This paper examines the politics of doing fieldwork as a 'native' i.e. Indian anthropologist among Western interlocutors in India. Focusing on the interrelations between the Indian anthropologist and (predominantly) Western participants, this shows the complex nature of insider/outsider and native/ Western location(s). While pointing out the multiple and shifting locations inhabited by the author and the interlocutors, the paper also highlights the ways in which such fluidity negotiates with the construct of the authentic native. The fixity of the mythical figure of the native made it difficult for the author to claim undisputed insidership. However, in critiquing the construction of the native as a fixed, immobile category, the author is nevertheless mindful that counter-constructions of the native as hybrid and hypermobile overlook the privileged position of postcolonial academics. Ultimately, the paper argues that acknowledging the specificities of one's location shatters the myth of the native as a singular category.
Tombs of gurus and religious leaders are central to the consolidation of religious communities through memorialisation and the public performance of rituals. In Hindu and neo-Hindu religious movements, the guru’s samadhi is one such important sacred space. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article focuses on one Ashram in India and the importance of the Samadhi shrine in the life of its members. The article argues that the Samadhi constitutes the spatial heart of an otherwise spatially dispersed Ashram. It is at the Samadhi that the devotees become present to the gurus and one another, creating a community of devotees through both a linear ‘chain of memory’ and lateral ‘intimacy grids’. At the same time, the creation of such a community grapples with the wider locational specificities of the Ashram and the politics of making it a home.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.