The Land of Gods: Exploring Converging Agencies in the Deity Institution of Kullu, India

Abstract

What does it mean to have a deity as a ruler in the contemporary Indian sociopolitical context? How does a divine entity act as a governing authority in modern society while retaining relevance and considerable influence within the everyday lives of its subjects? These are some questions that this article tries to pursue in an attempt to understand the multiple, interconnected channels through which the sovereignty of a deity is exercised and reinforced in the context of the Kullu district in the Indian Himalayas. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Kullu, this article argues that the agency of the deity operates through a network of actors individually invested in protecting the sovereignty of the deity and, by extension, the distributed nature of this sovereignty. The paper discusses how the deity’s sense of agency as an individual sovereign agent is an important factor within the cosmopolitical landscape of Kullu, where the deity institution acts as a form of local governance coexisting with the state.