RELIGIOUS RITES AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES: AYUDHA PUJA AS “CULTURE” AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: with Jeff Wilson, “‘The New Science of Health and Happiness’: Investigating Buddhist Engagements with the Scientific Study of Meditation”; Oliver Zamb

Abstract

Ayudha Puja, a South Indian festival translated as “worship of the machines,” is a dramatic example of how religion and science intertwine in political life. Across South India, but especially in the state of Karnataka, scientists and engineers celebrate the festival in offices, laboratories, and workshops by attending a puja led by a priest. Although the festival is noteworthy in many ways, one of its most immediate valences is political. In this article, we argue that Ayudha Puja normalizes Brahminical Hinduism within scientific culture through the inclusion of non-Hindus and through scientists' description of the festival as “cultural” rather than “religious.”