Introduction

Scientific ideology and religious ideology –

associated with each other in India

Religion in India - philosophical speculation

God and human beings are not clearly

distinguished
 Vedic Ideologies
Historical Context of Origin and Development
Main source of Vedic religious ideology(written by Brahmins)-Vedas
Meaning of Veda explained in scriptures called Upanishads
Social Context
Indian ethical system-Foundation of metaphysics
Derive values and norms from within their selves and to the cosmos
Brahman(everything in the world) is the ultimate reality, atman is
eternal
Karma means work and its result`
The sufferings of people are usually understood to be he result of
their bad karma
Freedom from the cycle of karma is called moksha
The liberation of the soul is to be achieved by way of Yoga
Kinds of Yoga-Jnana yoga (philosophy), karma yoga (work), Bhakti
yoga (worship) and Raj yoga(psychic control)

ANCIENT PERIOD
 Dharma is the main goal of human beings-virtue, duty and
religion
 4 ASRAMAS(Life stages)-Brahmacharya, Grihastha,Vanaprastha
and Sanyasa
 DANA –not only gifts to Brahmins and priests, but also planting
trees, building high ways, places for shelter and treatment,
construction of wells and tanks etc.
 4 varna system-Aryans Brahmins(priests), Kshatriyas(warriors),
vaishyas(traders) and shudras(untouchables-manual labour)
 As the varna of a person had been assigned to him/her by
virtue of his/her birth into it, called the Jati system
Implications
 As the rituals became important, Brahmins became more
dominant

ANCIENT PERIOD
 Sixth to fifth century BC-Vedic ideology lost its original purity –rise
to Buddhism and Jainism

 Challenged the authority of vedas

 Against caste system

 Vardhamana Mahavira – 24th Thirthankara or prophet
 Aim – to achieve libertion of the soul
 Ideology-jiva(soul) exists in the world from time eternal in
association with ajiva(matter)
 Based on this, birth, death and various life experiences go on,
finally Nirvana
 All Jain rites in life based on Non violence
 Importance to equality
 Five main vows: ahimsa ('non-violence'), satya ('truth'),
asteya ('not stealing'), brahmacharya ('celibacy', 'chastity') and
aparigraha ('non-attachment')
 Outside India, some of the largest Jain communities are present
in Canada, Europe, Kenya, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Fiji,
and the United States
 Festivals –Mahavir Jayanti ,Diwali etc.
 Goutama Buddha or SreeBuddha or Siddhartha

 Four noble truths:-sorrow, the cause of sorrow, the possibility of

removal of sorrow and the removal of sorrow

 Cause for the sorrow and unhappiness-greed and selfishness

 Middle way-way of life-self control and self torture

 Eight fold path-Knowledge of the truth(right view), intention to

resist evil (right intention)saying nothing to hurt others(right
speech), respecting life, morality and property(right action),
holding a job that does not injure others(right livelihood), striving to
free one’s mind of evil(right mindfulness), controlling one’s feelings
and thoughts(right effort) and practising proper forms of
concentration(right concentration).
 Middle way and Eight fold path – free from greed and selfishness
 Festivals – Diwali, Buddhist Jayanti etc.
 Jainism and Buddhism promoted equality and non violence

 Both institutionalised religions

 Both influenced the kings

 Buddhism-only religion which crossed over its frontiers into

Asia and then became a world religion

 700 AD –end of ancient period in India

 Frequent Arab and Afgan invasions-decline of Jainism and

Buddhism
 Upanishads form the basis of spirituality

 Spiritual experiences are supra-mental

 Leads to realization of ultimate truth

 There is a necessity to bring all the inner forces under

control and regulate them in such a way that a mental and
psychic harmony of being is established before thinking of
the highest spiritual realization

 Buddha firmly established the spiritual tradition, making it

available to all

 It is the notion of truth that occupies the centre of Indian

spirituality
 Search not faith, knowledge not belief, meditation not
worship, freedom not heaven –contrasting themes-
difference between spirituality and religion

 A spiritual discourse is secular

 In spiritual tradition, truth is accessible to all

Zoroastrianism in India
 Zoroaster is supposed to have lived in about 1000
BC in Persia, whose religion Zoroastrianism was the
national religion of the empire, from the 3rd to the 7th
century AD.
 Religious books are called Avestas (of which only a
fraction survives today)
 Three commandments- Good thought, Good word and
Good deed
 When Iran had to face Islam, Zoroastrianism could
not hold its own and was very nearly wiped out from
the land of its birth

