The term "Neo-Vedanta" was coined by German Indologist Paul Hacker, in a pejorative way, to distinguish modern developments from "traditional" Advaita Vedanta.
[5] Scholars have repeatedly argued that these modern interpretations incorporate Western ideas[6] into traditional Indian religions, especially Advaita Vedanta, which is asserted as central or fundamental to Hindu culture.
Among the main proponents of such modern interpretations of Hinduism were Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan, who to some extent also contributed to the emergence of Neo-Hindu movements in the West.
The terms "Neo-Hindu" or "Neo-Vedanta" themselves have also been criticised for its polemical usage, the prefix "Neo-" then intended to imply that these modern interpretations of Hinduism are "inauthentic" or in other ways problematic.
[11] According to Halbfass, the terms "Neo-Vedanta" and "Neo-Hinduism" refer to "the adoption of Western concepts and standards and the readiness to reinterpret traditional ideas in light of these new, imported and imposed modes of thought".
[6] Prominent in Neo-Vedanta is Vivekananda, whose theology, according to Madaio, is often characterised in earlier scholarship as "a rupture from 'traditional' or 'classical' Hindusim, particularly the 'orthodox' Advaita Vedanta of the eighth century Shankara.
[19] Michael S. Allen and Anand Venkatkrishnan note that Shankara is well-studied, but "scholars have yet to provide even a rudimentary, let alone comprehensive account of the history of Advaita Vedanta in the centuries leading up to the colonial period.
[19] According to Nicholson, already between the twelfth and the sixteenth century, ... certain thinkers began to treat as a single whole the diverse philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, epics, Puranas, and the schools known retrospectively as the "six systems" (saddarsana) of mainstream Hindu philosophy.
[30][31] The economic decline caused in part by restrictive Company policies in their Indian territories and the Industrial Revolution in Europe led to the eventual dismantlement of the dominant decentralized education systems in India in the tail end of the 18th century.
[32] In response to Company rule in India and the dominance of Western culture, Hindu reform movements developed,[33] propagating societal and religious reforms, exemplifying what Percival Spear has called ... the 'solution of synthesis'—the effort to adapt to the newcomers, in the process of which innovation and assimilation gradually occur, alongside an ongoing agenda to preserve the unique values of the many traditions of Hinduism (and other religious traditions as well).
[42] Rammohan Roy's ideas were "altered ... considerably" by Debendranath Tagore, who had a Romantic approach to the development of these new doctrines, and questioned central Hindu beliefs like reincarnation and karma, and rejected the authority of the Vedas.
[43] Tagore also brought this "neo-Hinduism" closer in line with Western esotericism, a development which was furthered by Keshubchandra Sen.[44] Sen was influenced by Transcendentalism, an American philosophical-religious movement strongly connected with Unitarianism, which emphasized personal religious experience over mere reasoning and theology.
[54] As a school girl, Maa Anandamayi was inspired by Vivekananda's lectures, in which she found "an ennobling vision of truth and harmony as well as a message of Indian pride".
[web 4]According to Bijoy Misra, a private blogger, Spiritual culmination needed awakening of human will and he helped create a band of volunteers to work among the poor, the distressed and the "left outs" in the economic power struggle.
[64]Neo-Vedanta was influenced by Oriental scholarship, which portrayed Hinduism as a "single world religion",[7] and denigrated the heterogeneity of Hindu beliefs and practices as 'distortions' of the basic teachings of Vedanta.
According to some authors, this is expressed in the Rig Veda,[69] "Truth is one; only It is called by different names,"[70] The Ramakrishna/Vivekananda movement has these concepts to popular awareness in India and the West.
[web 11]Lola Williamson further notes that "what is called Vedic in the smarta tradition, and in much of Hinduism, is essentially Tantric in its range of deities and liturgical forms.
"[94] Neo-Vedanta was popularised in the 20th century in both India and the west by Vivekananda,[95][7] Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,[7] and Western orientalists who regarded Vedanta to be the "central theology of Hinduism".
[108] The Brahmo Samaj had a strong influence on the Neo-Vedanta of Vivekananda,[108] Aurobindo, Radhakrishnan and Gandhi,[107] who strived toward a modernized, humanistic Hinduism with an open eye for societal problems and needs.
The exclusion of Jainism and Buddhism excludes a substantial part of India's cultural and religious history from the assertion of a strong and positive Hindu identity.
[121] Rinehart notes that Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement,[120] and that "the neo-Hindu discource is the unintended consequence of the initial moves made by thinkers like Rammohan Roy and Vivekananda.
"[120] But Rinehart also points out that it is ...clear that there isn't a neat line of causation that leads from the philosophies of Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan to the agenda of [...] militant Hindus.
[131] The Theosophical Society also spread western ideas in the east, aiding a modernisation of eastern traditions, and contributing to a growing nationalism in the Asian colonies.
[66][note 24] Another major influence was Vivekananda,[136][95] who popularised his modernised interpretation[108] of Advaita Vedanta in the 19th and early 20th century in both India and the west,[95] emphasising anubhava ("personal experience")[137] over scriptural authority.
[141] In the 21st century, Neo-Vedanta has been criticized by Hindu traditionalists for the influence of "Radical Universalism", arguing that it leads to a "self-defeating philosophical relativism," and has weakened the status and strength of Hinduism.
[6]Halbfass wrote that the adoption of the terms "Neo-Hinduism" and "Neo-Vedanta" [...] by Western scholars reflects Christian and European claims and perspectives which continue to be an irritant to Indians today.
[143][note 28]Bagchee and Adluri argue that German Indology, including Hacker, was merely "a barely disguised form of religious evangelism".
[145] According to Malhotra, an Indian-American Hindu writer, it was Paul Hacker who popularized the term 'neo-Hinduism' in the 1950s, "to refer to the modernization of Hinduism brought about by many Indian thinkers, the most prominent being Swami Vivekananda.
These differences are invoked occasionally in order to buttress Malhotra’s argument for the pluralism of Indian culture, only to be erased as he presents as universal to dharmic traditions what is, in fact, easily recognizable as a thoroughly modern and homogenized ideal of Hinduism drawn from certain aspects of Vedanta philosophy and Yoga.
But he is wrong when he argues against my use of common features such as integral unity and embodied knowing, calling these "a thoroughly modern and homogenized ideal of Hinduism drawn from certain aspects of Vedånta philosophy and Yoga."