Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism Through the Sathya Sai Movement
Tulasi Srinivas
Columbia University Press
"Tulasi Srinivas shows a superb ability to juxtapose contemporary theoretical concerns among scholars of globalization and transnational theory with ethnographic work done on a growing Indian tradition. Adept at negotiating the intricacies of many academic dialogues. Srinivas shows she is a polyglot intellectual."---Deepak Sarma, Case Western University The Sathya Sai global civil religious movement incorporates Hindu and Muslim practices, Buddhist, Christian, and Zoroastrian influences, and "New Age"-style rituals and beliefs. Shri Sathya Sai Baba, its charismatic and controversial leader, attracts several million adherents from various national, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. In a dynamic account of the Sathya Sai movement's explosive growth. Winged Faith argues for a rethinking of globalization and the politics of identity in a religiously plural world. This study considers a new kind of cosmopolitanism located in an alternate understanding of difference and contestation. It considers how acts of "sacred spectating" and illusion, "moral stake-holding" and the problems of community are debated and experienced. A thrilling study of a transcultural and transurban phenomenon that questions narratives of self and being circuits of sacred mobility, and the politics of affect. Winged Faith suggests new methods for discussing religion in a globalizing world and introduces an easily critiqued yet not fully understood community. "This is a wonderful book that can be read on two levels. One: as the fascinating story of how a religious movement spread from India throghout the world, with many vignettes that will stay in one's mind. And two: as a very instructive demonstration that cultural globalization is not a oneway process dominated by the West, but an interaction between cultures, with some processes going from East to West."---Peter L. Berger. Boston University