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Religion and Gurus in traditional and Modern India” is a consolidation of a series of publications and essays in the area of sociologoical apparaisal of religion, syncretism and modern gurus and godmen in India over period of last few decades.

It is unfortunate that under the influence of western and particularly established branch of American sociology, with its exclusive focus on the structural- functional approach for a long time historical and analytical studies have almost withered away from Indian sociology. Ours is a humble attempt in this direction to revive this earlier thrust of enquiry in sociological appraisals. In this book we have attempted to look at the present and historical context. With the rise of communal forces in the post 1980s, it was difficult to ignore the socioeconomic and political situation.

The present volume consists of eight essays. The first four essays deal with the role of Hinduism in modern Indian society and syncretism in the Indian context. The other two articles are on gurus in India. The other four essays are focused on the four leading godmen of western India. These four essays are based on our findings based on f ield inves t igat ion conducted mostly during the years and in 2010. Our study on Rajneesh was done much earlier during the late 1980s.