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This book addresses a range of debates regarding religious movements in the medieval and early modern periods. Eleven key essays debate the linkages between the religious and worldly aims of different movements and the continuity and change in their ideologies, social bases, and organizational structures over time. They present divergent views on important issues such as the relationship between caste and the sect, the idea of renunciation, the role of the Sufi's in the conversion to Islam in medieval India, and the ways in which many South Asian popular movements emerged and gathered force. In an insightful introduction by David Lorenz-en, each debate is discussed in its historical and theoretical context. The influence of Dumont, Engels, and Weber on our understanding of the nature of religious movements in and beyond the South Asia is also analyzed. Part of the prestigious Debates in Indian History and Society series, this volume will be useful for students, scholars and teachers of medieval and early modern India, as well as those interested in religious studies, comparative religion, sociology, and anthropology.