HIS 382N • Socl/Relig Reform Mod India
eligious and social reform movements in 19th and 20th century India are not only examples of the intellectual encounter between East and West, and the precursors of nationalist political activity, but they also raise a number of intriguing interpretive questions. For example: to what degree are these movements the result of western impact, and to what degree do they derive their sources of inspiration from indigenous patterns of change and dissent? To what degree do even the most indigenous or "traditional" of these movements embody modernizing tendencies, such as the use of technological and organizational innovations? Also to what degree are those movements the product of the social and religious fragmentation of India, and to what degree did they contribute to (or accentuate) that fragmentation? There is, in addition, a gender dimension to this inquiry, as most reform movements were concerned, directly or indirectly, with women's status.