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'''Criticism of [[Swaminarayan Sampraday|Swaminarayan sect]]''' is varied from opposition of worship of [[Swaminarayan|Sahajanand Swami]] (or Swaminarayan) as God and to opposition of his teachings on non-violence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rudert|first=Angela|date=2004-05-11|title=Inherent Faith and Negotiated Power: Swaminarayan Women in the United States|url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/106|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

== Early criticism ==
After several years of establishment of sect, the 19th-century Hindu reformer [[Dayananda Saraswati]] questioned the acceptance of [[Sahajanand Swami]] aka Swaminarayan as God in the sect.<ref name="Narayan1992">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320229511|title=Storytellers, saints and scoundrels : folk narrative in Hindu religious teaching|last=Narayan|first=Kirin|year=1992|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=8120808908|location=New Delhi|pages=141–143|oclc=320229511}}</ref> In the view of Dayananda, it was a historical fact that Sahajananda decked himself out as Narayan to gain disciples.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320229511|title=Storytellers, saints and scoundrels : folk narrative in Hindu religious teaching|last=Narayan, Kirin.|first=|date=1992|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=|isbn=8120808908|location=New Delhi|pages=143|oclc=320229511}}</ref>

Swaminarayan was criticized for receiving large gifts from his followers after renouncing the world and assuming leadership of the fellowship.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|81}} Swaminarayan responded that he accepts gifts because “it was appropriate for the person to give” and to satisfy the devotion of his followers but he does not seek it out of personal desire.<ref name=":4" />{{rp|19}}

=== Swaminarayan and Caste ===
Some scholars have cited excerpts from Swaminarayan sect literature, such as the Shikshapatri, to criticize Swaminarayan as supporting caste discrimination.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|106}} Other scholars and the followers of the Swaminarayan sect dispute these criticisms, stating such criticism to be unsupported by the history and context of those statements.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|122–126}} <ref name=":5" />{{Rp|105–107}} <ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43615520|title=An introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism|last=Williams, Raymond Brady.|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=052165422X|location=Cambridge, UK|oclc=43615520}}</ref>{{Rp|169–173}} They argue that overall, Swaminarayan’s followers, practices and teachings helped reduce the oppressive nature of caste-based customs prevalent in that era and drew individuals of lower strata towards the Swaminarayan sect.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" />{{Rp|117}} <ref name=":4" />{{Rp|169–173}}

According to David Hardiman, the sect has had a class and caste bias and is an "ideological voice of commercial farmers and capitalist entrepreneurs" of Hinduism.<ref name=hardiman1/> The lower classes are attracted to it because they aspire the same success and merchantile ideology. It grew, states Hardiman, in an era of British colonial rule where land taxes were raised to unprecedented heights, lands were "snatched from village communities", and poverty spread.<ref name=hardiman1>{{Cite journal|last=Hardiman|first=David|year=1988|title=Class Base of Swaminarayan Sect|jstor= 4379024|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=23|issue=37|pages=1907–1912|issn=0012-9976}}</ref> Sahajanand's pacifist approach to community re-organization and reaching out to the lowest classes of his day found support with the British rulers, but it also furthered their exploitation by the British, the local moneylenders and richer farmers. The followers of Swaminarayan "swallow the sect's view of the world uncritically", states Hardiman,<ref name=hardiman1/> and accept ''Shikshapatri'' teachings such as:<ref name=":1"/>
<blockquote>"None shall receive food and water, which are unacceptable at the hands of some people under scruples of caste system, may the same happen to the sanctified portions of the Shri Krishna, except at Jagannath Puri."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1234-5678_beh_com_9000000232|title=Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha|website=Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 5|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rs5JDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT99|title=Swaminarayan Hinduism: Tradition, Adaptation, and Identity|last=Williams|first=Raymond Brady|last2=Trivedi|first2=Yogi|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199089598|location=|pages=143|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

