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<p>In Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism Urmila Mohan explores the materiality and visuality of cloth and clothing as devotional media in contemporary Hinduism. Drawing upon ethnographic research into the global missionizing group ‘International Society for Krishna Consciousness’ (ISKCON) she studies translocal spaces of worship service education and daily life in the group’s headquarters in Mayapur and other parts of India. Focusing on the actions and values of deity dressmaking devotee clothing and paraphernalia Mohan shows how activities such as embroidery and chanting can be understood as techniques of spirituality reverence allegiance – and she proposes the new term ‘efficacious intimacy’ to help understand these complex processes. The monograph brings theoretical advances in AngloEuropean material culture and material religion studies into a conversation with South Asian anthropology sociology art history and religion. Ultimately it demonstrates how embodied interactions as well as representations shape ISKCON’s practitioners as devout subjects while connecting them with the divine and the wider community. About the Author Urmila Mohan Ph.D. (2015 University College London) is an anthropologist of material culture. She authored Fabricating Power with Balinese Textiles (2018) and coedited ‘The Bodily and Material Cultures of Religious Subjectivation’ (Journal of Material Culture 2017) and The Material Subject: Rethinking Subjects Through Objects and Praxis (2020).</p>
