Bourgeois Vedānta: The Colonial

Roots of Middle-class Hinduism1

Brian A. Hatcher

The quest to balance the material and the spiritual has a long history
in the Hindu tradition, as it does in the West. While Hindus recognize
desire to be a central human value, they also see it as a cause of
human suffering. This tension persists within contemporary Hinduism,
especially among an emergent middle class that seeks to balance spiri-
tual fulfillment and worldly success. If we are to understand recent
manifestations of Hinduism, we would do well to explore their roots in
the colonial period. That is the goal of this essay, which explores the
affinity between one early colonial version of Vedānta and the socio-
economic activities of its bourgeois promoters. Working from a rare
set of Bengali discourses delivered at meetings of the Tattvabodhinī
Sabhā during its inaugural year (1839–40), this essay demonstrates
how a rescripted Vedānta provided members with a worldview that
legitimated both their spiritual concerns and their worldly activities.

Desire (kāma) is the root of the universe. From desire all beings are
born. —Śilpa Prakāśa (White 2006: 97)

What defines bourgeois society is not needs, but wants. —Bell (1996: 22)

Department of Religion, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701, USA.

E-mail: bhatcher@iwu.edu.

1
Portions of this essay were first presented in talks at Purdue University, Emory University, and
the University of Chicago. I would like to thank Tithi Bhattacharya, Laurie Patton, Paul Courtright,
and Valerie Ritter for inviting me to discuss my work. Since then the essay has benefited from the
comments of anonymous readers, whom I would also like to thank. Funding to support this
research was provided by Illinois Wesleyan University in the form of an Artistic and Scholarly
Development Grant in 2002.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, pp. 1–26

doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm005
© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of
Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Page 2 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

WHEN IT COMES TO DESIRE, the Hindu tradition has had plenty to

say. Ancient scriptures proclaim it to be the origin of all things; temple
art frequently luxuriates in the play of erotic desire; and certain devo-
tional traditions envision salvation in the form of an amorous bond
between lover and beloved. Yet for millennia sages have also warned of
the dire consequences of desire for embodied beings. At once a goal of
human life and the cause of continued rebirth, desire stands at the
heart of Hindu metaphysics. What is the proper relationship between
worldly desire and ultimate salvation? Although the great sects and
gurus of the Hindu tradition have offered an astounding range of
answers to this question, it has been suggested that the contemporary
scholarly understanding of this problem has been distorted by the
“hegemonic voices” of a range of modern Hindu reformers who have
managed to portray classical Hinduism largely in terms of one para-
digm, namely the Vedantic quest of the emobodied self to find liber-
ation (White 2006: 3). This normative paradigm, based on a selective
reading of the Vedas, Upanisads, Bhagavad-gītā, and medieval devo-
˙ place, but that place is always subordi-
tional literature, gives desire its
nated to the quest for liberation.
David White (2006: 7) suggests that “one could drive a Tata truck”
through the blind spot created by this normative reading of Hinduism
regarding what he takes to be the real perennial religion of India. That
religion is Tantra, “the occulted face of India’s religious history,” one of
whose most “salient elements” is eros itself (2006: 3, 17). White’s work
on the ancient and all-pervading character of the philosophy and prac-
tice of Tantric desire throughout Indian history (see also White 1996)
suggests at least two paths for scholars to pursue: one is obviously to go
further in uncovering South Asia’s complex Tantric history; the other is
to come to better terms with the origin and repercussions of the hege-
monic paradigm of Hinduism White alerts us to.
White is scarcely the first to call attention to and complain about
the elite, textual, and spiritualized model of Hinduism that had become
normative by the middle of the twentieth century. Postorientalist and
postcolonial scholarship, in particular, has helped us appreciate the
special interplay of nationalism, romanticism, and orientalism in the
this Vedānta-based paradigm of Hinduism (for some other perspec-
tives, see Halbfass 1988; King 1999; Hatcher 2004). But we can press
harder on the genealogy of this paradigm, especially by exploring the
ways the social setting and cultural aspirations of the early modern
Hindu reformers helped determine some of the major elements of the
emergent paradigm. Not surprisingly, given the history of Hinduism,
the problem of desire remains just as pressing in the modern period.
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 3 of 26

This essay addresses the latter task insofar as it seeks to explore the
roots of the reform-based model of Hinduism to which White alludes.
As early colonial Hindus found themselves inhabiting new social and
economic worlds, and as they simultaneously began to authorize them-
selves to advocate new forms of Hindu life suited to these worlds, the
age-old problem of balancing desire and ultimate salvation resurfaced.
In what follows, I would like to explore one expression of a modern
middle-class Vedānta as found in a rare Bengali text published in 1841.
Consideration of this text enriches our understanding of the impact of
reformist values on the construction and expression of contemporary
Hinduism while providing concrete evidence of one religious attempt to
balance the spiritual and the material. There may be no neat or linear
trajectory from the world of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā to that of twenti-
eth-century Hindu belief and practice, but this early colonial attempt to
wrestle with desire as a motive force in human life at least helps us give
middle-class Hinduism a history. Along the way, this investigation will
also allow us to reflect upon how we might make comparisons with
modern western religious behavior while retaining a sense for the dis-
tinctive modernity of the Hindu case.