This excerpt has been interpreted as an endorsement of class and caste discrimination by the Swaminarayan sect. Vibhuti Parikh disagrees and states Swaminarayan used these instructions, possibly to gradually undermine the caste system without "negating it outright".<ref name=":5"/>{{Rp|107}} According to Sadhu Mangalnidhidas, the historical facts suggest Swaminarayan did not encourage discrimination and did the opposite. For evidence, he states that in the early years of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, high-caste Hindus criticized Swaminarayan for his teachings, inclusiveness, and practices that undermined caste-based discrimination.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/948338914|title=Swaminarayan Hinduism : Tradition, Adaptation and Identity|last= Mangalnidhidas|first=Sadhu |year=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press|others=|isbn=9780199086573|editors=Raymond Brady Williams and Yogi Trivedi|edition= 1st|location=New Delhi, India|pages=115–128|chapter=Sahajanand Swami's Approach to Caste|oclc=948338914}}</ref> According to Kishorelal Mashruwala, “Swaminarayan was the first to bring about religious advancement of Shudras in Gujarat and Kathiawad region…And that became the main reason for many to oppose the Sampraday.”<ref name=":1" />{{rp|122}} <ref>{{Cite book|title=Sahajanand Swami and the Swaminarayan Sampradaya|last=Mashruwala|first=Kishorelal|publisher=Navjivan Publishing House|year=1940|isbn=|edition= 2nd|location=Ahmedabad|pages=63–64}}</ref> 

An 1823 memorandum from a British official in the ''Asiatic Journal'' notes that the native upper classes “regret (as Hindus) the levelling nature of [Swaminarayan's] system” resulting in their violent opposition to and frequent merciless beatings of Swaminarayan’s disciples.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|122}} <ref>{{Cite journal|last=N.A.|first=|year=1823|title=Indian Sect: Memorandum Respecting a Sect Lately Introduced by a Person Calling Himself Swamee Narain|url=|journal=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies|publisher=Kinsbury, Parbury and Allen|volume= XV|pages=348–349|via=}}</ref> Swaminarayan’s doctrine that everyone’s true self is the pure atma within which God resides, led him to reject caste-based discrimination and welcome those of all caste backgrounds equally in his religious community.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/948338914|title=Swaminarayan Hinduism : Tradition, Adaptation and Identity|last=Parikh|first=Vibhuti|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=|year=2016|isbn=9780199086573|editors=Raymond Brady Williams and Yogi Trivedi|edition= 1st|location=New Delhi, India|pages=94–114|chapter=The Swaminarayan Ideology and Kolis in Gujarat|oclc=948338914}}</ref>{{Rp|105}} According to Sadhu Mangalnidhidas and Vibhuti Parikh,, Swaminarayan rejected caste prejudices but practically accommodated 19th-century social norms and caste language in his public writings. The aim and strategy was to protect and reform the community, though it may have had "unintended negative consequences such as the reinforcement of caste identities".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|122–123}}<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|106–107}}

Numerous historical accounts show that in practice Swaminarayan himself and his followers shared food and openly interacted with everyone without discrimination.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|122–124}} When asked for clarity on his views on caste by Anglican Bishop Reginald Heber, Swaminarayan explained that since he considered the distinctions of caste to be ultimately false, “he did not give the subject much importance, but that he wished not to give offence,” and thus gestured towards some minor accommodations to the practice in his public writings.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|124–126}} <ref>{{Cite book|title=Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825, with Notes upon Ceylon, an Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India.|last=Heber|first=Reginald|publisher=John Murray, Albemarle Street.|year=1828|isbn=|location=London|pages=41}}</ref>

== Criticism by Mahatma Gandhi ==
In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi issued two public appeals for Indians to enlist in the British army to fight in World War I. He asserted that fighting in the war would provide Indians necessary self-defense skills that had been eroded by the deep-seated influence of India’s ascetic culture, which he disdained.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi|last=Parel|first=Anthony|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-11670-1|editors=Judith Brown and Anthony Parel|location=New York|pages=154–170|chapter=Gandhi and the State}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi|last=Hardiman|first=David|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-521-11670-1|editors=Judith Brown and Anthony Parel|location=New York|pages=239–254|chapter=Gandhi's Global Legacy}}</ref>

