Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), who has a vast following in postcolonial South Asia and an ever-growing global diaspora. Essays consider the saint’s influence on everyday life and how visual, narrative, textual, sensorial, performative, political, social, and spatial practices interpenetrate to produce multiple terrains of devotion.
Contributions by twelve scholars of several academic disciplines explore eruptions and circulations of sacred materials, spatialities of devotional practices, visual and digital imaginaries, transcultural narrativizations, and material affects and effects of Sai Baba. The presentation transcends routine scholarly discussions about sainthood, cultures of worship, religious objects, Hinduism and Islam. Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence conveys inspiration and healing energies and he accepted the entreaties of people of all castes and creeds, offering an alternative to communal ideologies of his time – and the present. Considerations of Shirdi Sai Baba’s milieux of devotional praxis situate and localize debates about the meaning of nation and religion, past and present, urbanization, and class identity in transitions from colonial to postcolonial/global South Asia.
The book expands the boundaries of the study of Shirdi Sai Baba and makes important contributions to South Asia Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, Global Studies, Urban Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Inter-Asian Studies, Visual and Media Studies, and Cultural Geography.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Baba’s Always-Present Presence; Chapter 1: Engaging Universalism: Sai Baba’s Predecessors and Contemporaries; Chapter 2: Hagiographic Connections between Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba: Venkusha, Venkavadhuta, and the Integrative Icon of Dattatreya; Interleaf A: Shirdi Sai Baba’s Lamp-Lighting Miracle in Text and Film; Chapter 3: From Sai Baba of Shirdi to Shirdi of Sai Baba: The Making of a Contemporary Pilgrim-Center; Chapter 4: Routes and Repositories: Shirdi Sai Baba’s Urban Presence; Interleaf B: "This Is My Shirdi:" Wayside Shrines and Sai Baba’s Popular Omnipresence; Chapter 5: Kolis of Mumbai and Shirdi Sai Baba; Chapter 6: "Saint Above (Beyond) Religion:" Re-imaging Shirdi Sai in Chennai and Singapore; Interleaf C: Sai Baba, Ghana, and Oceanic Spiritual Crossovers; Chapter 7: Baba’s Guiding Hand: Artists and Acheiropoiesis; Interleaf D: India Spirits, Hounkpode Baba, and Powers of the Sea in the Republic of Bénin; Chapter 8: A Sheltering Gaze: Darshan with Baba, Baraka from Bamba
About the Author :
Smriti Srinivas is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis, USA.
Neelima Jeychandran is a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor of African Studies and Asian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Allen F. Roberts is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of World Arts and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Review :
'Recent decades have seen a burgeoning scholarship in "guru" studies but less a sustained and detailed look at how the charisma of a "saint" travels through space and time in its specificities—textual, material, and visual. This remarkably diverse and fascinating volume of essays shows us how all this happens in the case of Shirdi Sai Baba, the well-known South Asian holy figure who remains uncontained by rigorously drawn religious boundaries and identities not just in the subcontinent but in global religious landscapes. A pleasure to read, the book is an important contribution to how we might think through the cosmopolitanism of sacred presence.'
—Srilata Raman, Professor, Department of Religion, University of Toronto
'This anthology makes an important and welcome addition to the scant scholarship on one of the most intriguing and enduringly influential spiritual figures of the early twentieth century. Though he lived and died in an obscure village in central Maharashtra, Sai Baba of Shirdi has acquired a global and still-growing reputation as an accessible and compassionate master whose teachings and following transcend religious categories. A dozen distinguished scholars representing a range of disciplines and area specializations consider Baba’s legacy in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and beyond, giving special attention to the two- and three-dimensional icons that both embody his "message" and provide a conduit for his ongoing and often miraculous interventions in devotees’ lives.'
—Philip Lutgendorf, Professor Emeritus of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies, University of Iowa
'The essays in this volume reveal an enigmatic yet familiar figure: Shirdi Baba, the "bearer of our burdens," whose presence connotes both enchantment and promise. As he moves from framed picture to icon, his charisma keeps pace with the changing nature of lives and fortunes, landscapes, and labor. Beyond religions, and yet of them, constitutively hybrid, he fosters and nurtures fraternity.'
—V. Geetha, independent scholar and historian, Chennai, India
