Across India, religious festivals draw growing numbers of participants and spectators. One of these is the Bharani festival, which is centered around the South Indian town of Kodungallur, Kerala.
Central to the festival's infrastructure is a women's devotional and volunteer organization called the Mathrusamithi, which means "mother's committee" in Malayalam. The Mathrusamithi is loosely affiliated to a local Hindu nationalist network and plays a key role in enhancing the Hindu atmosphere of the locality and in community building.
In his talk, Harikrishna will discuss the Mathrusamithi's temple-related activities and contribution to the mass public kitchen organized at the Bharani festival. Given the predominately patriarchal setting in which its female members live, festival volunteering shapes their subjectivities and makes them feel empowered. The Mathrusamithi is thus central to this festival even though women's organizations of this kind have largely been overlooked in the scholarship of Hindu nationalist women's organizations.
Deva Nandan Harikrishna is a doctoral fellow in the Study of Religion. His talk is based on a chapter of his recently completed doctoral dissertation Vernacularising Hindutva: Popular Hinduism and Ritual Change at the Kodungallur Bharani Festival.
The presentation will be in English.