This advocacy of violence led some of his staunchest supporters, including his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi, to question whether Gandhi was forsaking his non-violent ideals.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.|year=1965|isbn=|volume=Vol.14|location=Ahmedabad|pages=504–505}}</ref> In a July 1918 letter replying to his nephew, Gandhi stated that any conception of non-violence that prohibited self-defense was erroneous. To support this argument, Gandhi criticized the ethics of love and absolute ahimsa (non-violence) he observed in the teachings of Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya. According to Gandhi, this love was mere “sentimentalism,” and its concomitant absolute ahimsa “robbed us of our manliness” and “made the people incapable of self-defence.” Gandhi wrote that Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya had not grasped the essence of non-violence. Instead Gandhi argued for a non-violence that would “permit [our offspring] to commit violence, to use their strength to fight,” since that capacity for violence could be used for the benefit of society, like in “restraining a drunkard from doing evil” or “killing a dog…infected with rabies.”<ref name=":3" />

By 1924, however, Gandhi’s criticism of Swaminarayan and his ethical teachings had turned into admiration. While arguing in a Navjivan newspaper editorial that it was a duty to resort to violence for self-defense against Afghani terrorists, Gandhi admitted that he could not personally adopt this approach because he had chosen the path of love even against his enemies. Gandhi explained that, according to the Hindu scriptures, a single such self-controlled person could eradicate violence from the hearts of one’s opposition. It was through this power of love that Gandhi asserted, “what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by the power of the State.” Moreover, he said that “The Age of Sahajanand has not come to an end. It is only devotion and self-control like his that are wanted.” Ultimately, Gandhi said that while he was attempting Swaminarayan’s approach himself, he did “not have the strength of heart to act upon” it the way that Swaminarayan had successfully done.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=The Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.|year=1965|isbn=|volume=Vol.23|location=Ahmedabad|pages=468–469}}</ref>

Over time, Gandhi’s religious thought showed a further influence of Swaminarayan’s teachings, as, by 1930, he had included many hymns composed by Swaminarayan poets in his ''Ashram Bhajanavali'', a book of prayers which were used in his twice-daily prayer service.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gandhi’s Religious Thought|last=Chatterjee|first=Margaret|publisher=The Macmillan Press, LTD.|year=1983|isbn=978-1-349-05367-4|location=London|pages=156}}</ref> In his writings, he often drew inspiration from the spiritual teachings of Swaminarayan saint-poets [[Nishkulanand Swami]] and [[Muktanand Swami]], the latter being the author of his most frequently used prayer.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hindu Wisdom for All God’s Children|last=Clooney|first=Francis X.|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|year=2005|isbn=1-59752-068-3|location=Eugene, Oregon|pages=51}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Rule, Protest, Identity: Aspects of Modern South Asia|last=Robb|first=Peter|last2=Taylor|first2=David|publisher=Curzon Press|year=1978|isbn=978-0391008663|location=|pages=121}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Mahatma Gandhi at Work: His Own Story Continued|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|isbn=|editor-last=Andrews|editor-first=C.F.|location=|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32833421|title=The Gandhi reader : a source book of his life and writings|last=Gandhi|first=Mahatma|date=|publisher=Grove Press|others=|year=1994|isbn=0802131611|editor-last=Homer|editor-first=Jack A.|edition= Rev |location=New York|pages=8|oclc=32833421|orig-year=1956}}</ref> Indian sociologist and Gandhian contemporary, N. A. Thoothi, had argued by 1935 that Mahatma Gandhi was “most influenced in his inner-most being… by the teachings of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya above all.” Thoothi concluded that “most of [Gandhi’s] thought, activities, and even methods of most of the institutions which he has been building up and serving, have the flavor of Swaminarayan, more than that of any other sect of Hinduism.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vaishnavas of Gujarat: Being a study of methods of investigation of social phenomena|last=Thoothi|first=N.A.|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co, LTD.|year=1938|isbn=|location=Calcutta|pages=279}}</ref>

== Modern criticism ==
Some Hindus in the West criticized temples built by [[Pramukh Swami Maharaj]] as [[grandiose]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/world/asia/pramukh-swami-maharaj-whose-hindu-sect-became-largest-in-us-dies-at-94.html|title=Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Whose Hindu Sect Became Largest in U.S., Dies at 94|last=Venkataraman|first=Ayesha|date=2016-08-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-20|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Criticisms]]

Criticism of Swaminarayan sect - Revision history

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