Women, goddesses and tantric praxis: a liberatory antidote to ‘Hindutva' nationalist politics

Abstract

ABSTRACT While modern India is complex, plural and perhaps foundationally connected with its rich liberatory paths, there is reason to be concerned when a large number of people are fed hate-filled rhetoric against their own long-term neighbors. Today the virulent ideology of a purported “Hindu” rashtra is growing under governmental provocation. It needs an alternative vision which can be resurrected from India's own suppressed history. That is Tantric India, whose liberatory paths with women and goddesses is compatible with the contemporary world. India has been a magnet for “spiritual” seekers around the world because the great sages were helping to free us from our conditioned selves. This worldview, that encompassed all Indic dharmas, was developed especially by Shaiva, Shakta and Buddhist enlightened beings, and was set against an upper caste hegemony of truncated Vedism. The true masters who developed a real science of tantric praxis taught how to appreciate the world here and now without violence to the self, earth or the perceived other. From ancient yogic explorations of humanistic psycho-spiritual development that has been a hallmark of India, a profoundly egalitarian world view had developed during 8th through 12th centuries. It is time we reexamine that history and imagine a different Subcontinent.