PROBLEMATIZING MIDDLE-CLASS HINDUISM

The proposition that aspects of contemporary Hinduism lend them-
selves to analysis in terms of middle-class religion is one that has gained
fairly wide currency of late. Whether in temple-building, ritual practices,
contemporary guru and self-realization movements, or popular iconogra-
phy, scholars have begun to turn their attention to what might be called
the “middle class-ness” of Hinduism (Joshi 2001: 8; Hawley 2001;
Waghorne 2005).2 Twenty years ago, Lawrence Babb (1986: 167) remarked
upon the enormous appeal of the God-man Sathya Sai Baba among
India’s educated middle classes. In 1997, Philip Lutgendorf provided a
wonderful portrait of the popular deity Hanuman, who the middle classes
trust will deliver both “the gods and the goods” (Lutgendorf 1997: 325).
Today we learn that “the world’s hottest gurus” are lecturing in premier
business schools, where they promote Hindu spiritual truths as the
“secrets to business success” (Engardio and McGregor 2006).
Today’s middle-class Hinduism must be understood in terms of the
general emergence of an upwardly mobile socio-economic class that has

2
An exploration of “middle class-ness” in contemporary Nepal can be found in Liechty (2003).
The now-classic study of the Indian middle class is Misra (1961).
Page 4 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

prospered in the era of economic liberalization and foreign investment

that has tranformed India since 1990. This Indian middle class is con-
nected in complex ways with the South Asian diaspora, sharing spiritual
truths and habits of consumption throughout a web of global trade,
travel, and entertainment. As a class, it is composed largely of individ-
uals engaged in professional disciplines, education, retail, and bureauc-
racy. And what Max Weber noted of the middle class generally is also
true of this Indian middle class: its labor is consumption (Liechty
2003: 253). Freed from the need to labor, and flush with capital, this
middle class expresses and defines itself in the marketplace. We might
say that one way it does so is by consuming Hinduism.
If bourgeois society is defined by its wants, as Daniel Bell suggests,
then one way to understand middle-class Hinduism is by observing its
patterns of consumption. Through a variety of practices, and in a
variety of global contexts, today’s Hindu middle class seeks out and
does active trade in the idioms, values, and practices of a tradition it
views as both satya and sanātana (that is, true and timeless). A middle-
man Hanuman for upwardly mobile urban Hindus, the best-selling
works of Deepak Chopra, and the caché of today’s hot business gurus
are just three examples of this cultural activity.3
In their work on aspects of the South Asian middle class, scholars
like Sanjay Joshi and Mark Liechty highlight what we can learn by
thinking of the middle class not in terms of economic categories or
sociological types but in terms of cultural practices. Both scholars take
us inside middle class-ness as a process, or what Liechty (2003: 15)
calls a “never-ending cultural project.”4 This approach is helpful not
simply because it avoids heated arguments over the proper employment
of concepts like “middle class” and “bourgeois” within the disciplines of
economics and sociology.5 More importantly, as both Joshi and Liechty
demonstrate, there is much to learn about the specificities of middle-
class practice if we cease to think of “class” as an ideal type—an
approach that obscures the culturally specific ways in which middle-class
identities are constructed in different global contexts (Joshi 2001: 5;
Liechty 2003: 20–21).

3
Tantra, too, is a hot consumer item in today’s new age. See White 2006: ch. 9 and the essays
in part 2 of McDermott and Kripal (2003).
4
This is an approach adopted by Rachel Dwyer, as well, in her study of Indian cinema and the
middle class (2000).
5
For brief, but insightful, summaries of the conceptual concerns surrounding the employment
of words such as “bourgeois” and “middle class,” see Williams (1976). For an expansive definition
of the bourgeois as “those who appropriate surplus value they did not create,” see Sitton (1996).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 5 of 26

The question raised by this essay is, What are the culturally specific
roots of today’s middle-class Hinduism? If Joshi (2001: 3) is correct to
claim that modernity in India “was built on existing foundations,” we
must attempt to identify the kinds of cultural foundations upon which
reformist Hindus based their self-understanding. I would like to follow
the lead of Joshi (and Liechty as well) by attempting to capture the
Hindu middle-class cultural project in its historical specificity. I am par-
ticularly interested in tracing the colonial roots for the Vedantic vision
of Hinduism as these can be observed in the work of one religious
movement from early colonial India. Recent reports of the Vedantic
gurus imparting spiritual wisdom to MBAs at the Wharton School only
serves to underscore the on-going centrality of Vedānta within contem-
porary understandings of Hinduism.
This modern project of defining Hinduism in terms of Vedānta is
associated with the likes of Rammohan Roy in the early nineteenth
century and with later colonial and postcolonial Hindu apologists like
Swami Vivekananda and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. These and a host of
lesser-known philosophers and swamis helped to enshrine Vedānta as
the veritable essence of Hinduism (Nikhilananda 1946). To consider
precisely why and how this particular construction of Hinduism
became possible, we need to give further attention to the earliest phases
of modern Hindu reform. That is the focus of the present essay, which
examines the program of an early Bengali religious organization, the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. Consideration of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā allows
us to improve our understanding of what made Vedānta attractive to its
early colonial proponents.

THE TATTVABODHINĪ SABHĀ

On the evening of 29 September, 1839, the twenty-two year old
Debendranath Tagore met with a group of young men on the grounds
of his family’s residence in north Calcutta. While Debendranath was
the eldest son of the influential entrepreneur Dwarkanath Tagore, he
had not convened the meeting to discuss business. Rather, as his auto-
biography reveals in some detail, he was in search of religious truth,
which he had come to associate with the teachings of the Upanisads, the
˙ Thus
ancient source texts for Vedānta (Tagore 1909 and [1898] 1980).
was born the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, or “Truth-Propagating Society.”6

6
Information on the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā may be found in Tagore (1909 and [1898] 1980)
Damen (1988), Kopf (1979), Sen (1979), and Hatcher (2006 and forthcoming).
Page 6 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Though the motive force behind the creation of the Sabhā was apparently
spiritual, we shall see the degree to which the group’s theology also
worked to legitimate its members’ worldly aspirations.
The ostensible mission of the Sabhā in its earliest years was to
educate the Bengali public regarding the truth of Vedānta. This project
had begun a generation earlier in the work of Rammohan Roy, who
sought to authorize and modernize Vedānta through an ambitious
program of translation, publication, and public debate. Rammohan
creatively engaged both the Upanisads and the classical tradition of
Advaita Vedānta from a perspective ˙ of Enlightenment rationality.
A Deist and a practitioner of a rationalist textual hermeneutic, Rammohan
sought to re-tool Vedānta to fit the spiritual needs of his generation.
His efforts during the 1820s to articulate a rational and modern form of
Vedantic theism culminated in the creation of the Brāhmo Samāj in
1828, an organization that would have immense influence across India.7
Rammohan left India in 1828 to travel to England, where he died in
1833. After his departure and subsequent death, the Brāhmo Samāj
experienced a serious decline in membership and vitality. In fact, little
was done to advance his project until the founding of the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. The formation of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, and
the steps it took toward the further interpretation of Vedānta for the
modern world, thus mark a second crucial moment in the emergence
of modern, Vedantic Hinduism.
Hitherto our best avenue for entering into the world of the Sabhā has
been the group’s own Bengali journal, the Tattvabodhinī Patrikā.
However, the first issue of the Tattvabodhinī Patrikā appeared in 1843,
four years after the founding of the Sabhā. As such the Patrikā offers
only indirect access to the earliest years of the Sabhā’s history. However,
there is one text that provides us with access to the earliest ideas of the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. That text is Sabhyadiger vaktrtā, a short Bengali
tract published in Calcutta in 1841.8 Its title means˙ simply “Discourses
by Members,” and it records twenty-one discourses (vaktrtā) delivered
before the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā during the first year of ˙its existence,
1839–40. These discourses offer us a precious glimpse at the articulation
of modern Vedānta when that category was very much still in its infancy.
Unfortunately, Sabhyadiger vaktrtā does not indicate directly who
delivered each of its twenty-one short ˙ discourses. What it provides is a
system of Bengali initials at the end of each discourse. These were

