The All World Gayatri Pariwar is a Hindu based reform movement based in Haridwar with a large following, especially in North India. One of the many noteworthy aspects of this movement is its extensive use of scientific authority. On the basis of seven months of ethnographic research at Shantikunj, the main ashram of the Gayatri Pariwar, I seek to understand the role of scientific authority for the movement. In the Gayatri Pariwar, scientific discourses draw attention to the shared nature of the human body through a rhetoric that connects health and morality. This imparts a sense of universality to their practices, setting them up as technologies for building a healthy, moral, and coherent nation out of India’s sometimes-fractious diversity. This strategy has roots in late colonial and early postcolonial India, but is as relevant as ever in the contemporary period. Not only does it have substantial appeal to the rapidly growing number of Indians who have been educated in science, technology, or related fields, but it also carries with it the promise that the Gayatri Pariwar can project its scientifically universalized practices through global communication networks.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Coward, Harold G.;
(2008)
The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought
(/isis/citation/CBB000830832/)
Book
Caterina Guenzi;
(2021)
Words of Destiny: Practicing Astrology in North India
(/isis/citation/CBB318179740/)
Book
Angela Barreto Xavier;
Ines G. Županov;
(2014)
Catholic Orientalism: Portuguese Empire, Indian Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB001984256/)
Book
Hanna Hodacs;
Stéphane Van Damme;
Kenneth Nyberg;
(2018)
Linnaeus, Natural History and the Circulation of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB833759855/)
Book
Kumar, Deepak;
Damodaran, Vinita;
D'Souza, Rohan;
(2011)
The British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia
(/isis/citation/CBB001201905/)
Article
Robert M. Geraci;
(2019)
Religious Ritual in a Scientific Space: Festival Participation and the Integration of Outsiders
(/isis/citation/CBB645827726/)
Chapter
Raina, Dhruv;
(2012)
The Naturalization of Modern Science in South Asia: A Historical Overview of the Processes of Domestication and Globalization
(/isis/citation/CBB001422693/)
Article
Vicente, Filipa Lowndes;
(2012)
A Photograph of Four Orientalists (Bombay, 1885): Knowledge Production, Religious Identities, and the Negotiation of Invisible Conflicts
(/isis/citation/CBB001500544/)
Article
Edgerton, David;
(2007)
Creole Technologies and Global Histories: Rethinking How Things Travel in Space and Time
(/isis/citation/CBB000931385/)
Book
Nile Green;
(2020)
Global Islam : A very short introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB224016492/)
Book
Head, Lesley;
Atchison, Jennifer;
Gates, Alison;
(2012)
Ingrained: A Human Bio-Geography of Wheat
(/isis/citation/CBB001421816/)
Article
Jessica M. Smith;
Juan C. Lucena;
(2016)
Invisible Innovators: How Low-income, First-generation Students Use Their Funds of Knowledge to Belong in Engineering
(/isis/citation/CBB926594449/)
Book
Bogaert;
(2018)
Globalized Authoritarianism: Megaprojects, Slums, and Class Relations in Urban Morocco
(/isis/citation/CBB606235548/)
Article
Blok, Anders;
(2013)
Comparative Globalities: Actor-Network Theory and the Topologies of Japanese “Research” Whales
(/isis/citation/CBB001213609/)
Article
Jaiswal, O. P.;
(2011)
Genesitic Roots and Philosophical Evolution of Vijñānavāda (Yogācārya) School of Buddhism
(/isis/citation/CBB001024481/)
Article
Mohácsi, Gergely;
Morita, Atsuro;
(2013)
Traveling Comparisons: Ethnographic Reflections on Science and Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB001213608/)
Article
Charles Burnett;
(2018)
Natural Death and the Alleviation of Old Age in the Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB019798186/)
Book
Michael Ruse;
(2021)
A Philosopher Looks at Human Beings
(/isis/citation/CBB837845944/)
Article
Andrea Rabassini;
(2004)
L'ombra della iena. Un animale magico nella cultura filosofica del Rinascimento
(/isis/citation/CBB270297435/)
Book
Graziella Federici Vescovini;
Ahmad Hasnawi;
(2012)
Circolazione dei saperi nel Mediterraneo: filosofia e scienze (secoli IX-XVII)/Circulation des savoirs autour de la Méditerranée: philosophie et sciences (IXe-XVIIe siècle)
(/isis/citation/CBB182032380/)
Micrologus: Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies
Science, Technology and Human Values
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Indian Journal of History of Science
HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Be the first to comment!