2016/04/01 by Sadhu Paramtattvadas, R. B. Williams, Sadhu Amrutvijaydas · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Hinduism #Period (music) #Politics #Colonialism #Collation #Narrative #History #Genealogy #Order (exchange) #Colonial period #Religious studies #Gender studies #Sociology #Law #Political science #Literature #Art #Philosophy #Aesthetics #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199463749.003.0005
openalex publication_date 2016/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This chapter contributes to an understanding of the colonial period and the early history of Swaminarayan Hinduism because it records the relationships between officials of the East India Company and Anglican clergymen and leaders of a growing Hindu group in the first few years of British rule over areas of Gujarat. The narrative demonstrates how these leaders negotiated political, religious, and intellectual relationships at the very early stage of interaction. Impetus for the chapter is the recent discovery of extensive references to Sahajanand and his followers in the diary of William Hodge Mill in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. These references, along with a collation, for the first time, of primary British records and primary Swaminarayan Hindu documents from the 1820s, help create a new reconstruction of that relationship. Relations of Hindus with colonial officials also overlap significantly with Hindu–Christian dialogue in this early period. Swaminarayan revived, refined, and reinterpreted aspects of classical Hindu thought and practices that caused British officials and clergy to interpret him as a religious and social reformer, whose reforms contributed to social order and welfare.