Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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and even reputed miracles, were of everyday occurrence. Rich noblemen
abandoned all their possessions and gave them to the poor, and even
the poorest would lay aside a bundle of sticks to light a fire for some
chance wandering saint.’ 1
This religious commotion might have affected many people of
all classes and castes, because the human spirit must have been sick at
heart of the prevalent atmosphere of hierarchism, sectarianism,
disputations and hatred, and longed for a healing breath of humanism.
But, it was the poorer classes that were drawn towards the medieval
Bhakti saints in large numbers. ‘It now became as fully the right of the
despaired classes, of Musalmans, and of unclean leather-workers, as
of people of repute. From Ramanand’s time it was to the poor that
the gospel was preached, and that in their language, not in a form of
speech holy but unintelligible.’ 2 ‘In the North, Vaihnavism first affected
the lower strata of society and proceeded upward in its conversion.’ 3
‘The religion of the Maharasthra saints dominated the thoughts of the
lower and middle class from the eleventh and twelfth century to our
own day.’ 4 The followers of Kabir are mostly weavers and those of
Rai Das mostly leather cleaners. 5
The upsurge of emotions evoked by the Bhakti movement has
been ascribed to certain spiritual and emotional needs of the people.
It may be partly true, but it is not a complete explanation, unless one
is to believe that the lower castes were greater then those of the upper
castes. For the same reason, the conversions to Islam cannot be wholly
ascribed to the appeal purely of Islamic doctrines and theology, because
this fact has to be taken into account that the bulk of voluntary
conversions to Islam in India came from the peasant and the lower
castes. Moreover, it has also to be explained why the concept of
devotional Bhakti, though introduced earlier, took several centuries
to grow, and developed into a full-fledged Bhakti wave only during the
Muslim period, and why the medieval Bhakti movement cooled down
after the initial momentum gained by it. It cannot be asserted that the
spiritual and the emotional needs of the people wax and wane periodically.
How ideas take root and flourish is in no small measure
determined by the social milieu and the environmental factors.
Therefore, it should not be ignored that the emotional upsurge of the
Bhakti movements was closely related, in the case of the