The Baha’i Faith in India: A Developmental Stage Approach by William Garlington (review)

Reviewed by: The Baha'i Faith in India: A Developmental Stage Approachby William Garlington Christopher Buck The Baha'i Faith in India: A Developmental Stage Approach. By William Garlington. Kalimát Press, 2023. xiii + 233pages. 29. 95 softcover; ebook available. The Bahá'í Faith is an independent world religion with around eight million adherents, of which an estimated 2. 2 million live in India. This makes India the country with the largest Bahá'í population in the world today. The Baha'i Faith in India, by William Garlington, is a new publication of some admittedly dated research, as the second sentence in the book's opening paragraph states: "The work was composed in 2003, and consequently does not cover subsequent decades of community development" (ix). (An earlier version, with the same title and subtitle, appeared in Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Bahá'í Studies, 1997. ) Notwithstanding the fact that this earlier work has now been republished more than twenty-five years later, the present work still makes a contribution to scholarship. This is due to its impressive field research, originally presented in Garlington's 1975 PhD dissertation, "The Bahá'í Faith in Malwa: A Study of a Contemporary Religious Movement, " Australian National University. (Oddly, the dissertation is not cited in the 2023 bibliography. ) As such, The Baha'i Faith in Indiais original research on the origins and establishment of the Bahá'í community of India. The book covers "the first 150 years of Indian Baha'i history" (194). Given that Garlington's historical survey begins with the Declaration of the Báb on the evening of 22 May 1844—which is the inauguration of the Bahá'í Faith as a religious movement and thus the inception of the Bahá'í Era—the approximate period of 150 years that would extend to somewhere around 1994. The time period that Garlington covers, however, appears to end in 2000: "It has been estimated that by the year 2000 the Lotus Temple has drawn over 50 million visitors" (96). As indicated by the book's subtitle, A Developmental Stage Approach, the overarching framework of analysis is a stage-wise method represented by five distinctive phases of development in the historical period surveyed. Part One presents a "Historical Overview, " which covers the earliest moments in the "Babi Prelude, " before examining initial states of community development between 1872 and 1910, and then discussing the first steps toward national unity, 1910 to 1921. "The Period of the Guardianship and the Evolution of the Indian Baha'i Community as Part of an International Administrative Structure" is covered in chapter 4, while chapter 5 looks at the era of mass teaching. Part Two, "The Baha'i Faith in Malwa" is the fruit of Garlington's fieldwork as a graduate student in the 1970s. His analysis is set forth in three chapters: "Malwa, " "Baha'i Teaching Activities in Malwa, " and "Channels of Communication and Attempts at Consolidation. " The final chapter nicely summarizes the research results, and is followed by notes and a bibliography. Several distinctive features of The Baha'i Faith in Indiashould be highlighted, particularly in Part Two, the result of highly original End Page 124and significant field research in its own right. Especially interesting is Garlington's section on Baha'i bhajans. A bhajanis "a rhythmic devotional song that has long been popular among bhaktisects in India" (140). In addition, the Bahá'í use of avatar concepts strikes an eschatological connection between the appearance of Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892, charismatic founder of the Bahá'í Faith) and the long-expected Kalki avatar. (The reviewer notes that Bahá'u'lláh first came to be associated with the Hindu messianic figure of Kalki by American Bahá'í George O. Latimer in 1915. ) The editing is clean and crisp, with forward momentum, giving the narrative verve and vigor. Nevertheless, there are several problems with the current volume. A major drawback is that there is no epilogue or other bridge to the present, which may cause some readers to wonder why little has been done by the author over the past twenty years to update this study. How is it relevant to the present-day Bahá'í-inspired activities in India. . .