Religion and public memory : a cultural history of Saint Namdev in India / Christian Lee Novetzke.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Namdev is a central figure in the cultural history of India, especially within the field of bhakti , a devotional practice that has created publics of memory for over eight centuries. Born in the Marathi-speaking region of the Deccan in the late thirteenth century, Namdev is remembered as a simple, low-caste Hindu tailor whose innovative performances of devotional songs spread his fame widely. He is central to many religious traditions within Hinduism, as well as to Sikhism, and he is a key early literary figure in Maharashtra, northern India, and Punjab.

In the modern period, Namdev appears throughout the public spheres of Marathi and Hindi and in India at large, where his identity fluctuates between regional associations and a quiet, pan-Indian, nationalist-secularist profile that champions the poor, oppressed, marginalized, and low caste. Christian Lee Novetzke considers the way social memory coheres around the figure of Namdev from the sixteenth century to the present, examining the practices that situate Namdev's memory in multiple historical publics. Focusing primarily on Maharashtra and drawing on ethnographies of devotional performance, archival materials, scholarly historiography, and popular media, especially film, Novetzke vividly illustrates how religious communities in India preserve their pasts and, in turn, create their own historical narratives.

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CHOICE Review

Novetzke (Univ. of Washington) examines the life of the 13th-century saint Namdev, born in the Marathi-speaking region of the Deccan to a low-caste family. Namdev's importance in Indian religious history lies in his innovative songs of the devotional bhakti tradition, for which he gained wide-ranging fame. Namdev is significant not only in Hinduism, but also in Sikhism, in the regions of the Punjab, Maharashtra, and across northern India. For contemporary followers, his significance draws on associations with particular Indian regions and a pan-Indian appeal that is both nationalist and secular, as he champions those of low caste and others who are oppressed and marginalized. Novetzke examines "social memory" as it takes shape around the saint beginning in the 16th century. This social memory places Namdev in Maharashtra and also in various "historical publics"--accessed by the author through ethnographies of bhakti performances, archives and historiographies, and popular media such as film. Especially important are examinations of Vaisnava "Namas" and the corporate authorship of Namdev material, the memories of suffering that adhere to his tradition from 18th-century struggles in the Deccan, and the development of an all-India hagiography making Namdev the "apostle of national integration." This excellent scholarly study is immensely readable and engaging. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. E. Findly Trinity College (CT)