CONTRIBUTION OF BHAKTI

MOVEMENT TO SOCIAL
WORK PRACTICE IN INDIA
 BACKGROUND
• The term ‘Bhakti’ refers to love and devotion to
god.
• Their belief was that God was the source of all
joys and external bliss. God lives in the heart of
men.
• It is believed that Bhakti movement was an
attempt by the Hindu saints and philosophers to
modify and save Hinduism in the changed
circumstances, and a serious threat mainly posed
by all evil practices of Hinduism, particularly
those relating to caste system and idol worship.
 BACKGROUND…
• Swami Sankaracharya is said to have been the
first and the principal exponent of the Bhakti
movement.
• The preachers of Bhakti cult laid emphasis on
the fundamental equality of all religions and
all individuals.
• there arose the conscious and unconscious
efforts on these ideas and led to an anti-caste
or monotheistic movement.
 1. RAMANUJA

• Ramanuja was considered as one of the earliest

exponents of the Bhakti movement.
• He established Vaishnavism on a sound bed rock and
proclaimed that the way to moksha laid through
‘Karma’ ‘Jnan’ and ‘Bhakti’.
• ‘Karuna’ implies kindness or theperformance of duty
without any selfish motive.
• He also oppressed restriction with regard to partaking
of meals (sharing meals together).
• His main achievements were the simplification of
worship and the emancipation of people from the
traditional caste practices.
 2. Ramananda

• Ramananda was born at Prayag in the year 1299.

• He initited the process of breaking the shell of
orthodoxy which covered the Hindu society, to
withstand the so called threat posed by Islam.
• His movement embraced the generous recognition to
the spiritual as well as social needs and aspirations of
the common people.
• He attempted at the relaxation of the caste rules in
respect of religious and social matters.
• He accepted the members of all castes as his disciples
and allowed them to eat and drink together.
 3. Kabir

• Kabir was one of the disciples of Ramanada.

• Because of his variety of religious experience Kabir
made the Bhakti movement more meaningful to the
needs of the people.
• Kabir believed in the unity of God and rejected both
the Vedas and the Quaran and the supremacy of
Brahmins and Mullas.
• He also vehemently criticized the the practice image
worship and prevalence of caste system in India.
• Kabir composed many poems known as ‘Kabir Dohas’
which contained his religious teaching and had a great
spiritual appeal for common man.
 4. Srichaitanya

• The greatest proponents of Bhakti movement was

Chaitanya born in Bengal in 485 AD.
• He traveled all over the country and taught the people
to worship Lord Krishna.
• He advised his followers not to take pride of their own
deeds and to have perfect humanity in their actions.
He said, ‘Krishna dwells in every soul therefore give
respect to others without seeking anything for himself.
• Chaitanya opposed the prevalence of caste system and
expressed his love for poor and the weak. He preached
universal brotherhood and love for each other.
 5. Guru Nanak

• He was a great preacher of Bhakti cult and founder of

Sikhism.
• He spent his life by propagating universal brotherhood,
religious tolerance, and unity of God.
• Allah and Khuda the one and only God.
• He advised, “Make kindness the mosque, sincerity the
prayer carpet and what is just and lawful the Quaran”.
• He condemned caste system and believed that it was
against the will God. He said, “Class and caste distinctions
are just so much non-sense that all men are born equal.
• He attacked the supremacy of Brahmins and Mullas and
gave place to honesty, morality, humanity, charity, truth
and mercy in teachings.
 Bhakti movement and social work
practice in india
• Bhakti movement as s strong religious instrument
brought about some significant changes to the
Indian social structure through the attacks on
social inequality based on caste and class, gender
discrimination, supremacy of Brahmins, blind
beliefs, ritualism and socially harmful practices
etc.
• It also aimed at supporting the cause of
establishing egalitarian society, women
empowerment, and community development
based on social democracy.
 2.06. Contribution of Christian
Missionaries to Social work
• Christian Missionaries: are the persons who
worked with a mission of preaching their religion
and associating more and more people to their
religion.
• They condemned and criticized the existing
superstitions, religious practices and rituals which
were responsible for various social evils in India.
• Christianism and Christian way of life produced a
lot of positive changes in the outlook of Indians.
 Christian Missionaries…
• The impact of Christian and western education
brought about many necessary changes in the
Hindu social structure especially with regard to
child marriage, polygamy, female infanticides,
practice of ‘Sati’, prohibition of widow remarriage
etc..
• the growth producing impacts of Christian
missionary activities are greatly felt in different
fields of social development in India such as:
 1. Education:

