Guest is God: Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Making Paradise in India

229 Pages·2020·9.09 MB·English

by  Drew Thomases

Guest Is God

Guest Is God
Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Making
Paradise in India
DREW THOMASES
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thomases, Drew, author.
Title: Guest is God : pilgrimage, tourism, and making paradise in India /
Drew Thomases.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2019. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015420| ISBN 9780190883553 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780190883560 (updf) | ISBN 9780190883577 (epub) |
ISBN 9780190883584 (online)
Subjects: LCSH: Hindu pilgrims and pilgrimages—India—Pushkar. | Pushkar
(India)—Religious life and customs.
Classification: LCC BL1239.36.P88 T46 2019 | DDC 294.5/3509544—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015420
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Transliteration xi
Introduction: Mapping Out Paradise 1
1. Others and Brothers 27
2. Making Pushkar Paradise 52
3. Savitri’s Curse 78
4. Camel Fair Kaleidoscopic 108
5. Peace But No Quiet 130
Epilogue 159
Notes 163
Glossary 193
Works Cited 195
Index 209

Acknowledgments
Any piece of writing is necessarily the product of many minds. Every book
is made from an assemblage of voices, of hints and gentle nudges, pieces of
advice and long- held concerns, heads both shaken and nodded. Of this vast
assemblage, I am most grateful for the nods and shakes of two people in par-
ticular: Jack Hawley and Rachel McDermott. Individually and collectively,
they exhibit an enviable balance of brilliance and compassion. Not only has
their work provided a model for academic excellence, but their capacity for
warmth and support has been an enduring source of inspiration for living
life— both inside and outside of the academy. It is hard to put into words what
I owe them.
This project began as a series of conversations with friends and mentors at
Columbia University. For those conversations and more, I want to thank Joel
Bordeaux, Patton Burchett, Allison Busch, Divya Cherian, Elizabeth Castelli,
Dan del Nido, Ryan Hagen, Udi Halperin, James Hare, Jon Keune, Abby
Kluchin, Joel Lee, Ben Fong, Dalpat Rajpurohit, Jay Ramesh, Rakesh Ranjan,
Simran Jeet Singh, Hamsa Stainton, Michael Taussig, Somadeva Vasudeva,
Anand Venkatkrishnan, and Tyler Williams. Todd Berzon and Sajida Jalalzai
read chapters at an early juncture in the writing, and helped me to clarify and
contextualize many of the ideas that form the basis of this book. I am partic-
ularly indebted to Liane Carlson, who read a number of my chapters at a very
shabby stage and who allowed me to ramble about my work over probably too
many Happy Hours. Thanks also to my dissertation committee— Courtney
Bender, Katherine Ewing, and Ann Gold— for helping me to translate those
more difficult ideas locked in my mind into compelling words on a page.
I have presented parts of this book, in various stages and instantiations,
at a number of venues: the American Academy of Religion, the American
Anthropological Association, Columbia University, the International
Conference on the Forum of Contemporary Theory (in Mysore), Syracuse
University, and the University of Wisconsin- Madison. In those locales, I was
fortunate to speak in front of audiences that were both receptive and generous;
in particular, I appreciate the critiques, encouragements, and well- wishes of
Carla Bellamy, Koya Edoho- Eket, Afsar Mohammad, Pritika Nehra, Corrie
viii Acknowledgments
Norman, Christian Novetzke, Andrea Pinkney, Sheipra Rajanikanth, and Sue
Wadley. This book would not have been possible without the institutional
and financial support of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), the
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, the Fulbright IIE, the Charlotte W. Newcombe
Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and Columbia University’s Institute for
Religion, Culture, and Public Life. The AIIS program in Jaipur was so impor-
tant to me— a year in which I solidified my grasp of Hindi, found a fieldsite in
Pushkar and, most importantly, met my wife. For their support throughout
that year, I want to offer special thanks to Vidhu Chaturvedi, Neelam Bohra
Singh, and Anita Tripathi.
In Pushkar, there are so many people to thank. First, I extend my grati-
tude to all the fine folks by Brahm Ghat, who welcomed me and my prying
eyes. I want to thank the Pandey family, and Hemant Pandey in partic-
ular, for making me feel as if their home was mine, too. Dharma and Ravi
Parashar were especially supportive, providing love and laughs and chai on
a daily basis. As a research assistant, Ravi helped me access ideas and people
who would have otherwise remained inaccessible. I am also deeply grateful
to Ashok and Madhu Parashar—a nd their sons Kuldeep and Pradeep— my
family in India. Their support I will never be able to pay back.
There are several friends and colleagues who have read chapters, offered
insight, or shared their thoughts on some facet of my work. I am grateful to
Carol Babiracki, Adam Becker, Sravani Biswas, Arun Brahmbhatt, Stephen
Christopher, Greg Clines, Ruthie Dibble, Elaine Fisher, Anya Foxen, Dan
Heifetz, Carter Higgins, Amy Hirschtick, Yoshina Hurgobin, Borayin Larios,
Andrew Nicholson, Elayne Oliphant, Jenn Ortegren, Jef Pierce, Geoff Pollick,
James Reich, Nidhi Vij, Emera Bridger Wilson, Ian Wilson, and Angela Zito.
I have to single out Kali Handelman, my dear friend and editor, who read the
manuscript multiple times and who was able to airlift me out of the forest
of this book when my nose was rubbing against the bark of a tree. Kali’s pa-
tience and incisiveness made this book many times better than it would have
been. Thank you, Kali.
San Diego State University has been my institutional home since 2016,
and there I have found friends and colleagues who— whether through
books, lunches, or soccer— have made my life richer. I thank Rebecca Bartel,
Raechel Dumas, Stephen Goggin, Risa Levitt Kohn, John McDonald, Khaleel
Mohammed, Javier Núñez, Casey Roulette, Kate Rubin, Sthaneshwar
Timalsina, Kim Twist, Isaac Ullah, and Roy Whitaker. At Oxford University
Press, Cynthia Read and Drew Anderla have been encouraging from the
Acknowledgments ix
start. My thanks to them for their guidance and positivity, and for doing all
of the nitty- gritty stuff that went into making this book. The reviewers for the
book were also extremely helpful. The feedback of Jim Lochtefeld, in partic-
ular, was thorough yet sympathetic, pushing me to make substantive changes
while still keeping faith in the overall project.
Parts of this book have been published elsewhere. An earlier version of
chapter 1 was published as “In Defense of Brothering: the ‘Eternal Religion’
and Tourism in North India,” in the Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 84.4 (2016): 973–1 005. An earlier version of c hapter 2 was published
as “Making Pushkar Paradise: Hindu Ritualization and the Environment,” in
the International Journal of Hindu Studies 21.2 (2017): 187–2 10. And small
sections of c hapter 5 were initially part of “Spreading Peace in Pushkar: Shanti,
Tourism, and Hindu Hybridity,” in the Journal of Contemporary Thought 38
(2013): 65–7 1. I am grateful to Oxford University Press, Springer Nature,
and the Forum on Contemporary Theory for permission to reprint materials
from these articles.
I thank my father and mother, Mark and Doreen Thomases, for not being
too horrified when I decided to study religion and for encouraging me—
despite their worries—t o live far away, in India. My daughter Zinnia was
born when I was in the middle of writing this book. Her spontaneity and
charm have been such striking reminders of what matters in life. She has
helped me so much, all the while not knowing or caring for a single second
about this book. Finally, to Jocelyn Killmer I owe too much. She has read
nearly every page that I have written over the past many years, and it is only
because of her love that I have managed to keep writing. This book, and eve-
rything else, is dedicated to her.