Metropolitaner Kontext und neue religiöse Bewegungen. Formen hinduistischer kosmopolitischer Urbanität

Abstract

The paper introduces new modalities of cosmopolitan middle class religious urbanism building on Hinduist traditions – versions of a “new spiritual urbanism” that spread globally beyond Indian metropolitan cities. The two cases discussed, based on recent scholarship, concern the Swaminarayan movement (its BAPS branch) and the movement and organization that developed around Sathya Sai Baba, which present more particularistic and more inclusivist forms of cosmopolitanism, respectively. The paper looks at these two movements from the angle of the moorings they have in Indian cities.