Socio-religious Reform Research Articles

The Tana Bhagat Movement: From Socio-Religious Reform to Political Rebellion

The Tana Bhagat Movement: From Socio-Religious Reform to Political Rebellion

Weaving Modernity in Salafism

This study examines the parallels between Muhammadiyah, the oldest and largest modernist Islamic movement in Indonesia, and Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’a Wa Ikamatus Sunnah, also known as Izala, the most significant Islamic reformist movement in West Africa, which originated in northern Nigeria. Concurrently, these groups share a common focus on socio-religious reform and a commitment to puritan Islam. It is undeniable that various Islamic movements/groups have existed and continue to exist outside the Arab world, but relatively few studies have focused on Islamic groups operating in West Africa or Southeast Asia, for example. This study highlights the importance of examining Islamic movements in regions beyond the Arab world, particularly in West Africa and Southeast Asia. The large Muslim populations in Indonesia and Nigeria offer a rich context for exploring the dynamics of Islamic movements. The research reveals, despite the groups’ Salafi-inspired ideologies, they mediate socio-religious reform, indicating the modernising rather than conservative aspects of Indonesian and Nigerian Islam. Within their respective contexts, these groups represent forms of reconstructed alternative modernity, or distinctly Islamic interpretations of modernity, which they define through executing their reform activities within Islamic frameworks. They navigate the complexities of modernity by balancing adherence to traditional values with adaptation to contemporary developments. Notably, the study is driven by a belief that comparative studies across different Salafi-inspired groups in distinct contexts could provide broader understanding of the evolving relationship between Salafism and modernity.

The Hinduism and Hindu Nationalism of Lala Lajpat Rai

Lala Lajpat Rai was a prominent figure of the Arya Samaj, the influential nineteenth-century Hindu socio-religious reform movement. He is also seen as having sown the seeds of Hindu nationalism in the first decade of the twentieth century. Exploring Lajpat Rai’s thought between the 1880s and 1915, this article traces how felt imperatives of Hindu nation-building impelled him to regularly re-define Hinduism. These first prompted Rai to articulate a ‘thin’ Hinduism, defined less in terms of an insistence on a complex set of beliefs and more in broad, simple terms. They then induced him to culturalise Hinduism and make a distinction between ‘Hinduism’ and ‘Hindu culture’. The article ends by comparing the Hinduism and Hindu nationalism of Lajpat Rai and V.D. Savarkar, the chief ideologue of the Hindutva ideology, which is considered the main influence on India’s Hindu nationalist movement. It argues that while formulations of a thin and culturalised Hinduism enabled both men to articulate a ‘Hindu nationalism’, their nationalisms in fact remained qualitatively different. By scrutinizing intellectual trends and processes occurring in Rai’s thought, the article demonstrates that the modern ideology of Hindu nationalism impacted how Hindu religion was defined and re-defined and how such re-definitions can still produce distinct forms of Hindu nationalism.

Education and Communalism in Colonial India: The Context of the 1930s

The decade of the 1930s appears to be one of the most tumultuous as well as complex in the timeline of India’s anti-colonial struggle. It witnessed a close interplay of community-based identities and their politico-cultural manifestations. Education was one such important cultural attribute which increasingly pervaded the political domain. Its various manifestations, viz., language, script, textbooks and curriculum, etc., gradually acquired political connotations. Such a process began with the nineteenth-century socio-religious reform movements when in the pursuit of cultural nationalism, education and its symbols were appropriated to create community-specific cultural identities. One of the key objectives of this article is to delineate the process by which this appropriation resurfaced with much more vigour during the 1930s; this time associating itself with the idea of separate nationhood. Thus, the category of education was used as an agency to create and further accentuate sociocultural identities with specific political dimensions. Also, a critical observation of the ideological tussle, associated with the various symbols of education during the 1930s, along with the structures of British colonialism would unravel the process which culminated in the Pakistan Resolution of the Muslim League (1940) and ultimately the Partition of India. This would also reveal that amongst a section of Muslims, cultural alienation preceded political alienation.

