IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/revdev/v28y2023i2p268-284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ascetic, Alekha and Ambivalence: The Mahima Movement in Eastern India

Author

Listed:
  • Subhasis Sahoo
  • Sital Mohanty
  • Pranay Kumar Swain

Abstract

Historians and sociologists stride on unchartered terrain when it comes to studying social movements, especially those termed ‘historyless’, the marginal communities. This paper deals with India’s most unique socioreligious movement called Mahima or Alekha Dharma, in which the marginalised sections such as Adivasis and Shudras challenged the beliefs of the powerful section of society. It aims to provide an overview of the Mahima cult of Odisha and attempts to see why the movement had started and what its outcomes were. The ethnographic fieldwork was carried out between October 2019 and February 2020 in Joranda, Odisha, in order to understand the world of the Mahima cult from the perspective of Mahima monks and followers. These field insights enabled us to understand how religion and social movements interact in several ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Subhasis Sahoo & Sital Mohanty & Pranay Kumar Swain, 2023. "Ascetic, Alekha and Ambivalence: The Mahima Movement in Eastern India," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(2), pages 268-284, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:revdev:v:28:y:2023:i:2:p:268-284
    DOI: 10.1177/09722661231215453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09722661231215453
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09722661231215453?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:revdev:v:28:y:2023:i:2:p:268-284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.