‘Our own two hands create our destiny’

Abstract

This article describes and analyses the personal narrative performances of male Hindu renouncers (sādhus) in the north Indian state of Rajasthan. Based on 10 years of ethnographic research with sādhus in three districts of Mewar, south Rajasthan, it considers the telling of life stories as a ‘narrative strategy’ through which male sādhus not only interpret and experience their lives, but also give voice to the complexity of asceticism as practiced in north India. To that extent, this article addresses the narrative strategies that male sādhus draw on in the telling of their life stories and the ways in which those rhetorical strategies are gendered. On the basis of the data presented, the article examines sādhus’ emphases on the interrelated themes of action, effort and practice as central to men’s experiences of renunciation. It further analyses male sādhus’ use of illness and healing as complementary narrative motifs with which they construct their renunciant authenticity and challenge common perceptions of sādhus as social vagabonds.