ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors review the origins of the mentality behind both capitalism and political revolution as prominent factors of modernity. The description of the contours of Western modernity in this chapter is necessarily brief and sketchy and only meant to provide the background to the development of modernity in India. Ever since Max Weber first published his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the main ideas defended in this essay never ceased to generate controversy. Leaving aside the details of the controversy that Weber’s Protestant Ethic has sparked off, the essentials are not seriously in question. Its importance for the study of the mentality of Indian modernity lies in the links it establishes between an eminently physical/social phenomenon: modern capitalism and a profoundly religious ethic. In a study on the origins of modern Western politics, Hancock argues that John Calvin himself had laid the foundation of this-worldly social activism.
