Tuning the Neighborhood: Purifying People, Places, and Environments in Suburban Kolkata

Abstract

In modern science, disciplines such as physics, mechanical and civil engineering, seismology, and acoustics have conceptualized vibration as a quantifiable mechanical phenomenon, measured through the metrics of frequency, amplitude, and resonance. In contrast, scholarship in anthropology, musicology, and sound studies has approached vibration as a socio-historical, cultural, and political phenomenon. This article examines how vibration (spandan) operates as a metaphysical, sensory, and ethico-affective force that mediates relations among people, places, and environments. Focusing on the practice of satsang adhibesan (devotional congregation), the article demonstrates how members of the Deoghar-Satsang community participate in sonic rituals of prayer, silent chanting, meditation, sacred recitation, and devotional song to tune their bodies and environments much like a radio receiver. Through these practices, practitioners seek to refine the vibratory qualities of homes, neighbourhoods, and human hearts in pursuit of mongol, or worldly well-being. Situating the concept of Spandan within a longer intellectual genealogy, the article traces how classical metaphysical ideas from Kashmir Shaivism (ca. 9–11th centuries), particularly the doctrine of Spanda, were reworked in early twentieth-century colonial Bengal. Furthermore, it shows how developments in radio technology, quantum mechanics, and global eugenic thought, alongside intensifying caste, class, and communal antagonisms, provided new conceptual vocabularies through which vibration came to be perceived as an ethical, moral, and spiritual force that shapes the vibratory pulse of public life in contemporary urban India.