Thoughts on Hinduism

As someone raised within the deep folds of India’s Hindu culture, I am frustrated when non-Indians draw parallels from the Abrahamic religions to Hinduism, assuming a one-to-one, monolithic correlation… and right away stumble in their understanding. I don’t claim to have exclusive ‘insider’ status as a commentator particularly since I don’t reside within the geographical boundaries of India, nor can I be classified as part of a Hindu religion, but 25 formative years of childhood and youth immersed in Hindu society gives me a unique ‘observer’ viewpoint from which to take this stance.

From a purely semantic outlook, the term ‘Hindu’ is an exonym placed upon a wide swath of geographically diverse people and was more of a geographical term – beyond the Indus river (Sindhu in Sanskrit) – taking a non-local shape in written history during the period of Persian influence – more region, than religion. There is enough ambiguity in historical records to suggest that the term was used more in an ethno-geographical frame of reference and as a religious term only in separating the indigenous population from Muslim invaders. 

Much later, this term took the same kind of ‘dis’-correlation in the British Raj as they attempted to rule by segmenting the country into religions for administrative convenience (and probably the ‘divide&rule’ governance technique.) All the while, the real population of India identified itself within a collection of ideas and a governance methodology unique to its own ‘raja-praja’ (king-subjects) system bound by the ties of dharma as outlined in sruti (vedas) and smriti (recollections) writings. These had its own syndrome of societal problems (caste system, superstition, subservience, etc) but that’s a separate discussion. As it relates to a belief system, the pantheistic roots of ‘Hindu’ thought is miles away from the monotheistic model that the Abrahamic religions evolved from.

With its various philosophies and cultural layers, ‘Hinduism’ is in essence a plurality of ‘ways of life’ which even espouses atheism as part of it. Over time though, the minority fundamentalists (the loudest voices) started using ‘hindutva‘ (Hindu nationalism) to gather votes and drawing hard lines of division, declaring supremacy of one segment of the population over others… and using political, jurisprudential and even mob violence against the weak to prop a narrow, insecure, jaundiced view of the real ‘dharma’ or ‘way of life’. The struggle and social angst remains in Indian society but the majority, even folks within India, will benefit from discarding the knee-jerk reaction of using the same lens to view all parts of Hinduism.

Have heard many Hindu stereotypes even among well-meaning folks: “Hindus have many gods”, “Hindus are idol worshipers”, “Hindus are vegetarians”, “The Bhagavad Gita is the Hindu bible”, “Hindus speak Hindi” “Reincarnation is Hindu.” It is indeed a lazy project to form these nebulous taxonomies in our minds about Hinduism. The flimsy constructs fail when harder questions are asked or when assumptions are probed in the light of deeper knowledge. Once we recognize the true plurality of possibilities in discussing Hindu principles, we begin to see the unique flexibility of a Hindu way of life .

To the enlightened, the one fundamental problem of any faith-based worldview is this: it doesn’t matter what your label, deity, religion, faith, etc is – if you impose (or even wish to impose) it on others (with violence in extreme cases,) you have participated in spreading a falsehood and helped create an unhealthy world.

Philosophically, I feel Hinduism trumps other faith systems because it prioritizes ‘seeking’ over fealty to an imposition. This approach, though, is held and practiced by an increasingly fewer number of people. In the daily lives of a majority of its adherents, Hinduism, like all other religions, stunts thinking and true seeking. It then ends up being a ‘colour-by-number’ paint sheet – easy, tedious, satisfying but non-creative and crass. Contrast this to the messy, painful, unruly, rich, gorgeous strokes of an artistic brush that every human life is, with an underlying wash of binding color of mutual benefit by living, surviving and thriving together!

The biggest ill infecting India’s society today is reactionary Hindu fundamentalism. Having a deity-oriented attitude is a subservient legacy from a time where the powerful (king or priest class) governed a few. These powers would actively cultivate such ‘servant-hood’ among its vassals. It worked fine, at the cost to the ‘oblivious oppressed’ of course, until the advent of secular democratic systems of government that organized societies on fundamental equality for all. When a democratic society equalizes the power paradigm within society and knowledge spreads equally in our information age, insecurity sets in among the privileged who then whip up nationalistic fervor among the oblivious. Bigotry and fundamentalism is the natural outcome of this and without hesitation violence is perpetuated.

I have a more hopeful prognosis, though. Hinduism has aged gracefully across the millennia and I don’t see much chance of survival for the recent wild flailing of an insecure few within its fold. As an unremitting proponent of science and reason as a means to achieve progress – both inward and external – and as a rational human being, I feel safe in knowing that Hinduism, at its essence, eschews lazy assertions resting on irrational foundations and sends us all in search of ourselves.