The Belief System of the Non-Brahmin Movement in India

IT IS A commonplace that structural factors play a crucial role in the emergence of a social movement-protest, reform, or otherwise-and that a highly stratified and segmented society produces conditions favorable to the emergence of such movements. But then, social movements are a consequence of a series of encounters and interactions rather than a mere reflex to structural conditions.' The viability of a movement then depends on its perception of the social situation and the consequent fashioning of a belief system which stands in contradistinction to the existing order, or is a modified version expressing incompatibility with certain of its basic ideas and practices. It goes without saying that the essence of a movement is the belief system and the acceptance of its fundamental ideas as relevant and legitimate by a segment of the population. Wilson has argued that vital clues to the understanding of a movement can be obtained from the belief system since, after all, it is belief which catalyzes action.2 However, beliefs themselves are a result of an evolutionary process, and are unfolded as the movement develops and gains momentum. What is clearly crucial is the ordering of action in consonance with the beliefs which in turn feeds back to the belief system. This essay argues that significant clues to the vicissitudes which the belief system is likely to go through, and even the eventual outcome of the movement, can be learned from the way action is ordered. It examines some of the activities which arose out of the non-Brahmin movement which swept penin

Aesthetics · Belief system · Ethnology · Movement (music · Political science · History · Indian Economic and Social Development · Philosophy

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