Beyond the Altar: The Tension Between Individual Agency and Collective Dharma in Indian Literature

Abstract

This paper advances the hypothesis that religion in Indian literature operates less as a theological inquiry into the nature of the “divine” and more as a socio-ethical arena in which the tension between individual agency and collective obligation is negotiated. Within the Indian intellectual and cultural context, the concept of Dharma (duty or righteousness) emerges as the central site of friction. Rather than functioning purely as a spiritual principle, Dharma frequently becomes the measure by which social conformity and moral deviation are judged.
Through a comparative reading of classical and modern texts—from the ancient epics Mahabharata and Ramayana to modern Dalit narratives and the fiction of R. K. Narayan and U. R. Ananthamurthy—this study contends that “God” often functions as a literary device that personifies societal expectations rather than as an object of mystical contemplation. Divine authority in these works frequently mirrors the voice of tradition, community, and inherited norms. Thus, in these texts the divine is articulated within the social and cultural norms rather than standing apart from them.