Movement and Place-Making

Abstract

AbstractMumbai’s cosmopolitanism is reflected in the new forms of religious hybridity that flourish there, including those among conservative revivalist groups. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), as an organization based on Bengali Vaishnavism but developed in the US, straddles Mumbai’s complex identities. This chapter examines how ISKCON members blend local Hindu traditionalism with their transnational, multi-ethnic membership base to form a distinctively modern community. Drawing on Thomas Tweed, it situates the religious lives of ISKCON members as an ongoing exercise in crossing boundaries and dwelling in new spaces. ISKCON promotes a form of Hindu traditionalism linked to individual choice and strict orthopraxy, often grounded in a rejection of family and caste-based traditions in favour of a highly standardized Vaishnavism. While ISKCON’s Hindu and Jain members reframe their personal religious identities, they also seek to convince their families that this is a more authentic form of their collective religious heritage. Through ethnographic research among monastic and lay devotees, decisions about religious education, conversion, ritual practice, and family practices guide this study of how devotees are developing religious communities that both eschew secular city life and are grounded in the urban and transnational networks at the heart of urban modernity.