Divinity, Miracles and Charity in the Sathya Sai Baba Movement of Malaysia

This paper examines how a Hindu revitalisation movement addresses the modernisation in Malaysia. Modernisation entails material development and nation-building, but also the weakening of the authority of religious institutions and the internalisation of faith. The following of the Indian guru, Sathya Sai Baba, is largely urban-based, attracting many Indian business people, scientists and professionals. The paper elaborates theoretical debate on the gift, pioneered by Marcel Mauss, and explores how ‘contractual’ and ‘sacrificial’ religious giving is articulated within this movement in a way that reconciles spirituality with modernity. This articulation enables devotees to bid for a position as the custodians of morality within a modern, ethnically plural society, in which the elite of the Indian minority is marginalised in several respects.