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Views of the Anuvrat Movement
One survey question asked, "Is the Anuvrat Movement: 1. a religious movement,
2. a spiritual movement, 3. an ethical movement, 4. a spiritual and ethical movement, 5.
all three (religious, spiritual and ethical)?” The reason why I asked this question was to
compare the views of my respondents to what I understood were Tulsi's objectives in the
creation of the movement. If the movement was truly secular as he intended, then the
majority of respondents should have chosen “ethical” or “spiritual and ethical.” My data
show that a large majority of respondents, Jain, Hindu and Muslim, did think of the
movement as "religious” to some degree, whether they chose "a religious movement” or
the category of "spiritual, ethical and religious.” Such a result was despite Tulsi's clear
aims for the movement.
Table 1. "What is the Anuvrat Movement?”
Religious
Ethical
Spiritual
Religious, Spiritual
& Ethical
Ethical & Spiritual
Total
Jain
17
15
97
2.8%
12 8.3%
11.7%
10.3%
145 100.0%
35 100.0%
Hindu
66.9%
24 68.6%
5.7%
11.4%
0 0.0%
14.3%
Sikh
0.0%
0.0%
100.0%
0.0%
0.0%
100.0%
Muslim
0.0%
16.7%
100.0%
0.0%
16 8.6%
16.7%
16
24
66.7%
125 66.8%
187
Total
3.2%
12.8%
8.6%
100.0%
In connection with the previous question, I also examined the survey results on
the question, "In your opinion, is the Anuvrat Movement: 1. primarily aimed at Jains, 2.
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