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During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a series of movements - most notably Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian - used various froms of religious authority to legitimize their programmes for social and religious change. They demanded new types of worship, new styles of dress, new roles for women, the abolition of castes and strict moral codes of behaviour; and they promised their adherents that such change would lead to a perfect society and a return to an ideal world of religious truth. In Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India - the first volume in part III of The New Cambridge History of India -Kenneth W. Jones examines these movements throughout the subcontinent. He discusses the divison between those movements that arose without being influenced by the new colonial world and those that emerged within this world and were led by individuals influenced by western culture. Although Professor Jones focuses upon the nineteenth century, he traces a series of successful movements into the twentieth century and assesses how each one adjusted to an increasingly politicized world of competing nationalism. A number of these socio-religious movements became international and the author also explores how some followed emigrants from South Asia throughout the world, whilst others managed to win non-Asian converts. $ocio~Religious Reform Movements in British India presents an original and detailed study of the impact of British rule upon religion, social behaviour and culture. It is based on a wide range of English, Hindu and Urdu sources and will be of interest to specialists and students of South Asian studies, comparative religion and the history of religion.isbn-9788185618470
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Pages : 243
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