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
 Originated in 7th century Arabia with the prophet Mohammed
and a holy text called Koran

o Islam promoted non-idol worship in India

Five principles or pillars

1. The affirmation that there is no God but God and Mohammed as
his prophet
2. Prayer five times a day
3. Zakat or the giving of two and a half percent of one’s holding as
alms
4. Fasting in the month of Ramdan, during which the Koran was
revealed
5. Haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, Where Mohammed was born, at
least once in a lifetime.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Five main duties
1. Muslims must abstain from gambling, drinking and eating
pork
2. They must accept Sharia (system of law and rule of life)
as ethical ideals
3. They must remain united in eliminating all external and
internal enemies of God
4. A Muslim must earn a living
5. No interest is allowed to be charged

 Muslim rulers ruled India, first Turks and then Muslims

 The Persians called the country the land of the river

Sindhu, which was pronounced as Hindu. The Muslim
rulers called it Hindustan
 Indian and Muslim culture brought assimilations in the
forms of Urdu language, Kathak dance, sitar and Tabla
musical instruments, ghazals as a form of poetry, salwar
kameez dresses, food items and so on
 When disunity between Hindu and Islam-Construct a
bridge-Hindu Bhaktas and Mohammedan Sufis
 Mysticism - An ideology common to the Bhaktas and the Sufis
They believed in the success of love where intellect fails
They are tolerant –see single truth in all religions
The mystics fostered humaneness, benevolence, charity,
tenderness and love
Bhakti
Two general divisions- Sagun and Nirgun traditions
Sagun means having qualities-concrete-Mirabai, Tulsidas,
Surdas etc were followers-God depicted through image-
temples are needed.
Nirgun –followed monotheism- God was an absolute – visible -
no temples- doctrines of Nirgun Bhakti close to Sufism
Sufi
Originated in Iran –Khwaja Moinuddinn Christi (renowned sufi
saint)came to India
Sufism is so radically a different form of the orthodox doctrine
of Islam, as to constitute almost a separate religion
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Implications
 The Bhaktas (saints, poets etc) and Sufis strived for
communal and caste harmony
 They rebelled against the caste hierarchy and Brahminism,
child marriage, ill treatment of widows and other social evils.
 The rise of Bhakti movement led to the rise of different regional
languages
 The Bhaktas rejected ritualism and unnecessary religious
ceremonies and religious tolerance
 The Bhaktas generated a mass social consciousness that, what
the priests say is not the final word on religion
 The main aim of Bhaktas was to save an individual soul, not
improve the society