Inter-Weaving of Local and Global Discourses: History of Early Pentecostals in Kerala

Even though the Pentecostal movement in Kerala, South India, is a unique expression of Global Christianity, it has not been given due recognition either in the history of Kerala Christianity or Global Pentecostalism. It was rooted in both local and global discourses of the early 20th century. So, in order to understand the origin and early history of the Pentecostal movement, we need to delve deep into the history of socio-religious reform movements, which were enthusiastically embraced by Dalits, women, and other marginalized sections of Kerala. Unique features of Kerala Pentecostalism were shaped by various revival and reform movements among Christians in Kerala. With the arrival of American missionaries associated with the Azusa Street revival, the homegrown brand of Kerala Pentecostalism engaged in the global discourse on Pentecostalism. It equipped Pentecostals with the language and interpretations to make a break with the past and carve out a new identity for themselves. The usual method of approaching it as an extension of global Pentecostalism will not help us to understand how Pentecostals in Kerala creatively engaged in local and global discourses at the turn of the 20th century.

A Sovereign and Virtuous Body: The Competent Muslim Woman’s Guide to Health in Thanawi’s Bihishtī Zēwar (1905)

AbstractMaulana Ashraf `Ali Thanawi, a reformist Islamic scholar, was very much part of his times in his urgent concern with women’s potential role in individual and societal “improvement,” the goal of the enormously successful encyclopedic work that included the chapter considered here. Thanawi’s teachings included generic elite male “best practices” on health and ethics, undergirded by Greco-Arabic humoral medicine in its Indian form. His text caught a historical moment when medical treatments were more craft than industrial, and when the professionalization of discrete Muslim and Hindu “systems” of Unani Tibb and Ayurveda, with Ayurveda increasingly incorporated into majoritarian Hindu nationalism, was only incipient. Health maintenance in Thanawi’s hands was a matter of empowering women to both spiritual and practical competence and responsibility, freeing them from resort to (as he saw it) quacks, ignorant midwives, and untrained women, along with dubious healers and holy men, Muslim or Hindu or any other. In its description of challenges, strategies, and resources related to health, his text offers a window into women’s everyday world. But it also raises comparative questions about the history of medicine, the history of emotions, ethnicity in a colonial context, and the potentially empowering implications of Islamic socio-religious reform for women.

Of Swadeshi, Self-Reliance and Self-Help:: A Study of the Arya Samaj in Colonial Punjab, 1890 –1920s

In response to the colonial economic and cultural subjugation, the ideal of swadeshi (swa: own; desh : nation; translated as: of one’s own nation) in India had begun to gain ground from 1890s onwards ultimately culminating into the Swadeshi Movement. Fundamentally, it encouraged domestic production in opposition to foreign imports and was characterised by attempts to organise technical education and industrial research, revival of traditional industrial crafts, the starting of new industries based on modern techniques and floating of insurance companies and swadeshi banks, and promotion of swadeshi sales through exhibitions and shops. Subsequently, the assertion of self-help and self-reliance appeared in the Punjab province, too. In this vast province with a majority Muslim population and Hindus and Sikhs in a minority, swadeshi manifested itself in several ways. Through a study of the Arya Samaj, a socio-religious reform movement with firm roots among the Hindus of the province, this article traces how, in colonial Punjab, swadeshi soon grew out of its economic basis to encapsulate a larger Hindu nationalistic and cultural paradigm.

Caste-based Oppression, Trauma and Collective Victimhood in Erstwhile South India: The Collective Therapeutic Potential of Theyyam

The decades of collective victimhood and trauma that the oppressed lower caste members in the southern state of India (Kerala) suffered in silence were less known to the world until the socio-religious reform movements offered a space for their collective expression of agitation and unrest. With no socially sanctioned channels to express their injustice and pain, the folk ritual of Theyyam often became the alternative for a cathartic release of transgenerational and collective victimhood and trauma long endured by people belonging to these communities. A common theme of Theyyam discussed in literature is the symbolic meaning of ‘empowerment’, ‘dissent’ and ‘protest’ that Theyyam takes on as the performer embodies a chosen deity. The ritual thereby becomes a temporary outlet for the collective rage, anger and resentment endured by people of the oppressed communities over the years. These insights have implied the healing potential of Theyyam as it offers a safe outlet for repressed trauma reactions for individuals as well as for the community, collectively. However, what is relevant to this discussion is the mechanism by which healing processes are activated in Theyyam. This article makes an effort in this direction—the focus is on understanding Theyyam as a psycho-cultural phenomenon and the collective therapeutic dynamics that it offers.

