Modern Hinduism is the reflection of continuity and progressive changes that occurred in various traditions and institutions of hinduism during the 19th and 20th centuries. This continuity and adaptation to modern ideas is still a continuing process.

Modern Hinduism has as its values - rational thought, western encounter and modern education and the ideals of humanism, rationalism and religious universalism . This has meant combating the conservative and obscurantist elements, imbibing western rationality, modern education compared to classical sanskritic education system, countering of Christian missionary criticism, certain revivalistic tendencies, legal reforms and social work.

The positive consequences of modernity in Hinduism is most visible in the status of women and the dalits. Also, ritualism has declined. People have become open minded and scientific in their outlook.

Modernity has led to infusion of newer ideas into the Hindu religion, thereby making it more open to the people, so that we find many foreigners taking on Hinduism. This is particularly interesting when there is no organised proselytising effort in Hindu religion.

An important aspect of 20th century modern Hinduism has been its spread among foreigners, who have accepted the religion voluntarily. This can be traced most prominently to the sojourn of Vivekananda to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, where he made a huge impact on the people. He founded the Ramakrishna Mission. In our times, this has also been facilitated by emergence of sects like Hare Krishna promoted by ISKON, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. Similar are other modern day Gurus like Rajneesh, also known as Osho (he started his career as a lecturer in philosophy at Jabalpur). An interesting fact of such movements, is that these are often inspired by Bhakti, more particularly the Vaishnavite strand.

An interesting thing is that many of such sects or religious societies, are more involved in social work and in calamity relief works. Often they have supplemented the governments and NGOs in such critical moments.

External links

• Hinduism in Modern Times
• Modern Hinduism