The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s6.36

c14.s6.36

Bengali positivism expressed itself also in democratic and socialistic forms. The *bhakti* (faith or devotion) movement associated with Chaitanya (1485-1533), which led somewhat to the annihilation of barriers between the castes as well as those between the Hindus and the Moslems, has been no less powerful in the pluralistic make-up of the Bengali mind than the cult of *śakti* which has come down to Rāmaprasāda (1718-75) and Rāmakriṣṇa in the nineteenth century (1836-86).²⁸