The Śrī Maṅkala Vināyakar Satsaṅg Group: Religious Practice and Middle-Class Status in Tamil Nadu, South India

This article presents an organized group of middle-class, multicaste Hindu housewives living in the suburbs of Madurai, Tamil Nadu—the Śrī Maṅkala Vināyakar Satsaṅg (SMVS) Group. Hindu satsaṅg groups are common throughout India and revolve primarily around devotional singing, although the word satsaṅg also denotes a grouping/community specifically organized around a guru and their students. Using my experiences participating in and observing this specific satsaṅg group and its practices, I demonstrate how caste, class, and Hindu religious practice intersect in contemporary urban Tamil Nadu. Through an examination of how religious knowledge is shared and learned in the SMVS Group, I show that what are viewed as high-caste Hindu performances of piety (for example, Sanskrit recitation) are formative in many Hindu women’s perceptions and constructions of their middle-class identities. Further, I highlight the study of multicaste women’s social networks, both urban and rural, as a nuanced and valuable lens through which to study middle-class identity in India.