![]() ![]() Even the great German sociologist, Max Weber, who emphasized the ideological foundations of socioeconomic practices in India, succumbed to this distinction. The distinction between "high" Brahmanic religion and the lower folk superstitions thus marked a boundary, on one side of which lay two types of rationality -religious and scientific -and on the other side of which lay what E. Peasants worshiped fetishes, symbols endowed with intrinsic powers, and were far more interested in the avoidance of harm than in spiritual goals. Sir Monier Monier-Williams, for instance, identified village gods with tutelary powers that warded off demons and evil spirits pervading the countryside. Major dimensions of Hinduism were reduced to the animistic practices and beliefs of peasants, a "lower" form of religion that was designated pejoratively as magical. ![]() The work of the missionary-traveler Abb é Jean-Antoine Dubois (1765 –1848) set the tone for this type of discourse, but the British utilitarians who administered India were more influential in differentiating the magical from religious and scientific rationality. Since the beginning of modern Indology in the writings of travelers, missionaries, and administrators, Hinduism has been described as a religion saturated with magic and superstition. ![]()
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