Institute for Social and Economic Change |
Working Paper: 239
Conflict Over Worship: A Study of the Sri Guru Dattatreya Swami Bababudhan Dargah in South India
Sudha Sitharaman
Abstract
The dargah at Bababudhan hills has today become a site of self-identification, exclusion and tensions among groups in the State of Karnataka (South India). This paper seeks to explore the complex interactions between individuals and communities in terms of the changing dynamics of religion, ritual practices and religious identities in the context of the post-colonial secular, liberal nation state. An attempt is made here to make sense of the ways in which worship works its way through contemporary demands at the shrine.