The concept of a national temple as a narrative about a community on the example of Birla Mandir temple complexes

The article presents the project of founding Hindu temple complexes, commonly known as Birla Mandirs (Birla temples), which began in India at the beginning of the 20th century and continued for many decades. As the authors prove, the temples were designed not so much as places of worship, but as centres for promoting and instilling specific cultural values - those that can help form a sense of belonging to a community, not in a national sense (because in the case of India this is not possible), but axio-normative and anchored in (invented) tradition. The authors of the paper present the Birla Mandir as spaces for creating and disseminating a specific narrative about the community and thus building Indian, or more precisely, Hindu self-awareness and identity.