https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20748040

Abstract

Sanatani Krantiratna: Ratanshi Khimji Khetani is a biographical and socio-religious historical study documenting the life, leadership, and reform activities of Ratanshi Khimji Khetani, a prominent figure in the twentieth-century transformation of the Kutch Kadva Patidar community. The work examines Khetani’s role in a broad community movement that sought to redefine religious identity, institutional structures, ritual practices, and collective self-understanding within a rapidly changing social environment. The volume presents a detailed account of his organizational leadership, public advocacy, educational initiatives, and efforts to establish enduring religious and community institutions.

Drawing upon community records, meeting proceedings, correspondence, institutional reports, and historical publications, the book situates Khetani within a wider network of reformers, including Narayan Ramji Limbani, who contributed to religious and social mobilization among Kutch Kadva Patidars during the first half of the twentieth century. The narrative highlights the emergence of voluntary associations, public assemblies, educational initiatives, and temple-centered institutions that became central mechanisms for community consolidation and religious reform.

For researchers, the volume is particularly valuable as a case study of grassroots religious reform, identity formation, caste-community organization, and the interaction between local leadership and broader religious movements in western India. It provides insight into how communities negotiate doctrinal change, construct historical memory, mobilize collective action, and institutionalize social transformation across generations. The work also contributes to scholarship on religious conversion and reconversion narratives, community leadership, vernacular reform movements, and the socio-religious history of Gujarat and Kutch.

As both a biographical account and a repository of historical evidence, Sanatani Krantiratna serves as an important primary-source-oriented resource for historians, sociologists, anthropologists, religious studies scholars, and researchers examining the evolution of community identity, religious institutions, and reform movements in modern South Asia.

Biography of revolutionary Ratanshi Khimji Khetani. His life and works on how he successfully was able to convert the Kutch Kadva Patidar community to Sanatan Hindu Religion.