Scientific Study of Religion in India

Author(s): S. B. Verma
Source: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Jun., 1978), pp. 173-
179
Published by: Wiley on behalf of Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
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 Comment
Scientific Study of Religion in India
S. B. VERMA

Rajendra College, Chapra,

Bihar, India

T o any student of humanities, it is obvious that some of the deepest and also
socially important aspects of one's personality are tied closely with the individu
religious sentiments and his philosophy of life. In fact, among the complex o
variables exerting directive influence on the growth and development of personality
religion probably occupies a central place. India is the birthplace of many religio
and through the ages, Indians have manifestly tended towards a predominant
religious outlook. The average Indian's life is rigidly regulated by the taboos of
religion.
India is perhaps the country where largest number of religious cults, sects, and
types exist, and about 330 million gods and goddesses are worshipped in different
forms. Apart from main religions like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism,
Sikhism, and Christianity, there are a few neo-religions and neo-gods who have
great influence in the Indian masses. Embracing around 440 million people, about
83.4% of the total population, Hinduism has persistently shown a capacity to
synthesize competing faiths into its umbrella, including monist, monotheists,
polytheists, pantheists, animists, totomists, agnostics, and even atheists. Apart
from Hinduism, Buddhism (3 million), Jainism (2 million), Christianity (13 million),
Sikhism (9 million), and Islam (85 million) do have significant influence over the
Indian style of life. Anyone who wants to study the cultural, sociological, historical,
political, and other aspects of Indian life and people will have to understand the
varieties of Indian religion.
In the present paper it is proposed to present a brief survey of the scientific study
of religion done by psychologists in India. It is deemed fit to divide it into two
groups-psychological studies and studies being done by various yoga-centres and
foundations in their own way.

PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION

Though the origin of psychology in India goes back to ancient times

foundation of moder psychology was laid only in the twentieth century wit
establishment of a psychological laboratory in Calcutta University in 1915 an
formation of the Indian Psychological Association in 1924. The first Indian jo
of psychology appeared in 1925.

© Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1978, 17 (2): 173-179 173

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174 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

The early work on the psychological study of religion by Rosel (1928), Hill (1921),
Bose (1929-30), Aslam (1939), and Ghos (1941) lacked an empirical approach and
contained copious materials for further research. Most of them were influenced by
William James and others early western psychologists. Their papers, such as
"Psychology of rites" (Mukherjee, 1929) and "Psychology of devotional feeding"
(Sarkar, 1929), depicted the ways of religious life in general. Some papers have tried
to describe the genesis and development of religious concept and experiences and
formed fertile field for further research (Barkeley-Hill, 1932; Bose, 1929; Bose, 1943;
Looma, 1942). Some investigators have analyzed the iconography of Hindu gods and
goddesses from psychoanalytic and other points of view (Aiyappen, 1940; Ray
Choudhri, 1956; Sastry, 1944; Sinha, 1949).
There are psychologists who think that religious observance helps man to adjust
to the inner conflict arising in critical situations relating to sex, obtaining food,
birth, and so forth (Sankar, 1938; Bhattacharya, 1944). Bhattacharya (1944) also
presented a paper on religion and mental disorder.
The abovementioned brief review gives the picture of work done by
psychologists before the sixties. With the growth of various departments of
psychology and due to its expansion in India in the sixties, the study of religion was
taken up under various branches of psychology, including clinical, developmental,
educational, social, experimental, and personality.

Clinical Studies

Bhagwat Geeta, the most sacred and important book for Hindus, formed the
basis for research by many psychologists. Krishan (1957) studied the importance of
Geeta for non-authoritarian type of counseling. Krishna Murti (1964) and Kuppu
Swami (1969) also made the Bhagwat Geeta their basis for studies related to
counseling, mental health, etc. While Yoga and hypnosis was studied by Das (1965),
Krishna Murti (1964) traced the social and psychological significance of the Indian
rites and rituals on the Indian mind. Similarly Murthy (1965) tried to locate the
common superstitions found in normals and scizophrenics.

Developmental and Educational Psychology

Verma (1962) studied the ethical discrimination as related to intelligence, age,

and sex while studying the moral development of children. Attitudes of Indian
students and adolescents towards religion has been studied by Dutta (1965) and Rao
and Mallik (1966). The relationship between sex, standard choice and education, and
attitude towards religion amonst the high school pupil were studied by Maria (1969),
while Loomba (1942, 1967) studied the religious and moral development of children
and youth. The concept of God and Ghost in children and other religious concepts of
children were studied by U. Bose (1943) and R. G. Bose (1930). A study of provincial
and religion stereotypes of the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Calcutta
University was undertaken by Panchibhai (1963). Conformity in youth to parental
religious belief was studied by Tewari (1967). Recently a study of children's attitudes
towards religion and their background factors has been taken up by Verma and
Leela (1977).

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SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION IN INDIA 175

Experimental and Personality

Learning and retention of religious and taboo words, study of psycho-phy

aspect of "pranayam," and some experiments on a Yogi in a controlled state w
some of the studies undertaken by Dixit (1965), Narain (1938), Rao, Krishna S
et al., (1958) respectively. Because of the lack of experimental facilities in t
universities only a few experiments were carried on related to religion. A
psychologists have shown interest in parapsychology and studies of extrasen
perception (ESP) were carried on by Bhadre (1966) and Rao (1965). There are a
papers on "Yoga." They include psychoanalytic structure of yoga practices
1967) and the psychological structure of yoga practices (Rosel, 1928). Experiments
a Yogi in controlled states which amassed observations on EGG, EEG, GSR,
Spirigram recordings (Rao, et al., 1958) has drawn the attention of many. Stud
atonomic functions in practitioners of Yoga (Wenger, Bagchi, 1961) and sex
"Tantra" (Mukherjee, 1926) have also been carried on. Personality variables l
anxiety, security - insecurity, introversion - extroversion, fatalism, sociab
friendliness, risk-taking, and so forth were correlated with various dimensi
religiosity like formal religion, theism, mysticism, idealism, superstition on high
low religious groups by Verma (1973). Background factors like age, caste, birth-or
parental education were also taken into consideration in the same study. Jw
(1961) also studied the superstition and personality. Another interesting study
made by Singh (1966) who tried to locate certain factors in the human perso
through Yoga. Recently the study of sin awareness, religiosity, and person
correlates of criminals has been undertaken by Jain (1976). In a study of the effe
meditation on personality change, Swami Narendra (1975) found that medit
does affect the personality and changes outlook towards life, and increases
awareness which has therapeutic value. He also found awareness to actualize
meaning of life, channelize sex energy, and transcend inner nature.

Personality Variables and Parapsychology

Indian psychologists have investigated parapsychological phenomena at the

theoretical and experimental level. Rao (1965) employing the Manifest Anxiety Scale
(MAS) found that the high anxiety subjects obtained significantly more ESP Scores
than the low anxiety subjects. Rao (1965, 1966) and Rio and Sailaja (1968) have
discussed the theoretical framework for differential response and its bearing on the
personality structure of the subjects in bi-directionality of PSI. Bhadra (1966)
explored the effect of the subject's attitude towards ESP on his scoring on the one
hand and the relation between ESP and somato-types on the other. He found
extremely significant differences between the ESP scores of the subjects who
believed in the possibility of ESP and those who didn't believe in such a possibility.
He found no significant relation between ESP and somato-types.
Kanthamani (1966) studied the relationship between personality and ESP. She
found no relationship between the subjects' ESP scores and their scores on the
Allport Ascendance Submission Scale. In another study, Kanthamani and Johnson
(1967) found a significant relationship between the subjects' scores on Krogg's

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176 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

defense mechanism test and their ESP scores.

Employing Cattell's High School Personality Questionnaire, Kanthamani
(1968) found that neuroticism and extraversion are related to the subjects' ESP
scoring. The extrovert subjects scored significantly better on ESP tests than the
introverts. She further found a highly significant negative correlation between the
subjects' neuroticism and ESP scores.

