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Neo-Vedanta, also called Hindu modernism,[1] neo-Hinduism,[2][3] Global Hinduism[4] and Hindu Universalism,[web 1] are terms to characterize interpretations of Hinduism that developed in the 19th century. The term "Neo-Vedanta" was coined by German Indologist Paul Hacker, in a pejorative way, to distinguish modern developments from "traditional" Advaita Vedanta.[5]
Scholars have repeatedly argued that these modern interpretations incorporate Western ideas[6] into traditional Indian religions, especially Advaita Vedanta, which is asserted as central or fundamental to Hindu culture.[7] Other scholars have described a Greater Advaita Vedānta,[8][note 1] which developed since the medieval period.[note 2] Drawing on this broad pool of sources, after Muslim rule in India was replaced by that of the East India Company, Hindu religious and political leaders and thinkers responded to Western colonialism and orientalism, contributing to the Indian independence movement and the modern national and religious identity of Hindus in the Republic of India. This societal aspect is covered under the term of Hindu reform movements.
Among the main proponents of such modern interpretations of Hinduism were Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan, who to some extent also contributed to the emergence of Neo-Hindu movements in the West.
Neo-Vedanta has been influential in the perception of Hinduism, both in the west and in the higher educated classes in India. It has received appraisal for its "solution of synthesis",[10] but has also been criticised for its Universalism. The terms "Neo-Hindu" or "Neo-Vedanta" themselves have also been criticised for its polemical usage, the prefix "Neo-" then intended to imply that these modern interpretations of Hinduism are "inauthentic" or in other ways problematic.[11]
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 258.
- ^ King 2002, p. 93.
- ^ Beckerlegge 2006, p. 435.
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 265.
- ^ Madaio 2017.
- ^ Halbfass 2007a, p. 307.
- ^ King 2002, p. 135.
- ^ Allen 2017.
- ^ Madaio 2017, p. 4.
- ^ Larson 2012, p. 320.
- ^ Halbfass 2007b, p. 587.
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