Bhakti offered colonial intellectuals a democratizing, anti-Brahminical medieval inheritance
Evidence
It is small wonder, then, given this whole range of their own engagements, that many of these new intellectuals came ro have a very special interest in those many strands of our medievaliry which we cumulatively call ‘Bhakti’ For Bhakri had been associated, on the whole, with an enormous democratization of literary language; had pressed the cultural forms of caste hegemony in favour of the artisanate and the peasantry; had been regionally dispersed on both sides of the Vindhyas; was ideologically anti-Brahminical; had deeply problemarized the gender construction of all dialogic relations, whether of love or worship or speech itself; and was highly ecumenical in irs philosophical inspirations. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1193
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Bhakti democratized literary language and pressed caste hegemony in favor of peasants and artisans. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 527; Bhakti movements attacked caste hierarchy from within Hindu tradition. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1029; Bhakti egalitarianism repudiated caste while Ramdas pushed Brahmin supremacy (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Bhakti democratized literary language and pressed caste hegemony in favor of peasants and artisans.
#expands(0.95) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 527 - Bhakti movements attacked caste hierarchy from within Hindu tradition.
#corroborates(0.90) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1029 - Bhakti egalitarianism repudiated caste while Ramdas pushed Brahmin supremacy
#qualifies(0.80) - Colonial India’s national intelligentsia came from upper castes and state-linked professions
#complicates(0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 119 - Medieval bhakti poetry inverted the Dharmaśāstra discipline model, replacing the rod with maternal love
#qualifies(0.70) — , The Rod and the Child, 3800