Criticism of Swaminarayan Sampradaya: Difference between revisions

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promotion of [[ahimsa]] (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 |publisher=Cornell University |language=en}}</ref>
promotion of [[ahimsa]] (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 |publisher=Cornell University |language=en}}</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.{{sfn|Mangalnidhidas|2016|p=122}} <ref>{{Cite journal|last=N.A.|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.{{sfn|Mangalnidhidas|2016}}{{sfn|Parikh|2016|p=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".{{sfn|Mangalnidhidas|2016|p=122–123}}{{sfn|Parikh|2016|p=106–107}}
Numerous historical accounts show that in practice Swaminarayan himself and his followers shared food and openly interacted with everyone without discrimination.{{sfn|Mangalnidhidas|2016|p=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.{{sfn|Mangalnidhidas|2016|p=124–126}} <ref>{{Cite book|last=Heber|first=Reginald|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.|publisher=John Murray, Albemarle Street.|year=1828|isbn=|location=London|pages=41}}</ref>


== Swaminarayan and Caste ==
== Swaminarayan and Caste ==

Revision as of 22:09, 9 November 2026

Criticism of the Swaminarayan sect has focused on various aspects of its religious beliefs and practices. These include objections to the worship of Sahajanand Swami as God and debates concerning the sect's interpretation

Early criticism

Several years after the establishment of the sect, the 19th-century Hindu reformer Dayananda Saraswati questioned the acceptance of Sahajanand Swami aka Swaminarayan as God in the sect.[1] In the view of Dayananda, it was a historical fact that Sahajanand decked himself out as Narayan to gain disciples. He was disapproving towards the idea that visions of Swaminarayan could establish a path to attaining perfection. Accused of deviating from the Vedas, his followers were criticised by Dayanand for the illegal collection of wealth and the "practice of frauds and tricks."[2]

Swaminarayan was criticized for receiving large gifts from his followers after renouncing the world and assuming leadership of the fellowship.[3] 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 did not seek it out of personal desire.[4]

promotion of ahimsa (non-violence).[5]

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.[6] [7] 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.[8][9] 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".[10][11]

Numerous historical accounts show that in practice Swaminarayan himself and his followers shared food and openly interacted with everyone without discrimination.[12] 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.[13] [14]

Swaminarayan and Caste

Some scholars have cited excerpts from Swaminarayan sect literature, such as the Shikshapatri, to criticize Swaminarayan as supporting caste discrimination.[15] 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.[16][17][18] 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.

[8][19][18]

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.[20] The lower classes are attracted to it because they aspire the same success and mercantile 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.[20] 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,[20] and accept Shikshapatri teachings such as:[8]

"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."[21][22]

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".[23] 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.[8] 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.”[6][24] 

  1. ↑ Narayan, Kirin (1992). Storytellers, saints and scoundrels : folk narrative in Hindu religious teaching. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 141–143. ISBN 8120808908. OCLC 320229511.
  2. ↑ Narayan, Kirin. (1992). Storytellers, saints and scoundrels : folk narrative in Hindu religious teaching. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 143. ISBN 8120808908. OCLC 320229511.
  3. ↑ Williams 2001, p. 81.
  4. ↑ Williams 2001, p. 19.
  5. ↑ Rudert, Angela (2004-05-11). "Inherent Faith and Negotiated Power: Swaminarayan Women in the United States". Cornell University. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mangalnidhidas 2016, p. 122.
  7. ↑ N.A. (1823). "Indian Sect: Memorandum Respecting a Sect Lately Introduced by a Person Calling Himself Swamee Narain". The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies. XV. Kinsbury, Parbury and Allen: 348–349.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Mangalnidhidas 2016.
  9. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 105.
  10. ↑ Mangalnidhidas 2016, p. 122–123.
  11. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 106–107.
  12. ↑ Mangalnidhidas 2016, p. 122–124.
  13. ↑ Mangalnidhidas 2016, p. 124–126.
  14. ↑ Heber, Reginald (1828). 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. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. p. 41.
  15. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 106.
  16. ↑ Mangalnidhidas 2016, p. 122–126.
  17. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 105–107.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Williams 2001, p. 169–173.
  19. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 117.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Hardiman, David (1988). "Class Base of Swaminarayan Sect". Economic and Political Weekly. 23 (37): 1907–1912. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4379024.
  21. ↑ "Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha". Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 5. doi:10.1163/1234-5678_beh_com_9000000232. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  22. ↑ Williams, Raymond Brady; Trivedi, Yogi (2016). Swaminarayan Hinduism: Tradition, Adaptation, and Identity. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780199089598.
  23. ↑ Parikh 2016, p. 107.
  24. ↑ Mashruwala, Kishorelal (1940). Sahajanand Swami and the Swaminarayan Sampradaya (2nd ed.). Ahmedabad: Navjivan Publishing House. pp. 63–64.
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