Unforgetting Chaitanya is an exploration of the rise of middle-class bhadralok Bengali Vaishnavism through the process of cultural remembering and reconstruction—what Varuni Bhatia calls “unforgetting”—of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya. This book is a fantastic study of the formation of new identities and subjectivities during the colonial period in Bengal. It carefully addresses the role of new media (periodicals and journals), socioeconomic classes (salaried middle-class bureaucrats), and the changing perceptions of caste and religion as both causes and results of the period's shifting landscape to provide a refreshing new discussion of religion and colonialism.
The introduction effectively situates the book in both the reception history of Chaitanya and the history of religion in colonial Bengal. The introduction also connects the theoretical framework of “unforgetting” with loss (viraha) within Indian aesthetics of bhakti (devotion). However, it is also evident from the introduction that the book seeks to constrain its study...
