Bhakti Literature and Culture: A quest for knowledge
production and social integrity
Bhakti, as a widespread socio-religious movement across India, embodies the deep and fervent devotion of individuals towards an ultimate God, characterized as a compassionate, democratic, and socially engaged deity. This movement enabled significant knowledge production and social integrity, successfully transcending the barriers of caste and class, as well as the traditional norms dictated by the Hindu Brahminical framework and the feudal and semi-feudal socio-economic structures prevalent in medieval society. The movement fostered the cultivation of regional languages alongside the vernacularization of Sanskrit, resulting in a rich tapestry of literary narratives throughout India. A loosely connected group of saint-poets, extending from the southern part of India to the northeastern territories, has made notable contributions to the humanization of the ultimate embodied God and the sanctification of humanity through their narratives. This body of literature has created a dynamic characterized by compassion and democracy between the divine and the human realm, and among humans themselves, interpreting the Vedas, the Gita, and the Puranas, particularly highlighting the Bhagavata Purana. As a result, the movement facilitated the psychological and spiritual emancipation of the general populace, particularly those from the lower echelons of society, thereby creating the potential for establishing a material foundation for social cohesion within a nationalized social structure.
The basic objectives of this issue would be to enquire:
- In what ways does the knowledge generated by the Bhakti movement engage with contemporary socio-religious dynamics on a global scale?
- To what degree is the framework of social and national cohesion, as articulated by the Bhakti movement through its literary works and social activism, applicable in today’s context of multinational capitalism?
- How do the transformative dialectics inherent in Bhakti narratives confront the challenges posed by religious fundamentalism and existing social hierarchies in the current era?
- In what manner do the Bhakti narratives’ emphasis on social-self confront the principles of individualism inherent in capitalism?
- How the different religions and their sub-forms (including the ethnic faiths) found nationally and internationally may have similarities/commonalities (in their various aspects) with the Indian Bhakti tradition or may have drawn influences from the respective sources?
- How the philosophies and expressions of the Bhakti movement with its shaping of the mind of the community in certain orders may have vital effects upon the folk cultural /socio-cultural dynamics?
(For paper submission, the submission window on our website: www.drishtithesight.com will remain open for the period between December, 14 (2024) and December, 23 (2024). Authors writing in Assamese must submit their papers in both PMD (typed in Geetanjali font) and PDF formats. Scholars are requested to go through the general CFP published on our website for all other modalities to be followed in writing of the papers and submission.)
