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ABSTRACT
Based on fieldwork with the Annamrita programme, a food-based social service of ISKCON or the Hare Krishna movement in India, I look at the intricate connection between food, faith, social service and institution building. Formally known as the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, the Annamrita programme has partnered with the government’s midday meal scheme for school children. From the point of view of sociology of food and sociology of religion, I propose that food is a cultural, moral and emotional investment for ISKCON. I describe how a faith-based social service through the instrument of food becomes a mode of bridging and institution building. The governmentality of this food service and the sacred public–private partnership is a specific kind of cultural and macroeconomic intervention in a resource-limited setting such as India. Camouflaged and embedded in this programme is an element of cultural hegemony and a Krishna consciousness-governed nationalism, with the ideas of the nation as a sacred land. Krishna is considered as the vanguard of sacralisation and the faith messages of ISKCON inevitably accompany the service package.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Vrindavan in Northern India is the medieval Hindu pilgrimage town associated with the legend of Radha and Krishna. The environmental and social load on the town changed particularly with the establishment of ISKCON worldwide in the 1960s and the associated influx of pilgrims to Vrindavan (Haberman Citation2006).
2. Khichadi is an Indian culinary preparation combining rice, pulses (legumes) and vegetables. It is also popularly known as a meal in a dish and considered good for health and the palette.
3. The central government provides either rice or wheat from the Food Corporation of India to cook the midday meal and the state governments cover the preparation/cooking costs per child. The local governments act as the nodal authorities for the implementation of the Annamrita programme for children studying in the first to eight grades in government schools (and in government-aided schools) in urban areas.
4. This refers to intangible aspects such as the promise of salvation and status in the group of followers.
5. Carsten (Citation2011) has insisted on the literal and conceptual uncontainability of blood.
6. I define deliverables as the material khichadi delivered by ISKCON and the transcendental feelings associated with the programme through claims of divinity in the food and the preparation process. I define acquisitions in terms of the material needs fulfilled/acquired by school children and the transcendental acquisition in the opening to the divine consciousness of ISKCON.
7. This corroborates the ideas of several writings on contemporary religion, namely that seva is the way by which modern guru-led movements build institutions (see Copeman and Ikegame Citation2012; Warrier Citation2003).
8. A concept coined by Foucault (1991 [1978]), governmentality offers a new perspective for understanding the power of the state in advanced industrial societies. The governmentality perspective looks at political power as a system of actor networks that functions ‘through a profusion of shifting alliances between diverse authorities in projects to govern a multitude of facets of economic activity, social life and individual conducts’ (Rose and Miller Citation1992, 174).
9. In governance literature, problematising means defining ‘the threats and challenges to good governance and the adverse effects that can be expected from any failures or shortcomings’ (Merlingen Citation2011, 153). To overcome this problematic, efforts are to be made by governmental and non-governmental actors in ways thought desirable, rational and politically appropriate so as to maintain good governance ideals (Rose and Miller Citation1992, 181).
10. ‘The complex of mundane programmes, calculations, techniques, apparatus, documents and procedure through which authorities seek to embody and give effect to governmental ambitions’ (Rose and Miller Citation1992, 175) is an expression of governmental technology.
11. Communicative rationality, or communicative reason, is a theory or set of theories which describes human rationality as a necessary outcome of successful communication (Czobor-Lupp Citation2008).
12. Khichadi is considered ‘pure’ food infused with elements of sattwa or divinity since it is cooked without too many elaborate procedures. It is symbolic of simple food and is considered to preserve natural elements.
13. According to Pinkney (Citation2013), as the central liturgical prop at Hindu pilgrimage centres and local temples alike, prasāda or gracious gift is an everyday part of Hindu religious practice.
14. See Chakraborty (Citation2000).
15. Radha is the spiritual consort of Krishna and in the Gaudiya Vishnavite scheme inseparable from Krishna.
16. Food is one of the principal areas where nature and culture converge. The selection of food is a process wherein nutrition offered by nature is transformed by preparation (cooking) into food, a cultural product (MacClancy Citation1992).
17. See Lever (Citation2011) for a discussion on figurational sociology.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Samta P. Pandya
Samta P. Pandya is a faculty member at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. Her areas of research include religion, spirituality, faith-based organisations and social work perspectives and interventions.