Open Access Journal of Economic Research

Commodification and Religion: A Sociological Study of Bud-heshwar Temple in Lucknow

Abstract

Akancha Pandey and Pramod Kumar Gupta

Religious institutions across the world are undergoing processes of increasing commodification under the influence of

consumer culture. The paper aims to contribute to empirical and theoretical understanding of this phenomenon through in-
depth sociological case study of the Budheswar Temple in Lucknow, india. The thousand-year-old temple dedicated to Lord

Shiva has witnessed expanding commercialization in recent decades, converting many previously gratis religious offerings and

spaces into paid services catering to wealthy devotees and high-end tourism. This study adopts a quantitative, embedded single-
case approach to investigate the multifaceted impact of commodification on various stakeholders associated with the temple,

including priests, vendors, devotees and businesses. It also critically examines the contestation and negotiations surrounding the
temple’s commodification through analyzing the perspective and symbolic interpretation of diverse stakeholders. The paper has
two objectives as first to record and evaluate the various commercial additions and modified religious customs found inside the
complex of the temples. Second is to examine different aspects of commodification of the stakeholders associated with budheswar
temple. Data was collected using observation and in-depth interview on twenty-four key informants.

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