Реферат: Hindu Revival Essay Research Paper Hindu revivalism

and political change based upon Western patterns; they appreciated many of the

Western philosophies and wanted India to follow suit. The revivalist view was

based on returning to a Hindu antiquity that was thought to be superior for

governing India?a ?Hindu? nation. Many felt that this desire to recreate

the age of Hindu grandeur was also a result of English education; ideas of

patriotism and nationalism crept into these peoples way of thought. It was the

English study of the Indian way of life that added to the revivalist movement.

Revivalism included those who wanted to preserve the traditional social order as

well as those who sought to reform Hindu society as a way of strengthening Hindu

solidarity. The RSS traces its roots to the revivalist feelings that were

present at that time. The Hindu revivalists sought to recover fundamental truths

about their people. They argued that the loss of national consciousness had

created conditions that facilitated British domination of the land. By appealing

to an idealized past, the revivalists reminded the Hindu public of the suffering

and degradation experienced under British rule. The call for independence was a

logical next-step, for the degraded present could only be overcome by

eliminating the foreign intruders who had supposedly disrupted the original

blissful society. Muslim rulers and the British were identified as sources of

that disruption and many revivalist spokesmen sought to place limits on their

political power and on their cultural influence. The proposed changes in Hindu

society were justified by the proposition that the changes were not new at all,

but were in fact a revival of older, purer forms of Hindu culture that had

degenerated during foreign rule. Opposition to British rule increased among both

the moderates and the more extremists, as the contradictions between colonial

rule and new aspirations became obvious. Criticism of India?s colonial status

was supported by observation of British attitudes. The British viewed Indians

and Indian culture as inferior. Educated Indians were considerably upset when

the British began to characterize them as feminine, cowardly and

unrepresentative of the native culture. The racial arrogance often expressed by