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Abstract

This article examines the embattled intersection of magic and rationality in the transnational Sathya Sai movement and positions the magical materializations of the charismatic “godman” Sathya Sai Baba, and the sacred objects thus produced, within the neo-liberal economy. It then explores the tensions between the twin processes of magical production and rational debunking set against the framework of the discourse of nation building in contemporary India as it seeks to be and sustain a global power. The article illuminates the two conflicting discourses of materiality and rationality. It demonstrates that both are ethical subjectivities situated with regard to virtue—a “virtuous materiality” and a “virtuous rationality” —that together create a “critical politics of virtue”. The article concludes by tentatively suggesting that the critical politics of virtue can liberate current theory from a unitary understanding of ethical subjectivity in a neo-liberal world.

Keywords

Religion globalization magic science South Asia

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