Revivalism and Theosophy

This chapter demonstrates that demarcations between reformism and revivalism are anything but clear, and indeed often are more misleading than helpful. The focus rests on the ambiguous role of Theosophy within “Hindu revivalism,” as contemporaries perceived the Society as part of the “revivalist” camp, while it clearly harbored “typically reformist” ideas. The chapter opens a diachronic perspective on this ambiguity by discussing the Mahānirvāṇa Tantra and its reception since the eighteenth century. This provides insights into why Tantra played such a prominent role in the debates about revival and reform: it was central to the debates about sanātana dharma and related struggles about Hindu identity. So-called orthodox efforts were usually decisively marked by reformist agendas, while reformists often shared the same notions of sanātana dharma and a revival of Aryan civilization. These debates, which had developed since the early colonial period, conditioned the activities of the Theosophical Society.