The “erased boundary” is something of a motif in the study of religions. Employing the lens of trans-locality, Translocal Lives, and Religion: Connection between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World, edited by Philippe Bornet, succeeds in offering more nuanced accounts of religious exchanges and transfers. As opposed to seeking translocality in premodern platforms, this book is designed to discern religious imaginings of the late modern world, undoubtedly disrupting the popular notion of the fixity and inflexibility of religion. The ten chapters, including the introduction, promisingly explore trans-local religious experiences. It must be kept in mind at the outset that such narratives of entangled histories have been victims of the forceful forgetfulness unleashed by dominant paradigms for many years.
Through a well-explained introduction, Bornet, problematizing the framework of comparative religion, substantiates reasons for adopting a framework of connected religion, Drawing on the concept of "connected histories" proposed by Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Serge Gruzinski, the editor argues in the introduction that instead of a world religion vantage point, our study must be concerned with the micro-stories of religion that emerge out of situations of interaction. The connected religion approach, Bornet maintains, increases the chance of the re-emergence of subaltern actors who have acted as local informants (13). As supporting evidence, Bornet has brought two exemplary historians of religion, namely Max Muller and Jakob Urner. The encounters with Indian interlocutors, especially with leaders of Brahmo Samāj in the former and Vīraśaiva in the latter, have helped them to consolidate trans-local connections between Asia and Europe. It is interesting to note that Muller wrote about and engaged with Hindu religious texts without traveling to India, whereas Urner did his missionary work while traveling to and living in India. Bornet suggests that the connected religion approach looks at "situational constellations of power and knowledge moving across boundaries with actors and books," although it does not depreciate power dynamics (20).
The first part, titled “Transnational Trajectories and Individual Appropriations of Religion” deals with different actors who came forward with religious frameworks, appropriated them for various specific purposes, and amply contributed to creating original combinations that reimagined layers of religion as a crucial social institution. In chapter 1, “In-Between’ Religiosity: European Kālī-bhakti in Early-Colonial Calcutta,” Gautam Chakrabarti showcases the literary-cultural construction of religious hybridity through focusing on the life of Antony Firingi. Himself of Portuguese and a product of colonial trans-local networks, Firingi, enmeshed in the vocabulary of local rituals addressed to Kālī and Durga, has represented the vortex of in-between religiosity, thus experiencing hybridization in the more imperialized place of Calcutta. Chakrabarti posits that his āgamani poems are the building blocks for embodying "the condition of the transcultural subaltern" (35).
Chapter 3, written by Gwilym Beckerlegge, looks at the life of Margaret Noble (later known as Sister Nivedita). Nivedita, a name given by Swami Vivekananda, weaved interstitial threads by participating in Ramakrishna Math and Mission and finding the cause of Indian nationalism espoused by lessons from the Irish independence movement. Quite contrary to the aforementioned models of trans-local connections, the next chapter “Curious Case of the Drs. D’Abreu,” by Dwayne Menezes, investigates the voyage of a Kanara Catholic family to Great Britain, where they are generously welcomed because of their Catholic identity. Bringing together documents scattered in distant archives from India to Great Britain, Australia, and the USA, Menezes meticulously organizes the stimulating story of D'Abreu, thus reconstituting the puzzle of transnational biographical itineraries.
The second part of the book, “Religions on the Move,” is predicated upon comprehending the ways that the individuals known as “religious entrepreneurs” ( Nile Green: Bombay Islam, Cambridge University Press, 2011) foster and extend missionary practices over different territories, thereby configuring the elements of trans-locality. The life sketches of four prominent leaders—Charles Pfoundes, Ramabai Saraswathi, Sadhu Sundar Singh, and Chen Jianmin— are slightly carved out in this chapter. Brian Bocking’s essay on Charles Pfoundes illustrates the forgotten history of a Buddhist mission in London called the Buddhist Propagation Society, which was launched by Pfoundes under the aegis of the newly-formed Kaigai Senkyo-Kai (Overseas Propagation Society) in Kyoto. Bocking observes that this mission predates by ten years the so-called first Buddhist missions to the West led by Japanese immigrants to California in 1899 and by almost two decades the “first” Buddhist mission to London of Ananda Metteyya (also known as Allan Bennett) from Burma in 1908 (171).
More interstitial references can be found in chapter 8 on Pandita Ramabai. Born into a Citpāvan Brahmin caste, she contacted with Prārthanā Samāj and Brahmo Samāj in India, as well as Protestant Christianity in London and America. Through different exposures, Parinitha Shetty writes, Ramabai was able to put efforts into an egalitarian and humane world for oppressed groups, especially after her return to India. With an intriguing oxymoronic title, 'A “Christian Hindu Apostle”?' Philippe Bornet, in the following chapter, continues the so far discussions, shedding light on the multiple lives of Sadhu Sundar Singh. In order to understand the life of Sadhu Sundar Singh, Bornet traces childhood stories related to his upbringing in a Sikh family and conversion to Christianity. The 1922 Swiss tour, organized for the purpose of missionary, brought revolutionary changes in the life of Sundar Singh. It facilitated him to meet with members of different movements operating on the margins of institutional religions.
'Translocal Lives and Religion‘ offers insights into unexplored vistas of religious transfers between Asia and Europe in the late modern period.The rare photographs in the support of writing are what make it more significant for a student of history. Together, all ten stories seem to argue that interaction with micro settings is the key to unlocking the in-depth religious experience of a particular persona.
Muhammed EK is a graduate student in sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Muhammed EK
Date Of Review:
February 2, 2023
