The Socio-educational Significance of the Religious Movements in Modern India

ABSTRACT

Hinduism of India is the religion which has influenced the overall society in India. It is mixed with a variety of ideologies so that it cannot be considered a single religious system. Modern India when new Western religions and ideologies were introduced into the traditional Hinduism is the period when it influenced its politics, religion, society, culture, education as well as the dogmatic system of Hinduism. Therefore, examining changes of the Hinduism in modern India and the process to deal with them may become a clue that can grasp aspects of modernistic changes of overall society in India. Above all, India in 19th century which was on the apex of the modern religious movements experienced extreme social and cultural chaos under British domination. The religious world in India which had accepted Western civilization and ideologies, however, met the opportunity for socio-educational movements while realizing necessity of self-innovation and the mission to social reform. This research is to understand the new religious movements in modern India from the socio-educational viewpoint. Each of the three groups, The Brhma Samj, the rya Samj, and the Rmakrishna Mission, which lead the religious movements reveals distinguished features of its own. Especially, If classified in terms of socio-educational viewpoint these can be understood as three tendencies such as Western-oriented, ethnics-oriented, and populace-oriented social education. Of course, the standards of division are not clear and even a number of shared ideologies or doctrines are found. Also, their method of confrontation against Western civilization was not consistent from the first to the end. Classifying these religious movements according to their distinctive features is simply to present a standard to understand one of the socio-educational aspects at that time.