Socio-Religious Reform Movement in Kashmir (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century)

Abstract

Indian society has always changed from time to time, which seeks to recover itself from the morass of ignorance, degradation, and decadence due to its transition. For this it has to take resort to reform itself through the educational and socio-religious movements. History shows the emergence of various socio-religious reforms to remove the ignorance and social evil from society. One such movement was Rishi movement of Kashmir. It was an indigenous Sufi movement which started in the valley in the wake of the introduction of Sufi orders from Central Asia and Persia in the fourteenth century. It was founded by Shaikh Noor-ud-Din or Nund Rishi. He played a central role within the framework of a cognitive moral and social order. In this paper, I shall be discussing the emergence of Nund Rishi as an ascetic and how his movement is synonymous with the process of social reform and protest against religious dogma and the contribution of the Muslim rishis in spreading the message of universal love and transcending narrow communal barriers.

Keywords: socio-religious, ascetic, rishi movement, social reform, communal barriers.