Paper short abstract

The paper argues that reformers and nationalists in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Bengal deployed the Christian concept of incarnation, and related it to Indic concepts of avatara, in order to create a powerful legitimating support for emerging Indian nationalism.

Paper long abstract

The Bengali Christian convert Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, the Christian-influenced Brahmos Keshub Chunder Sen, Bipin Chandra Pal and Rabindranath Tagore, and the Hindu nationalists Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Nabinchandra Sen, and Vivekananda, played a critical role in Indianizing the Christian doctrine of incarnation in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Bengal, moving away from the criticism of incarnation which had been present in Bengali reformist circles in the age of Rammohun Roy and the early-mid nineteenth-century Brahmo movement. While existing scholarship has focussed on individualized studies of some of these Bengalis, what has been surprisingly absent in scholarship is a broader analysis of the political rationale behind the emergence of the positive valuation of the doctrine of incarnation. I argue that Bengalis, by relating concepts of incarnation and avatara, presented Jesus as an exemplar of 'Asian' nationalism, and simultaneously as a model for nationalizing Indic saviour avataras like Krishna. The incarnate divinity thereby became the prototype for the future nationalist citizen. Taking a cue from Andrew Sartori's brief remarks on 'immanentist monism', I further argue that in nationalist hands, the doctrine of incarnation provided a critique of the supposedly vacuous abstractions of mechanical politics and capitalist economy which Bengalis identified as the hallmarks of British rule. The legacy of the pro-incarnation trend would last into the first half of the twentieth century as several nationalists described the Indian struggle against the British as comparable to the supposed Judaeo-Christian revolt against the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD.