"Sathya Sai Baba Fellowship" as missionary. Sathya Sai Baba has discouraged publicity and proselytism for him in a public discourse (23 November 1968). Characterizations and classifications Scholarly sources generally describe the Sathya Sai Baba movement as that of Hindu. Sai Baba's followers considered him to be the avatar of Shiva and Kalki, while he himself claimed to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdhi. Charles S. J. White, of The American University at Washington D.C., said, "Apart from his name, there is no discernible Muslim influence in the Sathya Sai Baba cult." He said that Sai Baba's style is mostly similar to Medieval Hindu practice called nathpanthis. Lawrence A. Babb, of the Amherst College in Massachusetts, also labelled Sai Baba movement as a cult, which is "deeply and authentically Hindu." He states that the devotees "rarely dwell on matters of doctrine, which is not surprising, for in fact there is relatively little to dwell upon, or at least nothing very distinctive. His philosophical views are simplistic, eclectic, and essentially unorigin... The most striking feature of this cult, however, is the extremely strong emphasis given to the miraculous." Babb sees as its highly individualized focus on miracles instead of a focus on a world view. Deborah A. Swallow, of the University of Cambridge, also agreed to the cult description. She compared Sathya Sai Baba with his (alleged) predecessor Sai Baba of Shirdi, who was associated with both Hindu and Islam. She concluded that Sathya Sai Baba's connection to Islam was vague, and that his "ritual and theology, then, unlike Sai Baba [of Shirdi]'s, is distinctly Hindu in form and content." The wide range of devotees including Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees, Jews and Christians is "the composite symbol of his cult." According to Alexandra Kent, at the Gothenburg University in Sweden, Sai Baba movement "differs from the other movements in its concerted efforts to transcend ethnic and religious divisions" in order to promote universal religion. But at its core it teaches "the eternal Hindu truth." She called it the "Hindu Revitalization movement." This is essential for Indian people living in different countries to maintain their inherently Hindu culture. Knott tagged in a table the "Sathya Sai Baba Fellowship" as devotional, charismatic authority, reformist, and including non-Asian membership. Untagged were revivalist, missionary, and caste-related. Kelly wrote that the Sathya Sai Organizations reject the label Hindu although they were clearly Hindu mission. According to