Swaminarayan Hinduism : Tradition, Adaptation, and Identity

Swaminarayan Hinduism is a rapidly growing transnational movement with major centers in India, East Africa, UK and USA. This first multi-disciplinary study presents new and relevant information about Swaminarayan history, theology, the arts, and transnational development. The focus is on adaptation and identity formation in Swaminarayan Hinduism during periods of rapid social and religious change in several locations and social settings.

Swaminarayan Hinduism is rooted in its formation in India at the cusp of the early modern and colonial period. This book explores the new discoveries, recent research and interpretation of the history, doctrine, devotional arts, and transnational developments provide a foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of contemporary Swaminarayan growth, belief and practice. The themes that trace through the analyses are tradition and adaptation in the historical and social process of creating a complex new religious identity in response to social, economic and political changes. The book contains current academic research from several disciplinesincluding history, theology, the arts, architecture, sociology, and migration studiesto analyze how the stories, texts, and arts shape and reveal the thought, devotion, conduct, and socio-religious community that guide Swaminarayan Hindus through major transitions across time and space in several contexts. Swaminarayan is one of the rapidly expanding transnational Hindu movements with followers and institutions throughout India and abroad, especially in the United States, Britain, East Africa and Australasia.