblematic of the region—the book places Assam, often marginalised in accounts of Indian religious traditions, at the centre of analysis. It offers a critical account of Bhakti by tracing its entanglements with local caste hierarchies and broader historical processes, thereby reframing Vaishnavism through the social and political specificities of postcolonial Assam.

Moving beyond dominant framings of India’s Northeast that primarily emphasise tribes, ethnic conflict, migration, folk culture, and heritage, the book advances a sociological enquiry into institutionalised religion, the enduring vitality of caste, and the state’s role in mediating identity and belonging in the region through an ethnographic lens. It further contributes to the debates on subalternity by exploring how untouchability and exclusion within Assamese Vaishnava discourse shape diverse expressions of subaltern agency.

Debunking the egalitarian thesis of Bhakti, religion appears here not only as a matter of faith or an epiphenomenon of culture but as a contested field persistently shaped by caste, the state, and discourses of power. The book also assesses subaltern religiosity as a mode of resistance within the Vaishnava context, foregrounding the various grammars of resistance enacted by the marginalised communities against hegemonic structures. This book speaks to scholars and students of sociology of religion, anthropology of Hinduism, Religious studies, Subaltern studies, Dalit studies, and South Asian studies.

Autor*in

Daisy Barman

Themen in »Bhakti, Caste and Subalternity in India's Northeast«

Vaishnavism Caste Caste Dynamics Sectarian Formations Assam Subalternity Northeast India bhakti Satra Subaltern Religion Hindu sects Dalit Studies Subaltern Studies Indian religious history anti-Brahmanical movements

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“Religion has long posed challenges for sociologists. Despite its central role in Indian social and political life, it remains understudied. Even scholarship on caste often avoids engaging critically with everyday Hinduism. Consequently, much of the literature on Indian society portrays Hinduism in generic terms as a single, uniform faith. This book challenges that by examining the lived experiences of a Hindu Vaishnava sect in Assam. It combines ethnographic insights with a historical account of how a local Hindu community emerged. Crucially, it documents the subtle ways in which caste and gender hierarchies are created and experienced by those on social margins. This book is an original and courageous contribution to the study of Hinduism, situating it in a regional context. Though it underscores the significance of documenting local histories, it also shows how contemporary Hindu-ness is shaped by ideas of ritual hierarchy and exclusion, despite Vaishnavism’s strong anti-caste ideological framework.” (Surinder Singh Jodhka, Former Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

“A sensitive undertaking of critical ethnography that highlights the dense dialectic between visions of equality and structures of hierarchy in Assamese Vaishnavism. Through a series of vignettes, Barman reminds us that the embodied life of bhakti is played out on sociocultural landscapes riven with fault lines of caste. This insightful monograph will become a foundational text for our understanding of the dynamic intersections of religion, culture, and power in northeast India.” (Ankur Barua, Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies, University of Cambridge, UK)

“Dr. Barman challenges the long-held view that the medieval Bhakti movement established Assamese society on an egalitarian basis through a searching examination of its articulations and their concrete expression in institutions, customs, and social-stratification. The work displays painstaking industry and conceptual analysis of a high order. A reservation, however, is that such a synchronic approach overlooks historical development shaped through intense struggle; some texts did carry a revolutionary message later strategically tamed, diluted, and disarmed.” (Hiren Gohain, Former Professor and Dean, Gauhati University, India)

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