Religion and Public Memory

Born into a low caste of tailors in thirteenth-century India, Namdev gained widespread fame for his innovative performances of devotional songs and simple affection for God. Today the figure of Saint Namdev is central to many religious traditions within Hinduism and Sikhism and is a key presence in the early religious literature of northern India, Maharashtra, and Punjab in the second millennium. He appears throughout Marathi and Hindi modern public spheres, where his identity fluctuates between regional associations and a pan-Indian, nationalist-secularist character. Through the lens of memory and public performance, Christian Lee Novetzke considers Namdev's historical permutations in India over eight centuries. Drawing on ethnographies of devotional performance, archival materials, scholarly historiography, and popular media including film, he vividly illustrates how India's religious communities preserve their pasts and create new historical narratives around perennially sacred figures.