| FB-54546-09 | Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | John S. Hawley | The Bhakti Movement: Excavations in a Master Narrative | 1/1/2009 - 12/31/2009 | $50,400.00 | John | S. | Hawley | | | | Barnard College | New York | NY | 10027-6909 | USA | 2008 | Nonwestern Religion | Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
Families have their genealogies and favorite stories; countries have their histories. What history succeeds better for a country than the one capable of molding its citizens into a family? In India, that has been the particular work of a narrative called "the bhakti movement," bhakti andolan in Hindi. Here bhakti--the religion of the heart, of song and common participation--is seen as a force of history, something like the contagion of America's Great Awakenings but spanning a millennium. It formed the religious bedrock that would ultimately, in the 20th century, make the nation possible. Or so we have been taught. My book "The Bhakti Movement: Excavations in a Master Narrative" reveals the historical contingencies that actually created this received--and largely Hindu--common sense. Archival research and interviews relating to key moments in the narrative will take me to India in spring, 2009, and I will complete the book for publication by the end of the year. |