Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction: Locating Devotion in Dissent and Dissent in Devotion A Thematic Overview
- Introduction
- 1 Parsing of Devotion and Dissent
- 2 Dissent and Protest in Early Indian Buddhism with Special Reference to Devadatta
- 3 Devotion and Dissent in Hunter's Bhakti
- 4 Devotion and Dissent
- 5 Dissent Within
- 6 Women in Love
- 7 Dissenting Voices
- 8 Dissent in Kabir and the Kabir Panth
- 9 Devotion and Dissent of Punjabi Dalit Sant Poets
- 10 Protest and Counter-protest
- 11 Fakirs of Bengal
- 12 Music in Chishti Sufism
- 13 Dissenting the Dominant
- 14 Devotion and Dissent within the Catholic Church in Late Colonial Bengal
- 15 Narratives of Travel, Voices of Dissent and Attacks on the Colonial Church Fabric of the European Missionaries
- 16 Devotion and Dissent in Narayana Guru
- 17 Sree Narayana Guru's Idioms of the Spiritual and the Worldly
- Contributors
- Index
17 - Sree Narayana Guru's Idioms of the Spiritual and the Worldly
from Introduction: Locating Devotion in Dissent and Dissent in Devotion A Thematic Overview
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction: Locating Devotion in Dissent and Dissent in Devotion A Thematic Overview
- Introduction
- 1 Parsing of Devotion and Dissent
- 2 Dissent and Protest in Early Indian Buddhism with Special Reference to Devadatta
- 3 Devotion and Dissent in Hunter's Bhakti
- 4 Devotion and Dissent
- 5 Dissent Within
- 6 Women in Love
- 7 Dissenting Voices
- 8 Dissent in Kabir and the Kabir Panth
- 9 Devotion and Dissent of Punjabi Dalit Sant Poets
- 10 Protest and Counter-protest
- 11 Fakirs of Bengal
- 12 Music in Chishti Sufism
- 13 Dissenting the Dominant
- 14 Devotion and Dissent within the Catholic Church in Late Colonial Bengal
- 15 Narratives of Travel, Voices of Dissent and Attacks on the Colonial Church Fabric of the European Missionaries
- 16 Devotion and Dissent in Narayana Guru
- 17 Sree Narayana Guru's Idioms of the Spiritual and the Worldly
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
Devotion and dissent, the two principal ideas around which this volume is organized, seem at first sight to indicate opposite attitudes: while the former brings to mind pictures of loyalty and voluntary submission, the latter points to contrasting images of disagreement and opposition. However, on a closer look, the difference may not be so stark; both these postures denote forms of agency, for devotion too is positive action for the subject even though acts of devotion can often be self-effacing. The word ‘agency’ in English, interestingly, contains a sense of these contrarieties: although derived from the Latin word agere which means ‘to act’ and used often in the sense of a full capacity for action, the word ‘agent’ in ordinary usage often refers to contexts where the subject acts on behalf of someone else, under an authority that is located outside. Agency does not always point to autonomous and full originators of actions; agents are more accurately described as authorized performers – and not necessarily authors – of actions. This brings questions of authority to the centre of the very conception of agency. The juxtaposition of devotion and dissent as genres of action enable not only a deeper understanding of devotional practice but also a re-evaluation of the nature of agency that finds its expression in acts of dissent. The diverse registers of spiritual and communitarian practice in Sree Narayana Guru's life and writings insistently foreground an interplay between these tropes.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Devotion and Dissent in Indian History , pp. 370 - 380Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2014