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.

About the Author
Raymond Brady Williams is LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities emeritus at Wabash College where he served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion and as Founding Director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. Yogi Trivedi is Adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Journalism and a doctoral student in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. His doctoral project focuses on the textual and performative study of North Indian devotional traditions in eighteenth and nineteenth century Gujarat, specifically the Swaminarayan Sampraday.

Reviews
The book contains material of diverse kinds concerning the Swaminarayan movement. * Jeanna Openshaw, Expository Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199463749
Author Raymond Brady Williams
Format Hardback
Page Count 423
Imprint OUP India
Publisher OUP India
Weight(grams) 676g
Dimensions(mm) 224mm * 147mm * 36mm