7
Rammohan’s English-language tracts can be found in Roy (1906).
8
The only known copy of this text can be found in the British Library, London.
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 7 of 26

apparently intended to identify speakers, but there is no key to use in

connecting initials with authors. The problem of authorship is thus a
vexed one. However, it need not concern us here, since for the purposes
of this essay I would like to treat the text as if it were one integral docu-
ment. That is, instead of attempting to associate particular passages
with particular authors, I would like to read Sabhyadiger vaktrtā for
what it can tell us generally about the theological and moral concerns˙
of the Tattvabodhinī group in its infancy. While in some cases the
authors represented in this work were highly influential figures in their
day—men like Debendranath Tagore, Aksayakumāra Datta, and
Īśvaracandra Vidyāsāgara—what interests me here ˙ is the worldview they
shared within this modern Vedantic organization.9

THE BOURGEOIS BHADRALOK

I would like to propose that we think of the worldview of the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā as a kind of “bourgeois Vedānta.” In coining this
phrase, I prefer to employ the term “bourgeois” rather than “middle-
class” because it avoids the vexing rubric of “class” while effectively
suggesting the overall cultural orientation of the group. While “bour-
geois” as a style of living or mode of cultural aspiration has often
attracted scorn, I do not employ the term in a perjorative sense.10 As
I use it, “bourgeois” connotes both a relative social position (or measure
of social distinction) and an attitude of self-conscious propriety or
respectability.11 In colonial Calcutta, the group most often thought to
make up the bourgeoisie were the so-called bhadralok, or “respectable
people.”12 Construing the bhadralok as a colonial bourgeoisie is one way
to suggest their attempt to inhabit a new cultural space, a space defined
as more respectable (bhadra) than the so-called lower orders, or itarlok,
and simultaneously more rational and progressive than the precolonial

9
A complete annotated translation of Sabhyadiger vaktrtā will be available in Hatcher
˙
(forthcoming). In this work, I provide extensive discussion of historical context as well as treat the
problem of authorship.
10
I follow the example of Mosse (1985), who uses “middle class” and “bourgeois”
interchangeably. Williams (1976: 37–40) long ago noted that “bourgeois” is a “very difficult word
to use in English” (37).
11
On distinguishing between class stratification and “stratification by social prestige,” see
Bottomore (1966: 25).
12
Writing about Bombay, Dwyer prefers to speak of the “middle class,” but acknowledges that
for many Indians to be middle class is in fact to consider oneself among the elite (Dwyer 2000:
59). She provides useful insights into the tensions among a “grande bourgeoisie” drawn from
aristocrats, an “emerging petit bourgeoisie,” and the “new middle classes” who situate themselves
between these poles (Dwyer 2000: 90–92).
Page 8 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

aristocracy, or abhijāt lok. In this respect, the bourgeois Vedānta of the

Tattvabodhinī Sabhā amounts to a program of self-consciously diligent
and morally upright behavior that was thought to promote the spiritual
well-being and the worldly success of this new colonial elite.13
It was of course Weber who identified the “rational organization” of
“sober bourgeois capitalism” as the essential problem for study in his
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 1958: 21–22).
I wish to follow Weber’s lead, paying special attention to the “sober” cul-
tural program of the bhadralok members of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. In
particular, I hope to illustrate the degree to which the religious world-
view of the Tattvabodhinī group manifests an “elective affinity” with the
ethos of an emergent colonial bourgeoisie.14 Following Weber, I am
interested in “the influence of those psychological sanctions which, orig-
inating in religious belief and the practice of religion, gave a direction to
practical conduct and held the individual to it” (Weber 1958: 97).15
After Weber, sociologists have come to associate the bourgeoisie
with changes wrought by capitalism, urbanization, and an increasingly
bureaucratic societal system. The same range of factors shaped the
experience of the colonial middle class who gravitated to the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā. A cursory glance at the Sabhā’s programs reveals
a clear emphasis on such markers of bourgeois status as a priority for
the domestic sphere; use of vernacular forms of communication; eclectic
patterns of religious thought; the importance of English-language edu-
cation; growing involvement in the urban public sphere; increased
involvement in patterns of commerce and consumption; a respect for
impersonal law over custom; and the quest for upward mobility
(Waghorne 2005: 233–234).
In colonial Bengal, these markers came to be associated in particular
with the bhadralok.16 To appreciate the role played by the bhadralok in
the project of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, four points require emphasis.