Daud Shah and Dar ul-Islam: Transnational Elements of Socio-religious Reforms among Muslims in the Madras Presidency

Colonial British India witnessed a large increase in the formation of socio-religious reform movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The major religious groups in British India sought to address the criticisms of Christian missionaries, enact responses to changing social and economic conditions under British imperialism, and attempt to resolve problems in their communities. This article examines the work of Daud Shah, an advocate for socio-religious reforms among Tamil-speaking Muslims in the Madras Presidency and the Bay of Bengal littoral. Existing research on Shah has examined his work within the context of social and political developments within the colonial Madras Presidency. This article argues that a proper assessment of Shah's contribution to socio-religious reform can only be made by including the transnational aspects of his reform efforts, including sources of his religious knowledge and the impact of his actions on the diasporic community of Tamil Muslims in the Indian Ocean.

Growth of Modern Education in Colonial Kashmir: Role of Private Agencies

The present paper discusses the role of private agencies in the development of modern education in the princely State of Kashmir during the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century, which was ruled by Dogra Maharajas. It finds that, in the absence of government initiative, private agencies particularly the Christian missionaries were primarily responsible for the development of modern education in Kashmir. Contribution of Church Missionary Society (CMS) of London had been pivotal in the dissemination of education in Kashmir. CMS had to face a number of problems on account of the daunting attitude of the early Dogra rulers. Instead of the ambiguous attitude of the society they were successful in introducing the education on modern lines including girl's education in Kashmir. But the participation in the mission schools was limited to the elite section of the society, especially the Pandits. Besides it mentions about the contribution of socio-religious reform movements, in promotion of modern education, which sprang during the early 20th century among the Hindu and the Muslim communities. It concludes that instead of all efforts of private agencies and government, Kashmir was one of the educationally backward states at the end of Colonial rule.

BRAHMO SAMAJ AS AN ACTOR IN THE DISSEMINATION OF ARYAN INVASION THEORY (AIT) IN INDIA

Dissemination of a scientific theory often follows a circuitous route. It is a widespread notion supported by eminent scholars that the noted linguist and religious scholar F. Max Müller is responsible for the dissemination of the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), and thus played into the hands of imperial interests. In this article, we argue that there were other stakeholders in the process of the widespread acceptance of AIT. In particular, Brahmo Samaj, a prominent socio-religious reform association in nineteenth-century India, also played a major role in the spreading of AIT. Prominent leaders of Brahmo Samaj, actively or passively, collaborated with Müller in that process. We closely examine the development of affairs during that time and attempt to establish that the development of a scientific theory is not a unilateral process, but rather strongly influenced by the socio-political environments of the time.

Yug Nirman Movement, Socialization and Values' Inculcation

Many reform movements in India are going on for the betterment of society as a whole. Such movements are lesser studied and reported in the sociological literature. Therefore they need to be focused on. In this context, the present work is a study of a reform movement i.e., 'Yug Nirman Movement'(Gayatri Pariwar) initiated by a spiritual/charismatic person. Having some religious components, the movement has been going on for some years in different parts of India and has also gone beyond the national boundaries. In the light of this, the present study tries to explore how the followers of this movement are enhancing their status in their families and communities by inculcating values. To study this, impact has been observed on individuals and their families.The present study focuses on a village Shaulana in district Ghaziabad, hardly 35 km, from Amity. This village is known for its continuous participation in the activities of'YugNirman Movement'. The newspapers and television reports have also covered the activities of this movement undertaken in this village. This village has become the model village for the activities of the movement in the list of the headquarters, Shantikunj, Hardwar. Thus, so well known for the activities of the 'movement' this village has been selected for empirical study to look into the impact. The Data have been collected with the help of some specific research techniques like observation, interview, interview schedule/guide, case study, etc.The impact of 'Yug Nirman Movement' has been observed on its followers and their families. Through the present study, it may be concluded that 'Yug Nirman Movement' is becoming a powerful agency of socialization through values. Its followers are socializing themselves by performing yagya, meditation and recitation, adopting values, adopting /knowing other arts and skills, and enhancing their status in family and village and enhancing cooperation and unity among their family members by participation in the activities of the movement with their family members.Rationale ofthe problemMost of the social reforms in India have been addressed to religion, spiritual tenets, customary practices, traditional evils, emerging social problems created by urbanization, and new modes of economy. These had very limited effect on the masses. Social reform however, should be visualized as a dynamic activity as the society will never be free from problems of one or the other kind (Misra, 1990: 68-80).The main thrust of such socio-religious reform movement was to revive or rejuvenate the Hindu religion and society. The social reform movements contributed to the development of nationalism on regional and religious lines (Shah, 1990: 164). The reformers took up several issues. They included elimination of or change in certain caste regulations and rituals as the 'sati' system, widow remarriage, child marriage, status of women, girls' education, prohibition, etc. Though a few talked against the caste hierarchy and untouchability but most of the reformers (except a few who led the anti-Brahmin movement), did not challenge the social structure. They adopted a gradualist approach (ibid: 162).The reformers either revolted individually or formed associations. These associations were of three types: general (or voluntary) associations; caste reform associations and religious reform bodies (generally called Samaj) (ibid.). The most prominent associations were related to religious reforms. Raja Rammohan Roy, who protested against the 'Sati' system, formed the Brahmo Samaj which remained the centre for social reform activities in Bengal. The Prarthana Samaj came into existence in Bombay under the leadership of Mahadev Govind Ranade. The Arya Samaj, formed by Dayanand Saraswati, had predominant influence in Punjab and North India (Shah, 1990:163).Most of the reformist movements like Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prathana Samaj and Theosophical Society have been the movements of religious reform i. …

