Sociology of Pilgrims

This volume consists of eleven articles from different parts of India and abroad. It tries to explore new areas in sociology, that is, "Sociology of Pilgrims". The pilgrims, priests, and rituals are closely interconnected and directly related to social structure and social functioning. The rituals of pilgrimage reflects traditional value as well as inter-relations between tradition and modernity.
This work deals with textual and contextual scenario of pilgrims and pilgrimages as well as changes which are noticed due to modernity.
To gain religious merits, as well as for the fulfillment or worldly desires, is the core theme of pilgrimage. But the main objective of human life is salvation. Salvation means liberation of soul from worldly attachment. It today's world, where everyone is busy in their scheduled routine, this book will help to get peace and satisfaction in their life.
Present volume is highly useful not only in the academic field of Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Religion and History, but also the growth of intellectual spirit.

Paras Kumar Choudhary (born 1964), double M.A., junior research fellow, teacher fellowship award recipient from UGC., Ph.D. from Patna University, Professor-in-charge in the Pre-Exam Training Centre (Ministry of Welfare); General Secretary; Jharkhand Sociological Society; Member; editorial board of sociological prespectives journal, editorial board of local family magazine. An author of various national and local articles. Has participated in the 14th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences at Williamsburg. Virginia. U.S.A. At present, assistant professor in Post-Graduate Department of Sociology. Ranchi University, Jharkhand.

Pilgrimages are the historical sacred complex structure, which people accept as a matter of fact. Religions have various rituals, which people operationalize at the place of historical sacred pilgrimage. For example, Roman church, Catholic church, Lutharian church, Ayodhya and Mecca etc., are the places where people visit in order to get salvation through either performing rituals over there and thereby purchase and deliver sacred objects, which in P.R. Bourdievian sense called as "cultural capital" or "social capital". After all, religion is a matter of historical faith and convention and, sometime, Hegel says that religion is incarnation of God on the earth. Mecca is a place, where Muslim devotees visit regularly and worship Mohamad Sahab as a "matter of symbolic surrender of man to God". Man is the creation of God. Man gets all kinds of emotional support by performing social capital, symbolized by salvating God at various places. Rome is a Catholic city, where the hard cord believers of Catholic Christian worship for peace and tranquillity. Ayodhya is a place where Ram was born. The Hindus consider Ayodhya as a sacred complex or what L.P. Vidyarthi calls sacred complex. When religious city established the priest of temple, church or mosque, where priest is supposed to have secret personality. Its geographical location, where temple is situated, is considered as a sacred geography. Various religions have sometimes common element and sometimes different discourses. For example, J.P.S. Uberoi in his book Religion, and civil society and state argues that Sikhism developed out of mixture of Hinduism and Islam in Amritsar where the Golden Temple is situated. People generally go over there and pray to God in symbolic and actual sense. Similarly, where the birth of Sita is traced. In Chiana there is a historical pilgrimage which even Marxist Govts have not demolished, primarily because of the fact that they consider religious places and pilgrimage as a cementing force. Religion, sometimes, works as a libidonal energy, which keeps people mobile and energetic and to be human. It is necessary to practise rituals at the time of birth, marriage and festival ceremonies, which are essential for the transformation of biological into social individual. The change in the religious status is known as Rite de passage. In Hinduism, first of all, man is born as biophysical being and when he performs ritual, be in the form of sacrifice or salvation, be becomes religious. In religion just as in the marriage sacred and profane are combined and differentiated at the same time. For example, in Hindu marriage, the presence of the barber and the priest are equally important. Marriage is supposed to be a sacred event, which is sanctioned by the priest. The Priest is relatively supposed to be pure and the barber is relative as impure. But the question arises as to why the barber is present over there? Answer has been given by L. Dumont in his book Religion in Society when he says that presence of profane as equally important than presence of sacred. Major function of priest is to sanction and legitimize marriage. Which, can not be broken by heart of two combined souls. Marriage is not system of relation between only two individual, but it is system of relation between. two groups. Function of barber is to prevent the profane element which, might contaminates the ceremony of marriage. Although the barber is relatively impure, but his function is highly pure. Dumont sees the relationship between caste and community, principle of religious hierarchy, which is based on binary opposition between pure and impure; But J.P.S.Uberai and Veena Das argue that the relationship between the two castes, which are the expression of the religious hierarchy, are sometimes reciprocal and are based upon the principle of equivalence.