13
Liechty’s exploration of how the Nepali middle-class struggles to achieve a balance between
“two devalued social poles” reveals the continuity of contemporary practices with colonial patterns
(2003: 67).
14
On the idea of “affinity,” see Weber (1958: 27).
15
Joanne Waghorne finds in Weber a resource for thinking through the colonial and
postcolonial experience of an emergent Hindu middle class (2005: 13–16; see Waghorne 1999 for
an earlier version of her argument).
16
The importance of the bhadralok as a category for understanding modern Bengali society
received important attention in the 1960s and 1970s. Bloomfield portrayed the bhadralok as a local
“dominant elite” who were, “distinguished by many aspects of their behavior—their deportment,
their speech, their dress, their style in housing, their eating habits, their occupations, and their
associations—quite as much as fundamentally by their cultural values and their sense of social
propriety” (Bloomfield 1968: 5–6; compare Banerjee 1989: 54).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 9 of 26

First, the category of bhadralok is loose and expansive; it could include

wealthy entrepreneurs, landed gentry, and impoverished school
teachers, poets, or journalists. The earliest members of the
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā were just such a diverse group. Second, the cat-
egory of bhadralok speaks of a peculiar nexus between ascriptive group
status and bourgeois individualism.17 Although many bhadralok were
from high-caste families, not all of them were. Some of the Bengali
nouveau riches of the time were men of lower-caste status who had
achieved social distinction through financial dealings. Third, for all
their varying backgrounds, the bhadralok were united by common edu-
cational attainments. This was a group of men who were schooled in,
and contributed to the maintenance of, the colonial educational
system.18 Fourth, the bhadralok tended to share a basic “ethic and senti-
ment” (Bhattacharya 2005: 67), a kind of bourgeois “aspiration” that
both fueled and sanctioned their “project of self-fashioning” (quoting
Joshi 2001: 2). This ethic and sentiment worked to further unify the
bhadralok.19 This bhadralok cultural project is central to the discourse
of bourgeois Vedānta.
While the bhadralok of late colonial Bengal have received rather
extensive treatment, the much earlier discourses of Sabhyadiger vaktrtā
offer us a rare opportunity to drop further back in time to consider˙ a
rare and striking expression of bhadralok religious thought from the
early nineteenth century. In doing so, we gain heightened appreciation
for some of the dynamics through which norms of industry, domestic
life, moral responsibility, and worldly success would come to be codi-
fied in colonial middle-class discourse and religious practice. In other
words, we reach back to an almost originary moment in the develop-
ment of modern middle-class Hinduism.

CALCUTTA IN THE 1830S

To appreciate the significance of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā, we need
to consider the 1830s in Calcutta, a decade that appeared to provide the
bhadralok with opportunities for both prosperity and increased political

17
Mukherjee (1977: 31) remarks that although bhadralok was largely a Hindu group, caste
status was not in fact a basic requirement.
18
This sketch of the bhadralok draws from Bhattacharya’s recent analysis (2005), which builds
upon the work of Sarkar (1997).
19
By the late nineteenth century, this ethic and sentiment played an important role in
promoting early forms of nationalist mobilization. George Mosse’s work on bourgeois
respectability and European nationalism suggests possibilities for conceptualizing the relationship
between bhadralok culture and Indian nationalism (Mosse 1985).
Page 10 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

participation. Trade flourished and official positions were beginning to

open up for Bengalis. Voluntary associations began to spring up as if
overnight, representing the urge to promote collective endeavors in
publishing, education, agriculture, and political representation.20 This
was a decade that was experiencing something like an “industrious
revolution” [borrowing this phrase from de Vries (1994)].21
One might say the 1830s began in 1829, the year the Governor
General, Lord William Bentinck, passed legislation banning the prac-
tice of widow immolation or “Suttee”—a reformist cause that had
famously been championed by Rammohan Roy. In passing Regulation
XVII, Bentinck made explicit reference to the effect this act might
have upon a “public mind” that had obviously begun to make itself
heard in the colonial metropolis; Bentinck was keenly aware of the
heated debates this single issue had aroused among local religious fac-
tions (Muir 1969: 294).
Public debate was to be a prominent part of religious, political, and
social life throughout the 1830s. The constraining circumstances of
colonial rule notwithstanding, the decade witnessed a dramatic increase
in the expression of Bengali public opinion on issues closely connected
to the future of the region. In 1830, the Dharma Sabhā (or “Society of
Religion”) was established to express public opposition to Bentinck’s
ban on Suttee.22 In a similar fashion, prominent intellectuals, land-
holders, and entrepreneurs entered into open debates over the pros and
cons of European colonization, whereas English-educated students of
the Hindu College began to challenge the putative errors of traditional
Hinduism.
In 1833, the East India Company Charter was renewed, carrying with
it assurances of new administrative posts for Bengalis. The following year
saw the creation of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, which featured
some natives as members (Sanyal 1980: 222). Remarking on such develop-
ments, one important Bengali paper reported confidently around this time
that “public opinion, enlightened by the lights of growing knowledge, is
almost everywhere gaining strength” (Selections from Jnanannesan 1979:
57). The end of the decade brought the creation of two important
expressions of Bengali public sentiment and civic engagement: the

20
It has been estimated that by 1876 at least 200 voluntary associations had been formed in
Calcutta (Sanyal 1980: 14, see also Ahmed 1976).
21
Hatcher (1996b) explores the impact of this revolution on the lives and activities of Sanskrit
pandits.
22
The group has been called a curious combination of modern voluntary association and
traditional caste tribunal (Mukherjee 1977: 54).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 11 of 26

Landholders Association and the Society for the Acquisition of General

Knowledge. Both of these semi-political organizations were established in
1838 and served to provide conservative and liberal Bengalis important
contexts within which to voice their concerns about commerce, trade,
government, learning, and culture (Palit 1980: 77).
This atmosphere of heightened public debate and associational
activity should be correlated to the emergence of the shared mentality
and values of the bhadralok. Whether we look at the orthodox
members of the Dharma Sabhā or the rationalist students of the Hindu
College, these bhadralok tended to share a discernible set of values cen-
tering on the promotion of hard work, honesty, frugality, and depend-
ability. These values form the moral framework of the colonial
bourgeoisie. In due course they would transform the expression of
Hindu religious identity. The Tattvabodhinī Sabhā was both a product
and a co-producer of this energized public sphere.
The energies of the bhadralok are apparent in the discourses
recorded in Sabhyadiger vaktrtā, which reveal members thinking out
˙
loud about the role and function of a Vedānta-based path of spiritual
worship in a milieu of rapid socio-economic transformation. Although
the overt concern of these discourses is to articulate the meaning of
Vedānta, these discourses also suggest the process by which bhadralok
members sought to legitimate their new social roles. In a fashion strik-
ingly similar to that noted by Liechty in his analysis of the Nepali
middle class, what we find in these discourses is a redefined theology of
Vedānta set to the task of naturalizing the economic privileges of the
Sabhā’s bourgeois members (Liechty 2003: 19).