EDIEVAL P
 Guru Nanak-Founder of Sikhism-Born in 1469 influenced by
the teachings of Kabir and Indian Sufis
 He accepted good things from Hinduism and Islam
 Nirgun Bhakti practiced-against image worship,caste system
etc.
 His teachings are written in the Adi Granth - Followers are
called Sikhs
 Followed a single impersonal God, reject Brahminism and
believed that all are equal before God
 Guru Gobind was the 10th and last guru of the Sikhs
 Under his leadership, the Sikhs became a powerful
brotherhood of soldiers
 They promised to keep themselves ready at all times-They
began to wear Kirpans or swords
 They were given new names with the title ‘Singh’, which
means lion
 After the death of last Guru, they accepted Adi granth as their
guru(This is why the book is called Guru Granth Sahib)
MODERN PERIOD
 The church of the Christians in South India-known as Syrian
Christians –founded by St.Thomas (one of the apostles of Jesus)
 Christian expansion in North India is associated with the political
and commercial expansion of Europe
 Christian missionaries started English schools –exposed the
Indians to the modern ideologies of rationalism, liberalism and the
values of freedom, equality and justice
 They build dispensaries and orphanages in India
 They worked against illiteracy, disease and poverty, especially
among the Tribals and Dalits
 They attacked customs such as child marriage, polygamy, female
inafanticide, sati etc.
 They believed in innate equality of all human beings
Hindu Reform Movements
Historical Context of Origin and Development
 European trade started, after Vasco De Gama found the new sea
route in India in 1498
 English East India Company started in 1600
 After the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal rule became weak –
This helped British to interfere – Gradually the British had become
the rulers
 The goods purchased by the British from India at lowest price –
They sold their goods at higher price
 They introduced western education in India, hoping that it would
create a consumer class for English Industrial Products
Perception of People and Social Problems
 Raja Ram Mohan Roy of Bengal was the first person in the 19 th
century to make efforts to defend the evils of Hinduism
 Most of the reformers of the 19th century were educated elite who
had been influenced by the western liberal thought
 Revival of Hinduism, synthesis of religious faiths and
modernization were, therefore considered necessary
Ideals, Rationale And Goals For Social Change
 Values such as rationalism, individualism, humanism embedded in
European society during renaissance period ,began to take roots
in India
Approach to Social Change
Bramo Samaj – Raja Ram Mohan Roy – 1828 in Bengal – worked for the
emancipation of women and abolition of the caste system
Prarthana Samaj – Atmaram Pandurang with the help of Keshav
Chandra Sen – 1867 in Bombay – one God worship
Arya Samaj – Dayanand Saraswati – 1875 in North –worked for the
abolition of caste system, monopoly of Brahmins over the Vedas and
liberation of women –spread of education
The Theosophical Society –H P Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott - 1825 in
New York – worked to revive the faith of Indians
The Manav Dharma Sabha - Mehtaji Durgaram Manchharam - 1844
in Surat
Paramahansa Mandali - Dadoba Panderung – 1849 in Surat
Major activities of reform movements – religious revival, translation of
scriptures, setting up school, care of the disabled, orphanages, home
for widows, relief for the poor, against all social evils etc.
Approaches – simplicity, self example, signing pledges, self control etc.
 In spite of reforms in legislation, Brahmins and Pundits
continued their old socio religious practices
 Religious identity
 No change in caste system
 It was during the British rule that the Dalit movement could have begun
 British also did many good things for the Dalits – They opened up educational
and employment opportunities for them in European families, mills and
factories, railways and shipping, and the army
 The colonial state became the basic enabler and catalyst of the Dalit
movement
 Jyotiba Phule, a Shudra, by caste, formulated the theory of exploitation by the
Aryans and proposed an egalitarian religious alternative ,which he called
Savajanik Satya Dharma
 1875—founded Satyashodhak Samaj –this united shudras and Atishudras
against Brahmins
 Satnami Movement –Ghasi Das—Madyapradesh
 Adi-dharma Movement – Punjab
 Ezhava Movements in Kerala
 Nadar Movements in Tamilnadu
 Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar-Dalit Movement in Bombay presidency and All India
Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942(now Republic party of India,Maharashtra)
Peasants rose in revolt a number of times in Bengal and Maharashtra
1918 -Kisan Sabha in Uttar Pradesh
1925 –Communist Party
 Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi – Father of our nation
 Born in 1869, October 2
 Leader of freedom movement in the first half of the 20th century
 Values – non violence, truth, non stealing, personal restraint, non
accumulation, simplicity, shramdan (bodily labour), non
attachment to pleasures of the palate, elimination of all fears,
religious tolerance, swadeshi, removal of untouchability, gram
swarajya(self supporting, self reliant etc,), lokniti(people;s policy)
etc.
 Non cooperation in the operation of an unjust system
 Satyagraha – The way to attain desired objective
They face consequences of their opposition
They empowers common people to fight against
injustice
They do not harbour any ill feelings and fear
Ahimsa is the only way for satyagraha
 Gandhiji believed that voluntary action was the only path to
India’s development
 Sarvodaya – Well being of all
-Sanskrit term –’universal uplift’ or ‘progress of all’
-It will bring dignity and self respect
-Casteless and classless society
-Gramdan(Village gift), Khadi and Santhi Sena(peace force) - triple
programme under sarvodaya movement
-It reached its peak in 1970s
 Nationalism as a people’s sense of belonging together as a nation ,
emerged along with the development of the nation states.
 It is an ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty
and devotion to the nation state surpass other individual or group
interests.
 Only in the age of nationaliam, the principle was generally
recognised that each nationality should form a state – its state – and
that the state should include all members of that nationality
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2001)
 19th century – age of nationalism in Europe
 20th century witnessed the rise and struggle of powerful national
movements throughout Asia and Africa
 Initially nationalism was not anti British. Later, Gandhiji,
Dr.Ambedkar and Tagore refused to accept the western idea of
nationalism
 Tagore – Nation as a political and economic union of people becomes
all – powerful, it is the cost of harmony of the higher social life.
 The Dalit movement discussed the premise of the mainstream
nationalist movement that India was a nation, as it is a caste based
society
 Communal politics in India began as a response to the development
 The ideology of Indian constitution was adopted in 1949and put
into force in 1950
 It resolved India into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic
and republic
 Inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Part III – Fundamental Rights

Part IV – Directive Principles of State Policy

Part IV A – Fundamental Duties

Fundamental Rights(six) – Part III
 Part-III of the Indian constitution from article 12 to 32, contains fundamental
rights.
 Part-III of the Indian constitution is called corner stone of the constitution
 This chapter of the Constitution has been described as the Magna Carta of
India.
 According to Article 12, the State" includes the Government and Parliament of
India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all
local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of
the Government of India.
 Article 13 {Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights
1. Right to equality (Article 14-18)
2. Right to freedom (Article 19-22)
3. Right against exploitation (Article 23-24)
4. Right to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28)
5. Cultural & educational rights (Articles 29-30)
6. Right to constitutional remedies (Article 32)

1.Right to Equality (Articles 14-18):

 Article 14 (Equality before law)
 Article 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion,

race, caste, sex or place of birth)

 Article 16 (Equality of opportunities in matters of public
employment)
 Article 17 (Abolition of Untouchability
2. Right to Freedom (Articles 19-22):

Article 19 says that all citizens shall have the right

 to freedom of speech and expression.
 To assemble peacefully and without arms.
 To form associations or unions.
 To move freely throughout the territory of India.
 To practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade
or business
 Article 20 (Protection in respect of conviction for offenses):
It says that state can impose reasonable restrictions on the
groups of security of the state, friendly relations with foreign
states, public order, decency, morality, contempt of court,
defamation, etc.
 Article 21 deals with Protection of life and personal liberty.
 Article 21A states that state shall provide free and compulsory
education to all children of the age of 6-14years.
 Article 22 deals with protection against arrest and detention in
certain cases.

