The present work, as per the editor’s own admission, is a companion volume to the one brought out in 2000 under the name Gurus and Their Followers. Apart from including some common authors, the two volumes also reveal strong thematic continuities. Thus in both cases, Gwilym Beckerlegge writes on the ideal of seva [selfless social service], Hiltred Rustau on the emergence of female ascetics within contemporary Hinduism, Harald Fischer-Tine on the Arya Samaj and eminent Arya leaders and Peter Heehs on Sri Aurobindo. Happily, there are also essays that are entirely new such as the two contributions on Mahima Dharma in Orissa, by Lidia Julianna Guzy and Johannes Beltz; the Vaishnav revival in 19th century Bengal by Jason D. Fuller; on the fate of the cow-protection movement in contemporary India by Therese O’Toole and on the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission by Maya Warrier. What is also bound to be of some interest to the reader is the attempt made in several essays to explore the possible linkages between religious reform in the 19th century and the ideology of contemporary Hindutva.
World Renouncers and Men of the World
Amiya P. Sen
HINDUISM IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE: REFORM, HINDUTVA, GENDER AND SAMPRADAY by Antony Copley Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2004, 303 pp., 595.00
January 2004, volume 28, No 1