A BOURGEOIS VEDĀNTA
For a text created by a group with a strong commitment to the
Vedānta, it may come as a surprise to learn that those things often
associated with Vedānta—that is, the metaphysics of ātman and
brahman; the problem of illusion (māyā); or the characteristics of ulti-
mate reality—are far from prominent in the discourses of Sabhyadiger
vaktrtā. To understand this, we must appreciate the degree to which the
˙ sought to distance itself from the classical Advaita Vedānta
group
associated with the great philosopher Śaṅkarācārya (ca. eighth c. CE),
in which such themes are highlighted. Dissaffection with Śaṅkara’s
non-dualist philosophy had begun with Rammohan Roy, in whose
vision of Vedānta renunciation was replaced by the ideal of worldly
engagement, an ideal he captured in the image of the “godly house-
holder,” or brahmanistha grhastha (Hatcher 1996a: ch. 8). Though
˙˙ ˙
Page 12 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

formed independently from Rammohan’s Brāhmo Samāj, the

Tattvabodhinī Sabhā shared his basic rejection of Śankara’s renuncia-
tory paradigm. Indeed, Debendranath once remarked ˙ that Śankara’s
extreme non-dualism—the denial of a self separate from supreme ˙
reality—was a position he could not accept (Tagore [1898] 1980: 83).
For Debendranath, the very core of religion was the relationship
between a believer and God.
Rather than world renunciaton (samnyāsa), the members of the
˙
Tattvabodhinī Sabhā took the central message of Vedānta to be the need
to control one’s senses and passions. As I noted at the outset, the
problem of desire has ancient Indian roots. For millennia Hindus,
Buddhists, and Jains had all emphasized the need to come to grips with
the role of the senses and the passions in shaping the moral and spiritual
life. All these traditions share an emphasis on desire as the motive force
behind continued existence in the realm of rebirth known as samsāra.
The Tattvabodhinī group was no different in this regard; for them, ˙ the
teachings of Vedānta promoted mastery of the senses and passions as the
key to knowledge and worship of the Supreme Lord. However, what
makes Sabhyadiger vaktrtā so interesting is that in it we have the oppor-
tunity to study the way ˙this concern for sense-restraint emerges from the
colonial world of the bhadralok. Although it might be argued that
ancient texts like the Bhagavad-gītā had already taught the need to disci-
pline one’s action in pursuit of religious duty, this does not make the
Bhagavad-gītā a bourgeois text, despite what modern-day swamis might
teach.23 The Gītā, or the Upanisads for that matter, only become bour-
geois texts when their idioms and ˙ arguments are redeployed to naturalize
the worldly status of an emergent urban middle class.24
The setting in which these discourses were delivered reminds us of
the profound socio-economic changes that accompanied the formation
of the Sabhā. One can easily visualize the bustling seaport world of
colonial Calcutta as the backdrop to the following meditation on the
transiency of sensory objects:

So many people expend enormous effort and time amassing wealth.

They travel to distant countries; they traverse the ocean; they follow the
commands of proud and wealthy individuals; and they suffer rebuke

23
Engardio and McGregor (2006) inform us that an executive at Sprint Nextel Corporation has
written a book on the Bhagavad-gītā and business leadership.
24
Interestingly, none of the authors represented in Sabhyadiger vaktrtā cites the Bhagavad Gītā
as a proof text, preferring a selection of Upanisads and other sources, ˙such as the Laws of Manu,
the Mahābhārata, and the Kulārnava Tantra. ˙
˙
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 13 of 26

when their obedience falls even the slightest bit short. Eventually they
reach their appointed hour, overcome by old age and death. Then there
are those who have copious wealth and various avenues for enjoyment,
but who are unable to enjoy it because of illness (SV: 18).25

In this passage, the general human predicament of desire is construed

concretely in terms of the specific craving for wealth. As the author of
another discourse remarks, a person under the sway of the senses:

looks at a mountain from afar and because of the sun’s rays perceives
it to be covered with all sorts of delightful gems. In the same way, a
person under the sway of sense objects gazes at unearned riches and
imagines them to promise endless possibilities for happiness. And yet,
no sooner do those riches come to him by dint of countless afflictions
than he is left unsatisfied. Driven by a longing for happiness, he once
again grows agitated to acquire more riches. This kind of thirst for
sense objects can never be overcome through riches (SV: 14).

Though concerned to caution against unchecked desire, the same

author reminds us that it is the very desire for sensory objects that
drives “the business of life” (SV: 14). Desire prompts farmers to grow
crops, artisans to produce their wares, investors to acquire those goods,
and merchants to ship them around the world.
As if looking out the window at the sailing ships moored in the
Hooghly River, the author of the final discourse makes clear the degree to
which the residents of Calcutta have benefited from trade and commerce:

Is there a single member of this Society who doesn’t know how much
the world is helped by business? Through their varied efforts, mer-
chants determine what sorts of essential goods are wanting in various
nations. Then they diligently set about producing the various goods
that will address these needs. In this they are capable—at one and the
same time—of helping both their own nation and foreign nations.
They provide continual support to the farmers and craftsmen of their
own nation who grow bountiful corn and fruits and who make all
sorts of clothing and jewelry. And by distributing this corn, fruit,
clothing, and jewelry to other lands where they are needed, they
increase the general welfare. It is by the very grace of these merchants
that we have come to live in the one place where all these delightful

25
Abbreviating Sabhyadiger vaktrtā as SV, and providing the page numbers as found in the
˙
original edition of 1841. All translations are my own [for the complete text, see Hatcher
(forthcoming)].
Page 14 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

goods are prepared, here on the shore of the mighty ocean. Right now,
as I deliver this very discourse, how many merchants from how many
nations are busily working to promote our happiness?

