Faith and Social Movements : Religious Reform in Contemporary India

The book straddles the fields of the sociology of movements and religious studies. Using a comparative lens, two different movements - a Hindu and an Islamic reform - have been studied in ethnographic detail. It contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the concepts of secularity and civil society in a 'post-secular' world.

How do we understand the multitude of faith movements in our post-secular world? Faith and Social Movements explores this question by analyzing the theology and practice as well as the transformation of two discrepant religious movements in contemporary India. The research opens up a conversation between the sociology of religion and social movements. Using a comparative lens, two different movements - a Hindu and an Islamic reform movement - have been studied in ethnographic detail. The book is divided into two parts. The first part dwells on Svadhyaya, a Hindu reform movement, and the second part on the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic reform movement. Focusing on the internal dynamics of these movements and the ''unintended consequences'' of piety, the author argues that it is only by raising new questions vis-à-vis religion, secularity and civil society that their entanglement could be uncovered. This book aims to raise some of these questions.