Activities of Department of History
Title: - The Reification of the Neo-Vaishnavism and the space of the Satras in Post-industrial society: An Analysis with special reference to the Aunaiti Sattra (2018). | ||
Start Date - 2018-01-01 End Date - 2018-11-12 Duration - 300 days. | ||
Nature of the Activity: - Research Project | ||
Summary: - | ||
A Department Research Project was done on 'The Reification of the Neo-Vaishnavism and the Space of the Satras in Post-Industrial Society: an analysis with special reference to the Auniati Satra (Kaliapani Branch, Jorhat)' was done by Dr. Bikash Nath who is one of the faculty member of the department and presently the head of the department. The project work in the neighbouring
area of our institution was started with a study over the branch of the Aunaiti
Sattra one of the famous sattras of the Brhma Samhati . The major objective we
arranged in our study how far the changes in the sphere of the society through
the modern ideas has been impacting the organization of the sattra in fundamental
way. We also tried to look in to the changing attitude of the sattra
institutions like the branch at Kaliapani of the Aunaiti regarding the beliefs
about the different forms of the social institutions. The sattradhikar of the
sattra Pitambar Devgoswami very candidly said to us about the changing nature
of the organization of the sattra and the steps taken by the Aunaiti sattra in
mitigating the principles of the Vaishna faith among the tribal population
particularly among the Mishings and how the other powerful religious structure
with their huge international networks in terms of procuring money and power
for influencing the backward and poor communities to their influence. The
successive government has taken up steps to give several amenities to the sattra
like the grant of huge acre of land to establish the branch where the late
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee played an important role.The famous
entrprenuers like Hemendra Prasad Boruah and Prasanna Kumar Dutta gave immense
contribution in building some of the specific centres of activity in the sattra
premise. We interviewed the organizers at different level of their experiences
and their response to the changing routes of the modernity .Above all , their
interaction revealed some of the important points of the change in perspective
regarding the age-old beliefs in the social interactions and one of the major
aspects of that important change has been their willingness to accept
the rational justification of the present modern age. Although ,the basic
structure of functioning of the institution in its internal and external
activities have been remained same with the earlier methods of functioning but
there have come up some fundamental changes in this respect which has defined
the core of the institutional relevance of the sattra in a new way. It also
became clear through our interactions with the organizers of the institution
how natural calamities like flood have compelled to shift their activities in
the summer to this branch at Kaliapani. | ||
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