This prompts the same author to return to the question of what it is

that drives such diligent activity. The answer, of course, is desire:

Do you suppose it is the case that all these merchants have gone
into business merely to work for our happiness? Do all the sea captains
brave the ocean waves out of a desire for our well being? This cannot
be so. It is practically a universal truth that people exert themselves out
of a desire to increase their own wealth, reputation, and fame (SV: 32).

Thanks to the force of human desire, marvelous trade goods flow into
the colonial metropolis from around the world; men grow wealthier by
the day. And it just so happens that the desire for wealth and power
even serves to foster the “welfare of the country” (SV: 14):

Motivated by this longing for wealth, farmers and artisans produce

huge amounts of the finest fruits and foods and a variety of the finest
garments; seeking ever greater power, they call upon merchants to ship
those goods from one country to another. Here we sit in this one
place, satiated with all kinds of goods from different countries. Seeking
ever higher levels of advancement, government officials carefully
perform their respective duties, while we pass our time without fear of
thieves or other villains. Wise men, desiring greater glory, expend great
energy preparing a variety of books for the welfare of the country, by
means of which we all gain knowledge and fulfillment (SV: 14).

If references to investment and trade put us in mind of Debendranath’s

entrepreneurial father, passages like these remind us that around this time
the bhadralok were also beginning to take up philanthropic activities.26
For these bourgeois Vedantins, desire in itself is therefore not the
problem. Human beings experience trouble only when they fail to submit
their desires to a proper hierarchy of values. If all we seek is wealth and
power, we may fall prey to illusory and transient signs of success. This is
delusion (moha). In this connection, several authors adopt rather formu-
laic Hindu metaphysical terminology to speak of our failure to know
reality as it is. Liberation (moksa) comes with knowledge of ultimate
˙
reality (tattva). Knowledge of ultimate reality corresponds to knowledge

26
Numerous voluntary associations were dedicated to the creation and publication of school
books to promote the interests of native education (Hatcher 1996a).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 15 of 26

of the self (ātmabodha; see SV: 15). As in the Upanisads, the fundamen-
˙
tal question is, Who are you? Nevertheless, this is a bourgeois rescripting
of the Upanisadic message, as is made clear from the attempt to demon-
strate that Vedānta provides a resource for promoting the betterment of
one’s world. The bhadralok authors of these discourses are intent upon
spiritual comfort, but they also seek worldly happiness. The way to
achieve both ends is to cultivate sense-restraint.
The author of the first discourse reminds us that it is only through
sense-restraint that ultimate reality can be known and liberation attained.
As he puts it, “true worship of Brahman consists of restraining the senses
and grasping the teaching of the Vedas and Vedānta. On the other hand,
if one disregards both reason and the Śāstras and lets one’s fickle senses
grow strong, one cannot attain the Supreme Lord” (SV: 1).27 Several of
the authors argue that since God has given human beings the power to
restrain their senses, it must certainly be something within our grasp.
However, the authors of Sabhyadiger vaktrtā share the conviction
˙
that the key to sense-restraint is not radical renunciation, as it is in many
classical traditions, but simply diligence and personal effort. They suggest
that it is pointless to wander off to the forest to subdue one’s passions,
since distraction is always possible, even in the depths of the jungle. The
better strategy is to pursue sense-restraint within the ordinary world of
family, business, and government (SV: 27–29). Our senses and our pas-
sions do not need eradication; they just need subduing. One passage, in
particular makes this argument in straightforward terms:

If all the passions were destroyed once and for all, it would be difficult
for us to carry out the duties of worldly life.
Without lust, there would be no bonds of love with our wives and
sons. Without an object of our love, we would cease to exert ourselves
in caring and providing for others; we would go about listless and con-
fused, doing false deeds. Caring only to find some way to feed our own
stomachs, and deprived of all the other pleasures of life, we would
descend even lower than the beasts.
Without anger, there would be no shame. All of a sudden everyone
would be stealing. Children, servants and wives, etc., would not live as
they ought to. How could the duties of worldly life be carried out in
such a situation?
Without selfishness, there would also be no friendship on earth. No
one would share in the suffering and happiness of others; no one

27
A common refrain in these discourses is the pursuit of “happiness in this life and liberation
in the next” (SV: 2).
Page 16 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

would lift a hand to help anyone else. People would scarcely feel it
necessary to care for their wives and children.
Therefore, respected members, be diligent in steadfastly controlling
lust, anger, etc., and reflect upon their proper functioning, that you
may find salvation from all misfortune (SV: 17).

Rather than renouncing our passions, then, we must simply learn to

frame our desires appropriately. According to these authors, Vedānta
inquires of us: “Were you put on this earth solely for sensory pleasure?”
It also provides the answer. No, you were created “to respect your father
and mother, love your neighbors, work for the welfare of the govern-
ment, rescue people from the torment of suffering, provide religious
instruction to your son and students, and give knowledge to the ignor-
ant” (SV: 22). Through the measured restraint of our passions, we can
in fact work for the welfare of ourselves and others. The author of the
eleventh discourse concludes with the assurance that “wiser and
happier still … are those who pray for wealth and power solely in order
to promote the welfare of the country” (SV: 14).
In thinking about what constitutes the welfare of others, these dis-
courses deliver a socially conservative message. Seeking a new vision of
religion, the Sabhā nonetheless demonstrated little interest in radical
social change. The conservatism of the Sabhā offers an interesting parallel
to themes we find announced in the writings of New England
Puritanism or the writings of Benjamin Franklin. As Franklin wrote,
“Religion will be a Powerful Regulator of our Actions; give us Peace and
Tranquility within our own Minds, and render us Benevolent, Useful and
Beneficial to others” (quoted in McElroy 1999: 125).28 Like Franklin, the
bourgeois members of the Sabhā find in their religious beliefs a strong
foundation for the responsible maintenance of family life and the social
order and a system of assurances providing for the smooth practice of
worldly affairs. In these discourses, as in Franklin’s writings, the social
and political order is understood to be grounded in God’s law. When the
social order is honored and upheld, it provides a reassuring matrix
within which to conduct our affairs. But those who violate the laws of
the state end up being punished, just as evil-doers are punished hereafter.

