Ramakrishna Mission - Controversies

Controversies

In 1980, in an act that caused "considerable debate" within the order, the mission petitioned the courts to have their organization and movement declared a non-Hindu minority religion. Many generations of monks and others have been of the view that the religion propounded and practiced by Ramakrishna and his disciples is very much different from that practiced by Hindu masses then. They held that the Ramakrishna's "Neo-Vedanta" is a truer version of the ideals of Vedanta. So it was honestly felt that this makes the followers of Ramakrishna eligible for the legal status of "minority". It is possible that the immediate cause for the appeal for minority status was because there was a danger that the local Marxist government would take control of its educational institutions unless it could invoke the extra protection the Indian constitution accords to minority religions. While the Calcutta High Court accepted the mission's pleas, The Supreme Court of India ruled against the mission in 1995. The mission found it advisable to let the matter rest. Today it remains as a Hindu organization.