| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper seeks to examine the ideology and theology of the Ananda Marga (Path of Bliss), a new radical Hindu sect of postcolonial India, by comparing its odyssey with an almost radical Christian sect of Reformation Europe, the Anabaptists. Like the Anabaptists, the Ananda Marga began as a movement of the common man. Both were also millennial movements with lay leadership arising as responses to the social, cultural, and economic crises of their respective historical times. Both sought to recover the pristine and authentic ethos of their respective religious traditions and thus antagonized their respective governments. Consequently, both endured persecution but both survived their ordeal by re-forming their ideology and theology under competent leadership to emerge as peaceful, fruitful, and resourceful members of their societies.
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