Mary Carpenter and the Brahmo Samaj of India: a transnational perspective on social reform in the age of empire

This article, offering a transnational perspective on Mary Carpenter's promotion of female education in colonial India, seeks to foster the writing of new histories of social reform in the nineteenth-century world and fresh analyses of global women's history in the age of empire. It roots Carpenter's engagement with India in her involvement in a transoceanic web of British, Indian and American religious liberals and social reformers and explores the ways in which her promotion of Indian women's education was shaped in interaction with members of an influential Bengali socio-religious reform movement, the Brahmo Samaj. Presenting the resultant push to found training schools for women teachers as a project of cross-cultural collaboration, it argues that this cannot be adequately subsumed under the rubric of colonial reform, and did not simply relegate Indian women to the position of silent victims who needed to be saved.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy: Social Reform and Empowerment of Women

This article seeks to discuss the development and growth of the socio-religious reform movement started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy during the 18th century with special reference to women rights and their empowerment. Sambad Kaumudi and Mirat-ul Akhbar, a Bengali and Persian weekly, respectively, started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy to launch his progressive movement in India. This paper also highlights the contribution of Raja Ram Mohan Roy in the field of journalism which he later used as a plausible medium to reach the masses and to propagate his modern ideas for the cultural regeneration of India and modernization of the country. He thought that without education social and economic progress of his countrymen was not possible. Therefore, he strongly advocated for modern education through which he prepared the ground of socio-religious reforms in the country. This paper also tries to analyze the difficulties faced by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in convincing the people for women education and banning the inhuman practice like sati. Roy was the moving spirit behind empowering women and getting for them a respectable position in the society. To broaden the base of his socio-religious reform movement, he founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1829.

Bringing the State Back In, Yet Again: The Debate on Socioreligious Reform in Late-Nineteenth-Century India

This essay seeks to complicate the intellectual landscape of late-nineteenth-century colonial India by probing the manner in which Indian social reformers negotiated the possibilities for social change in the context of colonial rule. Particular attention is paid to the views of the prominent social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade during the controversy over the Age of Consent Bill. Ranade noted the relevance of the instrumentalities of the state in securing the vital interests of those subject to relations of domination; he was able to do so without neglecting to address the issue that state power in his time vested in a colonial regime. By providing resources to delink state power from colonial power, the conclusions yielded by the analysis in this essay unsettle an influential hypothesis according to which Indian nationalists, from the late nineteenth century onward, did not want the colonial state to intervene in the reform of “traditional” Indian society. Unsettling this hypothesis has at least two implications: it enables a fresh appraisal of the resources of modern Indian political thought, and it creates positive conceptual space for considering the role of state power in alleviating relations of domination in times marked by the advent of neocolonialism.

Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India (review)

Reviewed by: Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India Douglas E. Haynes Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India. By Vinayak Chaturvedi (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2007) Peasant movements once stood at the center of the historiography of colonial South Asia (and of many other parts of Asia and Africa) during the 1970s and 1980s. During the last twenty years, however, this area of study has receded in importance with the decline in research both on political economy and on nationalist politics and with the rise of historical approaches influenced by cultural studies. Scholars and graduate students have virtually abandoned working on the subject. In this stimulating new book on history and memory among the Dharalas in Kheda District in Gujarat, however, Vinayak Chaturvedi, has brought a completely fresh approach to peasant studies, one that reaches rich and original conclusions. Kheda district was the focus of an earlier major book by David Hardiman, Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat (1981). Hardiman’s major contribution in that study was to bring out the role of the Patidars, the dominant peasant community in the region, in the largely non-violent struggles associated with the Indian nationalist movement. Chaturvedi’s work turns his attention instead to the Dharalas, a set of actors (now referring to themselves as Kshatriyas) who either cultivated the most marginal agricultural lands in the district or who worked as laborers for the Patidars, and who were labelled as a “criminal tribe” by the colonial administration. Hardiman treated the Dharalas only briefly because of the relative paucity of the information about them. Chaturvedi, by contrast, tries to draw a picture of Dharala politics from the fragmentary archival evidence and from oral interviews he conducted in 1996 and 2004. The result is a book that is innovative both in interpretation and in method. As in previous studies of peasant movements, Chaturvedi certainly examines issues of state policy and political economy. He discusses, for instance, a range of colonial processes that bolstered Patidar dominance and that disadvantaged the Dharalas. But his most central concern is with appreciating Dharala political conceptions. Drawing upon the work of Carlo Ginzburg, Steven Feierman, Ranajit Guha and Shahid Amin, Chaturvedi seeks in effect to construct an intellectual history of peasants, but one that departs from the assumptions of Guha’s earlier work that there was anything “elementary” or “immature” in peasant understandings of the political world. Chaturvedi takes the ideas of individuals seriously, studies their origins, examines their circulation and development in a primarily nonliterate culture, and explores their evolution after the death of their original propagators. Based upon this evidence, he outlines the Dharalas’ conceptions of politics, which were anti-colonial, stood outside of Indian nationalism, were steeped in local notions of religiosity and kingship, and critiqued the position of the Patidars in agrarian society. Chaturvedi primarily reaches these findings out of information about three developments during the colonial period: 1) a short-lived uprising led by a peasant called Ranchod Vira, who proclaimed himself a king in 1898 and urged peasants in twenty-one villages to withhold the revenues they owed the government; 2) a movement for socio-religious reform in 1907-9 led by a figure named Daduram, who urged Dharalas to give up alcohol, meat-eating and stealing and to stop working (mainly for Patidars) in demeaning jobs; and 3) a miscellaneous set of activities, especially raids against Patidars and government employees, during the 1910s and 20s. In keeping with his focus on the fragment, Chaturvedi ‘s style of presentation departs sharply from most historical works. The book is not organized conventionally but instead consists of sixty four short segments, some no longer than a page or two. By escaping the tyranny of chapters, this framework allows Chaturvedi to analyze numerous pieces of evidence as far as they lead but without needing to fill the undocumented gaps that lie between them. A reference in the sources to “topiwallahs” (hat –wearers), a term indicating representatives of the state (who thus stood outside the local community), gives Chaturvedi the opportunity to examine Dharala conceptions of the boundaries of political relations. A discussion of why Ranchod, an illiterate figure, kept books...

Iqbal and Karbala

This article seeks to illumine the trope of Karbala within the writings of Muhammad Iqbal, a 20th-century thinker, who carried forward in various forms, and through qualifications, the Sufi readings of Karbala in order to mount his socioreligious reform agenda. It also explores how the work of Iqbal has become central for the re-emplotment of Karbala across diverse intellectual traditions.

Factors of educational development-A study of two villages in Kerala

Educational development is not uniform across localities and regions. Some of the regions have shown remarkable progress in education while others lagged behind. Obviously, micro-level factors account for such differential development. This study attempts to identify the factors or agents behind this development and examine the nature and intensity of their efforts in two selected villages of Kerala. Socio-religious reform movements and the attitudinal changes triggered off by them, local community efforts, government intervention, political pressures and improvement in the economic plight of the people were the major factors that brought about educational transition in one village. These factors were conspicuous by their absence in the other village.

Reviews:The New Cambridge History of India. Volume 3, part 1, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India Kenneth W. Jones

Reviews:The New Cambridge History of India. Volume 3, part 1, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India Kenneth W. Jones

Socio Religious Reform Movements in British India

Socio Religious Reform Movements in British India