Translocal Lives and Religion

Inspired by the historiographical model of “connected histories” (S. Subrahmanyam and S. Gruzinski), the volume examines the intellectual trajectories of remarkable individuals who interacted with religious discourses, doctrines or practices in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The proposed approach of “connected religion” invites to the study of cross-cultural and “translocal” encounters by bringing together documents that represent diverse sides of the story and by reconstructing a narrative from an external standpoint, with analytical potential. Testing the approach through specific cases of interactions between Asia and Europe, the volume explores the little-known stories of both actors such as migrants or expatriates interacting with religious discourses, and of religious leaders producing and propagating beliefs and practices. Without any pretension to exhaustivity, the variety of cases arouses questions that can be addressed to further contexts, such as: the significance of improved travels and communications for the diffusion of religious content across national, cultural and institutional boundaries; the impact of specific individuals, charismatic or not, well-established or subaltern in the reconfiguration of institutional forms of religion; or the role of the South Asian referent in legitimating the propagation of specific religious views.

Inspired by the historiographical model of “connected histories” (S. Subrahmanyam and S. Gruzinski), the volume examines the intellectual trajectories of remarkable individuals who interacted with religious discourses, doctrines or practices in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The proposed approach of “connected religion” invites to the study of cross-cultural and “translocal” encounters by bringing together documents that represent diverse sides of the story and by reconstructing a narrative from an external standpoint, with analytical potential. Testing the approach through specific cases of interactions between Asia and Europe, the volume explores the little-known stories of both actors such as migrants or expatriates interacting with religious discourses, and of religious leaders producing and propagating beliefs and practices. Without any pretension to exhaustivity, the variety of cases arouses questions that can be addressed to further contexts, such as: the significance of improved travels and communications for the diffusion of religious content across national, cultural and institutional boundaries; the impact of specific individuals, charismatic or not, well-established or subaltern in the reconfiguration of institutional forms of religion; or the role of the South Asian referent in legitimating the propagation of specific religious views.

Preface Sujit Sivasundaram, Cambridge University Editor's Introduction Philippe Bornet Part I: Introduction 1. From Comparative to Connected Religion: Translocal Aspects of Orientalism and the Study of Religion Philippe Bornet Part II: Transnational Trajectories and Individual Appropriations of Religion 2. "In-Between" Religiosity: European Kā
lī
-bhakti in Early Colonial Calcutta Gautam Chakrabarti, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen/Freie Universitat Berlin 3. The Making of the Ideal Transnational Disciple: Unravelling Biographies of Margaret Noble/Sister Nivedita Gwilym Beckerlegge, The Open University 4. The Curious Case of the Drs. D'Abreu: Catholicism, Migration and a Kanara Catholic Family in the Heart of the Empire, 1890-1950 Dwayne Ryan Menezes, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London 5. Religion and the "Simple Life": Dugald Semple and Translocal "Life Reform" Networks Steven Sutcliffe, University of Edinburgh 6. Re-discovering Buddha's Land: The Transnational Formative Years of China's Indology Minyu Zhang, Beijing Foreign Studies University Part III: Religions on the Move 7. Charles Pfoundes and the Forgotten First Buddhist Mission to the West, London 1889 Brian Bocking, University College Cork 8. Travelling through Interstitial Spaces: The Radical Spiritual Journeys of Pandita Mary Ramabai Saraswathi Parinitha Shetty, Mangalore University 9. A "Christian Hindu Apostle"? The Multiple Lives of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929?) Philippe Bornet 10. The Chen Jianmin (1906-1987) Legacy: An "Always on the Move" Buddhist Practice Fabienne Jagou, Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient, Paris Part IV: In Summary 11. Afterword Maya Burger, University of Lausanne

• Edited by Philippe Bornet

"This volume has been carefully edited, and the quality of contributions reveals the advantages of the collaborative framework advocated by the editor. As an insightful expression of the consolidating and most welcome trend toward the study of religion within a global context, this volume will be of value to all those interested in entangled religious history within and outside the borders of East Asia." Dessi, Ugo, Religious Studies Review, June 2023
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