A History of Agriculture in India v2.c85.s7.2

v2.c85.s7.2

Many peasants during the Mughal rule found a new basis for a community opposed to the caste-divisions. This was created by the sects formed as part of the great religious movement that had begun in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The leading ideas of these sects were identical: monotheism, the abandonment of ritualistic forms of worship, the denial of caste-barriers and of communal differences. As important as the content of their ideas was the mode of their preaching, which was directed towards the masses. The new teaching was communicated in vernacular dialect, and the prophets, the preachers and the followers belonged mostly to the deprived lower classes. The teachers of these sects preached humility and resignation. But when radical ideas, such as the contempt for caste and the sense of unity under a new faith, established themselves in the minds and hearts of the masses, the sects could not remain confined to religion. They provided the inspiration for two of the most powerful revolts against the Mughals, viz. those of the Satnamis and the Sikhs.