________________
were to be perceived merely as the sum of practiced rituals its moral impact would be
limited to the individual. However, he theorized that through proscribed non-ritualistic
(secularized) action, it might be possible for him
to influence modern culture by
demonstrating how internalized moral viewpoints could be pervaded in a wider Indian
society. Therefore, Tulsi advocated for the creation of a movement that utilized external
practices as exemplified by his pilgrimage on foot to promote and introduce ways to
change internal states of being.
Religious Response to Modernization
Tulsi viewed modernization as a factor in the degradation of a value systems and
a cause of the deterioration of character, but how could he transcend the limitations of his
own tradition? An additional well-known example of a religious response to
modernization in India that occurred prior to Gandhi and Tulsi, can be seen in Raja
Rammohun Roy's forming of the Brahmo Samaj in pre-independence India. The key
aspects of Brahmo Samaj were the abolition of suttee (the immolation of widows on their
husbands' funeral pyres) as a social evil, and the strengthening of the disintegrating
Hindu society by reviving the Vedas and Upanishads.24 All three examples - Roy,
Gandhi and Tulsi, evince what Max Weber (one of the principal architects of modern
social science) stated: “Religion is a powerful casual factor influencing social action and
social structure."25 Tulsi's allegiance to the small vows implies his firm faith in the power
of religion as expressed by Weber in the above quotation. However, the opposite of this
24 Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movement in British India, The New Cambridge History of India III, 1 (Cambridge (England); New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 30.
2 Livingston, Anatomy of the Sacred, 161.
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