Digital Hinduism

Digital Religion does not simply refer to religion as it is carried out online, but more broadly studies how digital media interrelate with religious practice and belief. This collection explores Digital Hinduism and consequentially studies how Hinduism is expressed in the digital sphere and how Hindus utilise digital media.


Highlighting digital Hinduism and including case studies with foci on India, Asia and the global Hindu diaspora, this book features contributions from an interdisciplinary and international panel of academics. The chapters focus on specific case studies, which in summary exemplify the wide variety and diversity of what constitutes Digital Hinduism today.


Applying methods and research questions from various disciplinary backgrounds appropriate to the study of religion and digital culture, such as Religious Studies, South Asian Studies, Anthropology and Media and Communication Studies, this book is vital reading for any scholar interested in the relationship between religion and the digital world.

List of figures

List of tables

List of contributors
Introduction: Digital Hinduism: Studying Hinduism at the intersections of digital media and culture

XENIA ZEILER
PART 1

Who belongs? Identity and finding one's place
1 Whats(up) with Hinduism? Digital culture and religion

among Bengali Hindus

APARAJ I TA DE AND RAJIB NANDI

2 Hindu religious identification in India's online matrimonial market

FRITZI-MARIE TITZMANN
3 Automatic rituals and inadvertent audiences: ISKCON, Krishna and the ritual mechanics of Facebook

N ICOLE KARAPANAGIOTIS
4 Cultural regrouping in the diaspora: Mediating Hindu identity online

JULI L. GITTINGER
PART 2

Who defines? Authority and appropriation

5 Authors, self-fashioning and online cultural production in

the age of Hindu celevision

PRAMOD K. NAYAR

6 Instagram your Durga Puja! Social media, hashtags and state-sponsored cultural marketing

DHEEPA SUNDARAM

7 S khyayoga and the Internet: The website of a

contemporary Hindu monastic institution

KNUT A. JACOBSEN
8 Mediatized gurus: Hindu religious and artistic authority

and digital culture

HANNA MANNILA AND XENIA ZEILER
PART 3

Who debates? Contest and negotiation

9 The Internet: A new marketplace for transacting p j items

VINEETA SINHA
10 Taming Hindu akta Tantra on the Internet: Online p j s

for the goddess Tripurasundar

SRAVANA BORKATAKY-VARMA

11 New media and spiritualism in India: Understanding online spiritualism in convergence cultures

JESNA JAYACHANDRAN

1. Streaming the divine: Hindu temples' digital journeys




YAEL LAZA R
PART 4


Critical reflection


2. Reflections on digital Hinduism: Sacred images, dominant

Hindu narratives and the generational digital divide

H EI NZ SCHEI FINGER
Index