Sacred confluence: Worship, history, and the politics of change in a Himalayan village

This dissertation addresses the general question: How do local cultures negotiate forces of change and transformation and the resultant politicization of religious experience in the context of a postcolonial nation-state? Through the use of oral historical accounts and ethnography, I examine the relationship of the villagers of Purnath, Tehri Garhwal district, Uttar Pradesh, India, with their principal, territorial, and oracular deity named Bhairopir, and the historical processes which continue to shape this relationship in the period between 1949-1996. The processual dynamics of reconfigurations and shifts in the style of worship and the meaning of the deity as a node for local and regional identities vis-a-vis the nation is examined. I also investigate the concurrent ramifications of internal colonization between local and national religious and political issues. Currently, the politico-religious activity surrounding this deity may be interpreted as efforts to reinstate his dominion in light of ongoing confrontation with the nation-state since 1949, and certain "diagnostic" events which occurred during the field period: a major earthquake, general elections, and the continuing political statehood movement for the Himalayan districts of Uttar Pradesh, of which Garhwal is a part.