Seva (service to humanity): a boundary issue in the study of recent and contemporary Hindu movements

Beckerlegge, Gwilym (2011). Seva (service to humanity): a boundary issue in the study of recent and contemporary Hindu movements. Man in India, 91(1) pp. 39–56.

URL: http://www.serialspublications.com/contentnormal.a...

Abstract

I shall argue that seva should be considered as a ‘boundary issue’ in the study of recent and contemporary Hindu movements at both the micro-level (with reference to a particular movement) and at the macro-level (with reference to characterizations of contemporary Hindu activity in general). Taking the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and the sangh parivar as examples, the article suggests that alternative accounts of the sources and significance of seva within these movements touch on several historiographical problems that have become hotly contested. Seva emerges as a boundary issue because, through examining different accounts of this practice, it is possible to mark out lines, not just between emic and etic commentators, but between different emic positions and between different etic analyses.

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