Role Of Socio- Religious Reform Movements Among Muslims In Kashmir

The study of religious phenomena has been the prime focus of sociology right from its emergence ,The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim or The Protestant Ethic and The Sprit of Capitalism by Max Weber, for example, have been the great source of inspiration for the latter sociologists and students of sociology to further such researches on religion from sociological perspective. Subsequent to this trend,this paper also tries to identify and analyse critically the various socio-religious movements among the muslims of Kashmir.The process of  Islamization in Kashmir has not been ,as it is generally believed,fully successful at its first instance, because  the strong Hindu greater tradition has been influential and impactful on little tradition (common masses converted to Islam) therefore the various types of religious movements have emerged among the Muslims at different stages of post Islamic period in order to educate the common masses converted to Islam and subsequently remove the Hinduistic traits from the social fabric of Kashmir. These movements have remained successful to greater extent insofar their role in weakening the hegemony of Muslim priestly elite class is concerned, in this backdrop the movements have been quite successful in linking the great chunk of muslim youth to the Islamic literature(Quran,Hadith & Fiqh) ,however these movements  have virtually failed to completely wipeout the ischolar_mains of relgio-cultural impact of other groups especially that of Hinduism from the common masses.