As long as ignorant and misguided people mistakenly say there is no

Lord and no afterlife, they are deprived of happiness. It is like

28
As Taylor (1989: 277) notes, the Deist ethic based on a vision of “providential order” can be
“an extremely conservative doctrine.” On the modern western idea that “individual prosperity
redounds to the general welfare,” see Taylor (2002: 101).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 17 of 26

someone who mistakenly says there is no ruler when in fact there is.
Such a person violates the law and winds up being punished. The
same goes for someone who mistakenly says there is no Lord and no
afterlife. Such a person is tainted by the sins of various evil deeds and
eventually meets with misfortune. Not being able to remember the
Supreme Lord—who is our savior and refuge—when confronted by
some fear or anxiety is only to have one’s fears redoubled. One mista-
kenly thinks there is no afterlife. One mistakenly thinks that at death
the Self is destroyed. With every passing day one grows more sorrowful
at the thought of death. Then, on the day of one’s death, one plunges
into a sea of hopelessness (SV: 13).

Here the emphasis on what Weber (1958: 25) might have called the
“rational structures of law” seems to confirm and foster the emergence
of bourgeois norms of civil life. And the largely conservative tone of the
addresses suggests the prevailing bhadralok attitude of the 1830s regard-
ing the providential character of British rule. Provided they recognized
their place within the larger order of British law and commerce, the
bhadralok were confident they would prosper. Vedānta as deployed
in these discourses thus serves to legitimize the cultural choices of the
bhadralok by naturalizing their worldview.
Powerful tools for legitimating the social status of the bhadralok are
found in the related idioms of “law” and “duty.” The idiom of law is
invoked in two registers. On the one hand, it serves to remind us of the
regularity and purposefulness of God’s creation. Creation conforms to
the Creator’s laws (niyama or dharma). Were there to be any relaxation
in this law, “the world would be completely destroyed” (SV: 8).29 On
the other hand, the idiom of law is used to identify the kinds of duties
human beings must observe. We are told that the religiously awakened
person is one who “performs all his actions in life in accordance with
the Lord’s laws” (SV: 13). Weber’s discussion of the Calvinist view of
duty rings remarkably well in this context: “The world exists to serve
the glorification of God … The elected Christian is in the world only to
increase this glory … by fulfilling His commandments … But God
requires social achievement of the Christian because he wills that social
life be organized according to His … purpose” (1958: 108).30

29
Consider the fourth discourse, where we read that it is “through the laws of this merciful
Supreme Lord … [that] a child is born after spending ten carefree months in its mother’s womb”
(SV: 8).
30
Compare this with another of Weber’s comments on bourgeois religion: “Not union with
God or contemplative surrender to God … but God-willed action with the feeling of being God’s
‘instrument’ could here become the preferred religious habitus” (qtd in Ringer 2000: 154).
Page 18 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

What holds this worldview together is the trust that both God’s
divine law and all human laws are reflected in our own internal sense
of duty. Weber (1958: 109) spoke of “natural intuition,” but the
members of the Sabhā invoke the idiom of dharma, or “duty,” further
reminding us how this bourgeois ethic found expression in indigenous
categories. Dharma connotes both the cosmic or divine order and the
rules of duty for humans to follow. It also speaks of that inner sense,
that “intuition,” of how things should be. The idiom of dharma thus
proves to be a powerful one for the Tattvabodhinī group because it
offers a middle ground between theistic and humanistic morality. It
captures a sense of the interpenetration of divine law, human legis-
lation, and innate human morality.
Through the idiom of dharma, the Sabhā also arrived at a convin-
cing argument for legitimating their worldly activities. Put simply, to
engage in profit-making business could be seen as part of the omnis-
cient Lord’s creative plan. Business is good not simply when it is done
well, but when it is done according to dharma, which is to say with the
right intention—with diligence and concern for the well-being of
others. The final discourse in Sabhyadiger vaktrtā leaves us with an
˙
image of such a bourgeois hero. He is, in the words of one speaker, a
“great soul” (mahātmā):

They always exert themselves with care, whether by keeping good

company, providing counsel, quelling sorrow, treating illness, or
bestowing knowledge. Such great-souled men are indeed wealthy and
they alone are the true votaries of the Supreme Lord …. [T]hey alone
are able to set aside their own interests and work for the welfare of all
(SV: 34).31

This ethic of care and concern is strikingly reminiscent of the eight-

eenth-century Euro-American preference for the “calm passion” of
commerce (Taylor 2002: 104). In both cases, sensory restraint and
diligent behavior guarantee worldly welfare and ultimate salvation. And
here, in fact, is the core message of bourgeois Vedānta. This ethic
of diligence and dutifulness legitimates the twin goals of worship and
profit-making by reference to a set of theological claims expressed in
the idioms of self-knowledge, sense-restraint, and the law. What is
more, one can sense the enthusiasm of the members, not only for

31
It is worth comparing the emphasis in these discourses on diligence and self-restraint with
Weber’s emphasis on “the alert self-control of the Puritan” (1958: 619).
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 19 of 26

