ABSTRACT
The interrelation of religion and media has visibly transformed contemporary life in India. Media proliferation, heightened religiosity and consumerism since liberalization have brought spiritualism into the public domain, entrenching diverse spiritual and religious cultures into India’s media networks, business, governance and consumer modernity (Gooptu 2013; Lewis 2016; Nanda 2009; Rajagopal 2001). Noting the prolific popularity of spiritualism in India, these scholars observe that unlike institutional religion with ritually bound practices, recent spiritualism is mass-oriented, with flexible affiliations to the broad institutional structures of Hinduism. This recent spiritualism is corporatized by organizations and religious leaders and permeates notions of nationalism, consumption, identity, politics and welfare. Gooptu (2013, 74) argues that this “new spiritualism” is distinct from traditional religion, although it emerges from and relies upon extant religious traditions, spiritualism emphasizes introspective, self-enterprising expressions that are non-dogmatic, personalized geared to, psychological well-being, health, personal agency and self-making.
