Religious Individualization in Pentecostal Megachurches in India

Religious individualization has become a prominent phenomenon in our contemporary world, driven by globalization, the free-market economy, and digital technology. While scholars have extensively studied the impact of the emergence of the “individual” on the religious sphere in the Global North, this question remains underexplored in the Global South. This article addresses this gap by examining the phenomenon of religious individualization through the mediation of megachurches in urban India. Through an empirical study of two Pentecostal megachurches in India, the article identifies how megachurches promote and nurture the religious individualization of their clientele. The article explores the views and voices of megachurch congregants and identifies their experiences and aspirations as forms of religious individualization while also highlighting how megachurches enable their heterogeneous urban congregants to materialize their “self-project” by offering them a space for freedom, autonomy, holistic wellbeing, and volunteerism through the creation of a total environment born out of the ever-expanding visions of the chief pastors, attuned to the rapidly changing needs of the congregants. Though they both increasingly come under the sway of globalization, they are equally conditioned by the socio-economic-cultural contexts of India. The diverse interests, practices, lifestyles, and life goals of megachurch congregants illustrate the vibrant heterogeneity and pluralization of religious individualization.