Description
Book SynopsisGod of Justice deals with ritual healing in the Central Himalayas of north India. It focuses on the cult of Bhairav, a local deity who is associated with the lowest castes, the so-called Dalits, who are frequently victims of social injustice. When powerless people are exploited or abused and have nowhere else to go, they often turn to Bhairav for justice, and he afflicts their oppressors with disease and misfortune. In order to end their suffering, they must make amends with their former victims and worship Bhairav with bloody sacrifices. Many acts of perceived injustice occur within the family, so that much of the book focuses on the tension between the high moral value placed on family unity on the one hand, and the inevitable conflicts within it on the other. Such conflicts can lead to ghost possession, cursing, and other forms of black magic, all of which are vividly described. This highly readable book includes a personal account of the author''s own experiences in the field as we
Trade ReviewWilliam S. Sax's latest book... exhibits the same rich ethnography and lively, argument-driven prose that characterized his earlier work... the book offers a wealth of ethnographic description and direct quotation, and it successfully places this content in relation to larger debates in the field and sax's own arguments about ritual, modernity, and personhood in South Asia... it is an excellent book for the classroom as well as a significant contribution to the literature on healing, caste, gender, and the culture and religion of Garhwal. * Carla Bellamy, Book Reviews: South Asia *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: Fieldwork Among the Harijans ; 2. God of Justice ; 3. Landscape, Memory, and Ritual ; 4. Oracles, Gurus, and Distributed Agency ; 5. Rituals of Family Unity ; 6. Families and their ghosts ; 7. Sending the God Back ; 8. Postscript: Ritual healing and modernity
