Regional Bhakti Scholars Network Symposium on “Transgression,” Annual Conference on South Asia 2023

Abstract:

This paper revisits the 1862 Guru Maharaj Libel case, identifying it as the first modern legal case that established the now commonplace discourse of guru criminality as the form of sexual transgression. Situating this trial in its distinctive nineteenth century colonial context, I show how guru sexuality was not the stage through which critique of the guru figure was mobilized prior to this landmark cultural moment. Until this point, gurus (including colonial pursuits of nomadic bands of ascetics, yogis, sadhus, and thugs) were criticized, and sometimes arrested, tried, and jailed mostly for banditry, dacoity, theft, murder, fraud, and espionage. What surfaces somewhat surprisingly with the Maharaj Libel case is the specter of female sexuality, with female devotees who are positioned as the ground upon which the battle for modern India is fought, as is the case with other nineteenth century moral debates that are similarly centered on women’s bodies, i.e. legislation passed regarding satī and child marriage in 1829, widow remarriage in 1856, among others. Revisiting this landmark legal case, I suggest that the denotation of transgression signifies the male desire to control female sexuality, rather than the women’s claim that they have been sexually violated – transgressed – by their guru.