Nick Tackes is the Besl Family Chair for Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University. He is an ethnographer of religion in South Asia with research interests in healthcare, charismatic authority, ritual reform, and consumer culture. Tackes’ current book project is a comparative study of two Hindu institutions that are preparing for the end of the world: the Gayatri Pariwar and the Brahma Kumaris. Drawing from medical anthropology, media analysis, and ritual theory, Tackes argues that the Gayatri Pariwar and the Brahma Kumaris have designed eschatological programs that promise worldly success in addition to salvation. The ease with which members can incorporate each program into their everyday lives is precisely what makes these groups so attractive to Hindus today.

Tackes’ 2021 article “COVID-19 First Responders: The Gayatri Pariwar and the Immune Ritual Body,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, foregrounds early responses to COVID-19 as key episodes whereby eschatological projects authorized decidedly “this-worldly” relief work.