• their contribution to education for especially the

people of lower strata of Indian population can
hardly be underestimated.
• missionary established numbers of mission
schools all over India especially the tribal
inaccessible areas.
• Today, highest literacy rates in some tribal belts
of north-eastern states, it is because of the
initiatives of Christian missionaries. Today, Kerala
has achieved 100% literacy because Christian
missionaries started their activities in this state.
 2. Social Reform

• Christians raised voice against evil practice of widowhood of child

widows.
• Christian contribution marked with: Democratization of the
government, women empowerment and pro-democracy
movement, pioneering force in nationalization- Young Christian
council of Action established in 1930- and to the Reform
movement especially to Bengal Reform movement through
education, awareness creation and mission of charity.
• Keshab Chandra Sen (1838- 1884) Advocated that political, social
and moral regeneration is possible through the practice of
Christianity. He states “we breathe, think, feel and move in a
Christian atmosphere.”
• The contributions of the Christianity in the field of social work are
mainly in four aspects. They are: education, occupation, religion
and social and ethnic identity.
 3. Socio-economic emancipation of
tribes and Dalits.
• the clutches of money lenders causing to dispossess their
land, lose control over their own community based socio-
economic structure and indigenous culture.
• A strategy of purposive actions such as formal education,
alternative employment, financial support through
institutional means and so on for socio-economic uplift and
liberation from fear of spirits was initiated by the
missionaries.
• Though substantial socio-economic changes had initiated
among them they have retained their indigenous values of
gender equality, dignity of women, consensual procedure in
community, actions apparel, language, cuisine, traditional
customs, indigenous festivals etc.
 4. Social service to the destitute

• hostels and orphanages for boys and girls

attached to educational institutions to help the
children of poor parents.
• Great care is given to deaf and dump, mentally
retarded, aged, destitute, lepers, aids patients
etc.
• there are thousands of such centers voluntary
services,it runs rehabilitations centers for
HIV/AIDS infected persons, mentally ill, prisoners
etc as an expression to the commitment to
humanity.
 5. Conscientization of the Community

• Conscientization is one of the three level of social concern

expressed by the Christians -Beneficence, Development
and Conscientization.
• Conscientization to execute justice, develop the socially
backward, downtrodden and marginalized. For this purpose
technical schools and nursing centers are run by Christians.
Today, Christian centers have become centers of
conscientization which is a process of awakening the total
person to a fresh discover of his or her dignity and
potentialities.
• Special efforts are made for female education. These
centers brought about awareness, an insight, a cultural
transformation and offered opportunities for a better
standard of living and scope for creativity.
 6. Health Services
• The contribution of the church in the field of health
services has been well appreciated by all the people
as well as by government.
• church personnel are fully involved in public health
services, nutritional programmes and hygiene and
sanitation programmes.
• There are mobile clinic and awareness programmes
run in the rural areas. Health centers run by
Christians originally meant to serve the poor.
• Many of well equipped and well established hospitals
render service in rural areas and slums others do not
reach
 7. Livelihood Promotion

• Liberating people from bonded chains of all

forms of suffering has always been main goal
of the church initiatives.
• The church’s development schemes consist
not only of providing food, clothing and
shelter to the needy, but also helping people
toward the achievement of self-reliance and
dignity.