MODERN PERIOD
3. Right Against Exploitation (Articles 23-24):
 Article 23 deals with the prohibition of traffic in human beings and

forced labor.
 Article 24 deals with prohibition of employment of children in

factories, etc.
4. Right to Freedom of Religion (Articles 25-28):
 Article 25 deals with freedom of conscience and free profession,

practice, and propagation of religion.

 Article 26 deals with freedom to manage religious affairs.
 Article 27 deals with freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion

of any particular religion.

 Article 28 deals with freedom as to attendance at religious

instructions or religious worship in certain educational institutions.

5. Cultural and Educational Rights (Articles 29-30):
 Article 29 deals with the protection of language, script, and culture

of minorities.
 Article 30 deals with the right of minorities to establish and

administer educational institutions.

6. Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32):
 Article 32 deals with the right to move to the supreme court for the

enforcement of Fundamental Rights including the Writs of (i) Habeas

corpus, (ii) Mandamus, (iii) Prohibition, (iv) Certiorari and (iv) Quo
warranto.
 Habeas Corpus – Illegal Confinement

 Mandamus – To do a duty which they bound to do

 Certiorary - To set aside a decision already taken

 Prohibition – Prohibit the person to do a wrong thing

 Quo-warranto – Authority to ask step down from position if a

person has no authority to sit down in that position
 Articles 36-51 of the Indian constitution
 Philosophy of the constitution.
 Conscience of the constitution
 The idea was borrowed from the constitution of Ireland

The Directive Principles may be classified into 3 broad

categories—
 Socialistic
 Gandhian and
 Liberal-intellectual.
1. Socialistic Directives
 securing welfare of the people (Art. 38)
 securing proper distribution of material resources of the community
as to best sub serve the common-good, equal pay for equal work,
protection of childhood and youth against exploitation. etc. (Art.39),
 curing right to work, education etc. Art. (41),
 securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief
(Art. 42) etc.
2. Gandhian Directives
 to organize village panchayats (Art. 40),
 to secure living wage, decent standard of life, and to promote
cottage industries (Art.43),
 to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to 14
years of age (Art. 45), - added by the 86th Amendment Act, 2002.
 to promote economic and educational interests of the weaker
sections of the people, particularly, the scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes,
 to enforce prohibition of intoxicating drinks and cow-slaughter and
to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on scientific lines
(Arts. 46-48).
 (3) Liberal intellectual directives
 to secure uniform civil code throughout the

country (Art.44),
 to separate the judiciary from the executive

(Art.50),
 to protect monuments of historic and national

importance and
 to promote international peace and security.
 It shall be the duty of every citizen of India —
1. To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and
institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;
2. To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired
our national struggle for freedom;
3. To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and
integrity of India;
4. To defend the country and render national service when
called upon to do so;
5. To promote harmony and the spirit of common
brotherhood amongst all the people of India
transcending religious, linguistic and regional or
sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory
to the dignity of women;
6. To value and preserve the rich heritage of our
composite culture;
7. To protect and improve the natural environment
including forests, lakes, rivers, wildlife and to have
compassion for living creatures;
8. To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the
spirit of inquiry and reform;
9. To safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
10. To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual
and collective activity, so that the nation constantly rises
to higher levels of endeavour and achievement;
11. It shall be the duty of every citizen of India who is a
parent or guardian, to provide opportunities for
education to his child, or as the case may be, ward
between the age of six to fourteen years.
 (This fundamental duty has been added to the
Constitution of India by the 86th constitutional
amendment in 2002)
 The Ministry of welfare, now called the Ministry of Social
justice and Empowerment – to deal with the marginalized
groups such as SC and ST, children, disabled, elderly and
women

 Many Schemes started for marginalized

 Voluntary Organizations during freedom movement did not
depend on the state for resources and directions
 Resources were raised through donations and people’s
contributions
 After independence – official system, patronage, legitimacy,
transparency, accountability etc.
 Delivery system for providing relief
 Attitude of compassion, empathy etc
 Project oriented and programme oriented
 Funding agencies
 Multi disciplinary
 Experts and personnel
 Field visits
 Right based approach