Social Psychology

It may be pointed out that research in social psychology is, on the whole, problem
oriented. Most of the studies in this area have been done on attitude towards
religiosity rites, rituals, Hindu groups, and mythology. This is the only branch whe
maximum interest has been shown by the psychologists.
A study of students' attitude towards religion, the spiritual, and the
supernatural was done by Adi Narayan and Rajamanikam (1962) while the attitude
of Indian women towards traditional values was studied by Ramedevi (1963).
A psychological study of Guru Nanak's life and teaching (Anant, 1970), religious
experience of Mohammadans (Aslam, 1939), the psychological outlook in Hindu
philosophy (Bose, 1930), psychology of impurity (Mehta, 1945), psychology of rites
(Mukherjee, 1929), a psychoanalytic study of Hindu Mother-goddess concept (Ray
Chaudhury, 1956), the psychology of taking "prasad" (Sarkar, 1938), symbolism in
Hindu Gods (Sastri, 1944), symbolism of marriage rituals of the South Indian
Brahmins (Vimla, 1957), field structure of desireless devotion (Mitra, S. K., 1948), and
factors determining changes in religious phenomena (Mitra, S. C., 1945), are some of
the interesting works done by psychologists in branches related to social psychology
and religion. A few scales measuring various dimensions of religiosity have also
been developed (Krishnan, 1962; Bushan & Verma, 1973). Krishnan's questionnaires
of religion consisted of thirty items related to nature of god, future life, priests, the
spirit world, personal religion, and formal religion. Verma's RTMIS Scale measures
five dimensions of religiosity namely formal religion, theism, mysticism, idealism,
and superstition. These scales are being used by various research-scholars. A Sin
Awareness Scale (SAS) has also been developed by Verma and Jain (1976)
measuring ethical and social sin.

RESEARCHES BY YOGA CENTRES

Compared to cognitive and intellectual aspects of religion, the emph

affective and practical aspects of it have increased manifold in India toda
meditation and Yoga centres have been opened and systematic training and
researches are being carried on by these centres. Some of the Yoga institutes like the
Yoga Institute, Bombay, Vishwa-ayatan, New Delhi, Yoga Centre at Patna,
International Yoga Centre, Monghyr, Transendental meditation centres, the all
India Institute of medical sciences and Rajnesh academy of meditation and research
centre, apart from imparting various training also conduct research on psycho-
biological effects of Yoga and meditation. Most of them claim to have cured common
diseases like adenoiditis, arthritis, drug addition, heart troubles, high blood

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SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION IN INDIA 177

pressure, melancholia, nervious debility, neurasthania obesity, and so fort

them are Yoga techniques based on the theories propounded by "patanz
Rajnesh Academy of Meditation and Research Centre is different and
several ways. It has employed various psychotherapists from U.S.A. an
who try to synthesize between the various psychotherapies of the West a
meditational techniques. Hypnotherapy, primal, the hell, soma, encounte
centering, and Rolfing and Alexander techniques are used along with d
meditation, Kundalini, Nadabrahma, Zazen, Vipassona Thata, Marthon,
and so forth. A team of psychotherapists, medical experts, and yoga e
employed in coordinated ways to give this centre high credibility. Mo
participants-both Westerners and Indians-have reported favorable resu
improvement in solution of various psychosomatic and psychological p
This center has a big program for development and expansion; psycholo
are interested in this aspect of religion should devote some time in veri
claims by these centres.

CONCLUSIONS

It is evident from the rehash of the major studies undertaken by psy

that it can open up a vast area of complex human experiences related to
which should be seriously taken up. The few research findings mentioned
on philosophical religious concepts which are to be redefined and analyzed
psychological point of view.
India with such as vast population also provides diverse sample and la
for further research in the scientific study of religion. Unfortunately the e
research material could not be utilized due to lack of funds, lack of init
religious organizations, lack of any organization such as SSSR of U.S.A.
perhaps due to bias and prejudice towards this by working psychologis
country. Some international and interdisciplinary research project coveri
aspects and religions which play definite role in personality organizati
human adjustment should be undertaken by Indian and American psyc
interested in the scientific study of religion.

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