their new-found religious vision, but also for the way they seem to
have found a framework for rationalizing their success and happiness in
this life.
It would take us too far beyond these discourses to trace the afterlife
of this bourgeois vision. We might simply note two important develop-
ments. First, no sooner had the Sabhā been established than the hopes
of the bhadralok for expanded opportunities in the colonial public
sphere began to crumble. As Sarkar (1997: 226) has written, the 1840s
witnessed “the end of large-scale Bengali entrepreneurship, with the
collapse of the Union Bank being often taken as a benchmark.” It
was during this same period that the assets of Carr, Tagore, and Co.
were sold; the demise of this venture that had begun so promisingly
under Debendranath’s father, signaled the coming demise of bhadralok
business interests in colonial Bengal (Kling 1976: 242). Second, groups
like the Sabhā began to come under increasing Christian criticism after
the mid-1840s. Responses to such critique varied, but in time the
defensive posture required by such exchanges would sow the seeds of
more reactionary forms of Hindu assertion, beginning already in
Rajnarain Bose’s widely hailed address from 1872 on the “Superiority
of Hinduism” (Bose 1872).
As the century progressed, the melioristic bourgeois theology of
the earliest Sabhā would begin to seem quaint and a tad irrelevant,
especially in the face of growing British racism after the events of
1857 and the proclamation of British imperial rule. At the same time,
the fundamental conservatism of the Sabhā’s bourgeois worldview
would have to face increasing pressures from within the Brāhmo
movement, with which it had become synonymous by the late 1850s.
Debates over the need to reform society would eventually create fis-
sures within the larger Brāhmo movement itself. In light of such
developments, the discourses recorded in Sabhyadiger vaktrtā may
now seem rather naïve and perhaps a tad self-absorbed. However, ˙ they
reveal an important, if short-lived, moment in the early decades of
colonial Calcutta when merchants and entrepreneurs were looking to
define a new cultural space by redefining their religious and economic
worlds.

CONCLUSION
The overall optimism of the original Tattvabodhinī Sabhā and its
confidence in the promise of prosperity through landholding, trade,
and benevolent government, is signaled by the rhetorical question that
Page 20 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

opens the final discourse in Sabhyadiger vaktrtā: “Is there a single

member of this Society who doesn’t know how ˙ much the world is
helped by business?” (SV: 32). Sitting in Calcutta at the end of the
1830s, surrounded by striking evidence of the transformation of the
local economy, who could deny it? The author conjures up a bustling
world of commerce where the goods produced by farmers and crafts-
men move to and fro through the agency of countless seamen and
traders. As for the members of the Sabhā, they are blessed to live “in
the one place where all these delightful goods are prepared, here on the
shore of the mighty ocean” (SV: 32).
Like Weber’s industrious Puritans, these authors clearly work to
subsume the pursuit of wealth beneath a higher spiritual calling; their
emphasis on the “rational planning” of their lives in “accordance with
God’s will” is indeed reminiscent of Weber’s innerworldly asceticism
(1958: 153).
But whatever echoes we detect of the Puritans or Benjamin
Franklin in these discourses, we must bear in mind that our quest
in this essay has been to identify the unique cultural foundations
upon which this bourgeois Vedānta was constructed. Parallels with
developments elsewhere surely help us think comparatively about
the problem of religion and worldly success, but our goal here
has also been to call attention to the genesis of the Tattvabodhinī
worldview in the South Asian colonial context. The Vedānta of
the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā is certainly not Cotton Mather’s
Puritanism, with its deep roots in an Augustinian portrait of
human sinfulness (Taylor 1989: 221–222). Nor is it Franklin’s
commonsense Deism, which is properly intelligible only against
the backdrop of the Protestant Reformation and Puritan theology,
narrative traditions developed by the likes of John Bunyan and
Daniel Defoe, and Classical and Enlightenment ethical reflection
(Wright 1989: 2–4). By contrast, the values of the Tattvabodhinī
Sabhā must be understood in terms of a wide range of Hindu
scriptural resources (most importantly the Upanisads but including
selected Tantras and Smrti texts as well); narrative ˙ conventions
˙
established in Vedic and epic literature, didactic fables, and
Bengali story-telling; not to mention ethical categories with deep
roots in the South Asian religious universe. The cultural para-
digm-makers in this case were Yajñavalkya, Siddhārtha, and Manu,
not Mather and Franklin.
Therefore, while it may seem tempting to describe the bourgeois
Vedānta of the Tattvabodhinī Sabhā as a kind of Protestant Hinduism,
we should not lose sight of the fact that this label obscures as much
 Hatcher: Bourgeois Vedānta Page 21 of 26

as, or perhaps more than, it illuminates.32 Clearly there is something

metaphorically “protestant” about this attempt to define Hinduism as
a non-renunciatory path of worldly opportunity, but it is problematic
at best to ascribe that attempt to the direct influence of Protestant
theology. Clearly Protestantism was a factor in the colonial milieu,
appearing overtly in the form of missionary activity and covertly in
the goals and strategies of the colonial curriculum (on the latter, see
Viswanathan 1990). But a simplistic model of Protestant impact and
Hindu response cannot do justice to the complexity of cultural creati-
vity in colonial South Asia. When we think of the vectors through
which cultural influence is exerted, it is perhaps better to imagine the
quantum physicist’s cloud chamber than the billiard balls of classical
mechanics. As I have attempted to show in another context, the
appropriate way to envision a worldview such as we find articulated in
Sabhyadiger vaktrtā is as a kind of cultural convergence through
which indigenous˙ norms and European values interpenetrate to foster
new, vernacular idioms of religious aspiration and commitment
(Hatcher 1996a). Such are the idioms of law, duty, diligence, and
restraint employed by the authors of these short discourses. And it is
these idioms that would in turn provide powerful and long-lasting cat-
egories through which modern Hindus could reconceptualize their
religious identity and practices.
If we are to map the kinds of convergences that supported the emer-
gence of modern Hinduism, we need a South Asian version of Charles
Taylor’s Sources of the Self (1989)—a comprehensive survey that would
seek to trace the development in colonial and postcolonial India of
themes such as duty, reason, inwardness, the value of householder exist-
ence, and the nature of religious experience. Put somewhat differently,
the goal would be to map the “social imaginaries” in colonial Bengal
that supported the emergence of new moral orders that fostered the
manifold expressions of contemporary Hinduism (Taylor 2002). The
present attempt to explicate the bourgeois Vedānta of the Tattvabodhinī
Sabhā is one contribution toward such a goal, allowing us to appreciate
with greater specificity the cultural and historical roots of today’s
middle-class Hinduism.33

32
Precedent for employing such a rubric can be found in the concept of “protestant Buddhism”
developed by Gananath Obeyesekere; for a short overview of the model, see Gombrich (1988:
ch. 7).
33
Additionally, the present essay serves to illustrate the point that when it comes to modernity
we should speak not of the global spread of a singular phenomenon but of the emergence of
“multiple modernities” (Taylor 2002: 91).
Page 22 of 26 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

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