Corporate Hinduism: An argument for attention to sites of authority in a nascent field of research¹

Abstract

This article takes stock of existing scholarly literature on corporate Hinduism and charts a course for future studies of the same. So far, this literature has focused on business gurus who deploy Hindu texts and ideas in order to justify, organize, and lend meaning to business practices centered around knowledge work in the corporate sector both in India and globally. I argue that further scholarship should pay closer attention to the sites and institutions whereby these gurus gain their authority as well as their platform. These now include business schools, research centers, and corporations. Such a focus reveals that corporate spaces are increasingly becoming loci of authority for the production of new forms of religion.

The contemporary guru field

“…Deonnie Moodie, differentiates between the “business gurus ” and the “ business gurus” of corporate Hinduism, arguing that the latter, in particular have received not enough scholarly attention for the gravity of their influence. The former, “business gurus ,” consist of well‐studied and, by now, commonplace guru figures like Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Baba Ramdev, who “engage in a particular strand of discourse that displays great ease at the congruence between business practices and Hindu principles, even as some seek to attenuate some of the trappings of corporate life” (Moodie, 2020, p. 2). Fostering theologies that resemble a global Hindu form of Prosperity Gospel, these gurus see material wealth, corporate success, and modern business savvy as “mutually compatible” with Vedanta and Hinduism (Fuller & Harriss, 2005, p. 225).…”

“…This subsect of the guru field is populated by relatively understudied gurus like Devdutt Pattanaik, Hrishikesh Vinod, and M.R. Kumara Swamy (Moodie, 2020, pp. 3–4).…”