This year’s RBSN symposium explores a key rhetorical motif – the religious Other and acts of othering. Who are the Others of regional bhakti traditions’ saints and poets, how do they position themselves over against Others, and how do these Others vary from region to region?  Are there broad patterns in how sociopolitical contexts raise the stakes of making such judgments and marking boundaries? How are Others actually represented (through text, performance, ritual, etc.) and are these representations mirrored in sources outside what we identify as associated with “bhakti”? And what discursive strategies are employed in the process of othering?

Exploring such questions within this framework has multiple benefits.  The diversity of South Asian devotional traditions makes them an especially rich source for examining social and religious fault lines across India, thereby furthering our understanding of how communalism and sectarianism form. An intentionally multi-regional and multi-linguistic analysis of “who is out” of the bhakti fold can illuminate trends, interests, and motivations for demarcating “who is in” within the rubric of devotionalism.  Do all bhakti traditions similarly constitute their own identities by setting themselves off against explicitly Others? Can we find patterns in understanding what constitutes a “good” bhakta and thus an identifiable core of bhakti, or are the various constructions too disparate from each other?

Two important categories within the conversation of the bhakta’s Other: so-called “orthodox” Hinduism, most often represented by figurations of the Brahmin, and non-bhakti competitors (yogis, tantrikas, village goddess followers, etc.), as well as “non-Hindus” entirely (Jains, Muslims, etc.).   How much do these categories retroject contemporary boundary sensibilities onto a past that had different social contours and typologies of alterity? This symposium reconsiders inherited, often over-simplified notions of the bhakta’s Other and unmask processes of representation that involve adoption, appropriation, and rejection of different social and religious agents. Drawing on the diverse expertise of the RBSN members and other participants, this symposium enables a broad yet context-specific and nuanced discussion that will deepen understanding of the South Asian religious landscape.