1. NEW RELIGIOUS PRACTICES,
AND POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY
INDIA
Nandini Gooptu, University of Oxford
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2. Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi:
The Opening Ceremony
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3. 3

4. 4

5. 5

6. Theorising New Spiritualism in the
West
• Secularisation and “de-traditionalisation”
• Sacralisation of the self and of quotidian experience
• Subjective experience and self-actualisation
• Liberation from a socially-conditioned ego and from “the
tyrannical hold of the socialized mode of being”.
• Emphasis on inner life and the Self
• “Subjectification” of social life: the “self-ethic”
• Primacy of the autonomous self and individual agency
• “Psychologisation” : social reality understood in terms of
questions of individual psychology
• Therapeutic culture offers technologies of self-regulation
and self-management.
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7. Key themes addressed in this paper
• Modes of self-making through new
spiritualism in India: How contemporary New
Spiritualism is recasting individual subjectivity
• Implications of self-oriented spiritualism for:
(a)democratic norms, notions and practices of
citizenship, and social contract with the state,
in a mature democratic setting
(b)religious and national identity in a globalized
late post-colony
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8. An interpretation of the political
significance of contemporary forms of
religious practice requires:
•opening up an analytical terrain to
engage with politics in a personalised
and individualised mode
•an analytical focus on the politics of
the self, rather than the politics of the
collective
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9. “INDIVIDUALLY TOGETHER”
“Learning together to live alone”
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10. Individually Together; “social
nonmovement” of “noncollective
actors”
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11. Pranic Healing and Shiv Yog
• Cleansing and balancing the aura and chakras
• Unity with the higher soul or divine
consciousness (Atma unites with paramatma)
• Goal manifestation: “…harness the power of
your thoughts, subtle energies and your auric
field to create a life of prosperity and success”
• Overcoming the ego and realizing
ones true potentials
Chakras and Auras 11

12. Brahma Kumaris
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13. “Awakening with Brahma Kumaris”
• counselling, in a therapeutic mode:
interpersonal relationships, stress and anger
management, contentment and happiness,
positive thinking, and self-improvement.
• “You are what you think”: Harness the
“incredible power” and energy of the human
mind, and take control of life experiences, and
create your own reality.
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14. Bharat Soka Gakkai
BSG meeting in a Delhi home: Bharat Soka Gakkai exhibition of the Lotus Sutra,
Business Standard, 21 May 2011 Kolkata, August 2010 14

15. Bharat Soka Gakkai (BSG): I
• attaining Buddhahood or enlightenment in
this life, through service and prayer and by
nurturing ones Buddha nature or enlightened
nature
• enlightenment through change in our hearts
and minds
• changing our lives by spiritually polishing
ourselves through chants, prayer, meditation,
reflection and social service.
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16. Bharat Soka Gakkai (BSG): II
• “rather than being a prayer to an external
being, chanting … is an expression of the
determination of the human spirit, seeking to
come into rhythm with the reality of the
universe. Through continuing in this practice
of determined intention we bring forth our
highest potential from within our lives.”
• Individually, Together
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17. Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravishankar
• “Hug yourself tightly: The most lovable person on
earth”
• A beautiful vision of ones inner self
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18. Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravishankar
• Introspection and self-knowledge: “Spirituality
gives you strength, that inner strength to
manage difficult situations and to keep ever
smiling.”
• Sewa and the accumulation of personal virtue
• Nurturing national spiritual and cultural
heritage
• Spiritualism and the alleviation of stress for
peace, mitigation of violence and conflict
resolution
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19. Youth and spiritualism
• Brahmakumari’s Youth Empowerment Services
(YES) and International Youth Forum (IYF):
encourage youth “to take up the challenge of re-
creating their inner world”, to ‘see’ things
differently; ‘behave’ differently and ‘act’
differently, and to act with integrity and self
worth.
• Leading from within, You First and ‘When I
change, the world changes’ are some of their
mottos to help “empower young people to face
social and developmental challenges”
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20. Ramdev
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21. Ramdev
• Mass support
• Political agenda: Nationalist, anti-western,
populist, pro-rural development, anti-corruption
• Ramdev’s biographer notes that he “has initiated
among his followers a process of self-discovery
geared towards a wider cultural and spiritual self-
confidence and [national] assertion.”
• Each individual Indian, awakened and energized
through the power of yoga, and ready to act, will
be imbued with self-knowledge, self-pride and
animated with a national purpose
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22. Political implications of New
Spiritualism
Self-government and individual mode
of politics in a time of flux
New Spiritualism provides a uniquely indigenous and
culturally familiar formula of survival and self-
advancement, as Indians, especially the middle
classes, face the unknown and seek to exert control
over their changing lives
“In the past, I used to pray to the guru to help
me, now I pray to gain the strength to help myself”. 22

23. New Spirtualism and the complexities of
democracy and politics
• The laicization of the esoteric, and people-centric spiritual
practices, consonant with the normative ascendance of the
idea of citizen’s power: Peoples’ religion, suitable for a
modern democratic nation
• The individual as the focus of social action and public
activism: Solution to social and political problems sought
through internal self-polishing
• Societal problems interpreted through the lens of personal or
individual failings and deficit
• Psychologisation and somaticisation of politics; social
problems addressed through the cultivation of a healthy and
balanced mind, body and spirit
• Intuitive and experiential understanding of reality breeds an
anti-intellectual, non-analytical and uncritical approach and
thwarts critical social enquiry and breeds political quietism
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24. Contd..
• Sewa -- service-oriented paternalistic, middle class or
elitist voluntarism, acting on the hearts and minds of
those seen as the deprived – devising entrepreneurial
solutions to the problems of poverty and deprivation --
anti-politics
• Personalised and individualised “lived” and “self-
actualised” form of political expression through
volunteerism and social service
• Personal duty and responsibility for welfare provision
and reformed social contract with the state
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25. Reinforcing traditionalisation, desecularisation
and new modes of politicisation of religion
• New spiritualism does not imply the erosion of
religious identity, but signals deep personal
rooting and internalisation of a religiously
defined spiritual ethic and value system
• Pervasive sacralisation and desecularisation of
ever more aspects of life through the idiom of
traditional religion, mainly Hinduism, and
cognate ideas from Buddhism
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26. New Spiritualism, religious identity and
the nation
• NS helps to valorize the autonomous self-
governed, responsible enterprising self as the
protagonist of a modern and modernising
nation
• A spiritually enriched or spiritually literate
self-sufficient citizen, enhancing his or her
own personal well-being, is to contribute to
the highest common good – the good of the
nation.
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27. 27

28. Commodified Spiritualism, enterprise and consumer
culture
• Packaged spiritual self-help, self-management and life-style
tools are offered to help cope with the demands of
contemporary transformation, including stress and
competition
• Facilitates acceptance and endurance of contemporary
conditions, and engenders political quietism and complicity
with social ills
• NS helps to create a sense of entitlement to success,
prosperity and happiness, as well as a firm belief in the
possibility of achieving these through the sheer force of will
and the energy of inner spirit
• Spiritualism in the corporate milieu: Spirtual and emotional
intelligence; Human resource management; tool for the
global manager; infusion of meaning and purpose and source
of values in corporate practice
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