Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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CHAPTER VII
The Radical Bhakti Ideology-
Its Social Significance
The Radical Bhakti movements, starting with Namdev, was also
one of the liberal trends which ultimately succumbed to the orthodox
caste order and its ideology. These humanistic Bhaktas were
ideologically opposed both to the theory of caste and the narrow
interpretations given to Islam by the bigoted Mullahs, In the earlier
chapters we purposely omitted to refer to their role as it deserves
separate treatment, especially because in certain respects their ideology
has distinct and close affinities with that of the Sikh Gurus. We shall
call these Bhaktas as belonging to the Radial Bhakti School.
The overwhelming emphasis on Bhakti or devotion has be to
the erroneous impression that the entire Bhakti movement was a
purely religious upsurge. This wrong impression is there partly
because some of the Bhakti saints, e.g. Mirabai, were so much
absorbed in their religious devotion that they never touch the social
aspects for religion. Nevertheless, the social import of the teachings
of one of the Bhakti schools, as we shall see, cannot be denied.
Also, it would be equally misleading to regard Bhakti-marga as a
uniform school of thought. There were deep differences in the
theological and the social ideologies of the different Bhakti schools.
“a whole world of difference lies between the Bhagavatism of the
reformation and that of the Bhagavadgita.” 1 Within the Bhakti
school of the so-called reformation itself, there were ideological
variations from one Bhakta (saint) to another. The objects of devotion
of some of these were sectarian deities, while other preached
unalloyed monotheism. A part from these theological distinctions,