I just read about some Bajrang Dal Mediated riots in a city today. It makes me question – What are these riots about? Why do they happen? These days, a tsunamic wave of Hindutva is upon the shore in Madhya Pradesh. Hind Rakshak Artis, Mahasabhas and Yatras are being organized in our otherwise communally harmonic state, more and more routinely. Recently, a procession was being carried out in
What I have come to realize is that Hindutva has scarcely anything to do with Hinduism. The former stands for all things that contradict the very basis of Hinduism. Hinduism, in entirety, does not confine itself to the narrow boundaries of the word ‘religion’. It is, in fact, a treasury of spiritual knowledge collected over centuries. It is more a way of life. It does not compel an individual to follow a set of written, hard-lined rules. You can be an atheist, or a monotheist, or a polytheist, or an agnostic and still be a Hindu. For example, there are the believers of ‘advaita’ dharma which preaches that the god is one and after moksha the soul merges with the god, then there are the believers of dvaita dharma who believe in duality or in the separate existence of atma and parmatma, they are the believers of the concept of heaven and hell, then comes sankhya dharma which is the school of atheism. Hinduism requires and encourages open questioning and not blind obedience. For instance, the Upanishads are simply, unbeknownst to most people, a collection of questions and answers between the shishya (student) and the guru (teacher) and answer all worldly curiosities a human is expected to possess. Furthermore, the spirit of questioning has been a part of our culture for long, as Amaratya Sen boldly highlights in “The argumentative Indian”. Why
I believe that religion is an extremely private affair, and as what I believe has nothing to do with what anybody else believes, then why has it become such a public affair and a figure of mass scrutiny? People indulge in antagonism and worse, violence because they want others to accept their religion or agree to what they believe and what their religion preaches. But I fail to understand the part others have to play in an individual’s own spiritual journey.
If you believe that Ram existed, and if someone else says he didn’t, will you stop believing in Ram? I know it’s politically incorrect to make such absolute statements on a public portal but on a very personal level, this is what I feel. If you look at religion from a personal viewpoint then you will realize that every single person has a different religion. One person may consider god his friend, another might fear god and perform acts of bookish goodwill to be spared from hell in the afterlife, some other might believe god to be his parent, and someone else might believe God to be a superhumanly figure, sitting somewhere above the earth in white robes, wearing a white moustache. Isn’t there a difference of beliefs that comes into play? Then why is religion communalized? The reason why I think Hinduism is different from other religions is that it gives you freedom, to feel, to think, and to believe. Amusingly enough, you really cannot escape being a Hindu .You follow any random spiritual path and you still remain a Hindu, in all its axiomatic and philosophical definitions. For the Hindutva advocates, Hinduism begins and ends with Ram. Why don’t they look beyond to the Vedas and the Puranas, to the real meaning of Hinduism? Why don’t they see the objectivism of
11 comments:
Hmm...good thoughts. But a question I often ask after reading such articles is : "its easy to raise questions....where is the answer though?"
All you points taken, noted, saved....I still ask..."so?"
Fact is no matter what people like me and you feel or say or write, the people discussed here shall always prevail....
so I personally think that rather than just giving idealistic notes one should also think about practical ways of survival/continuation of a world where opposite and irrational forces will always be there. I see that you have taken your step in the direction and a good one at that.....am waiting for the next and important one!!
Humans thrive on idealism. All major philosophies are built on idealism. The human psyche has been carefully molded in the societal cast, for centuries, to attempt to think and act ideally. Hatred for the said people is a product of ideal, psychological conceptualities.
But notwithstanding that, your point -> logical+ critical = heavily noted.
Thanks for opening up my eyes to what Hinduism really is.
@Shanshank: Saying that people of one kind shall "always" prevail is a bit narrow minded.. history proves otherwise. In fact, fundamentalism of this sort is relatively new in the thousands of years of Hindu history. Arguably if this post and its essence clicked with all Hindus, fundamentalism among them could diminish.
Hinduism is not about showing others that we are superior to somebody else or some other religion. It is not needed to prove to anybody that we are a majority religion.
What these parties are doing is utter stupidity.Dividing the common man in the name of religion can be purely classified as a poltical gimmick in the light of upcoming elections.
excellent point u make there. hinduism or in a more generic sense religion in its proper context is a collection of ideas thoughts and guiding principles open to interpretation, questioning and thereby evolving. (i dont like the word 'religion' though, it sounds very constricted and narrow. 'dharma' is one of those hindi words that don't have a proper english counterpart). this parasitic stripped down fanaticism is an utter disgrace. i think these people focus on wrong things. instead of looking at mandirs and rituals etc, i think there is a lot to learn from the character of ram and the associated ideals. as long as that message goes through, whether ram 'existed' or not becomes immaterial.
well for starters, i beg to differ that madhya pradesh is a communally harmonious state. No its not, it has a long history of communal riots, possibly if u can trace 92 riots, Indore burned as hell..Well, the reason for such communal riots can be attributed somewhat to the manner in which our residential places have been planned...or ill-planned...look around our own city, every area can be divided as hindu/muslim or neutral..now this is so strange, why people of same community prefer to live together, is our administration not giving them adequate security?
but, the post is about religion and i agree wid Parul that Hinduism is a philosophy, a way of life rather than a religion, cuz it has no founder, no unique textbook or any guru.. I guess this hindutva wave originated when politicians tried to utilise this otherwise tolerant group's anger to their advantage. Its a simple number game, nothing more than that.
@ shashank
People who spread hatred need to be tackled in exactly the way parul is doin..Lets do the reverse, lets aware people. Its very easy to manipulate uneducated, hungry people, and these people have dne this so successfully..the time calls for reversing this effect, a brilliant start i daresay...
Recently after mumbai got attacked by terrorists,where was Raj Thackeray? and did he call marathas to fight against the terrorists and leave the north indians? jus a thought...
The answer is very simple, its only about awareness, education, and right knowledge...
@ Headhunter
You are probably right, but almost every part of India suffers from the same kind of problems, its just that some parts are affected more and some a affected less.
@ Shashank Bhaiya
At times I think that too, but you know many people don't know what Hinduism really is. Even I wouldn't have known all this if it wasn't for my grandfather and all the books he suggested me to read. Having the right knowledge about something helps us to analyse situations better and we are able to chose between right and wrong. I know many educated Hindus from well to do families who keep this kind of narrow thinking(anti-muslim and anti-other religions). This is because they don't have the right knowledge about their own religion.Hence spreading the right information would help in someway.
Thats really a good and quite a clear understanding.. liked it.. good insight and knowledge.. couldnt help to agree from most of the points in the article.. felt like bit of me in it.. ha ha.. surely it deserves kudos.. keep writing.. i like your aggression and independency in writing backed up with insight and knowledge..
I wish people would appreciate (And I'm not hinting at you article here) the power of apathy. Our culture is very (in it's current state) meddling. People concern themselves with other people too much in my opinion.
It's like you're asking Americans to not be overtly religious.
But yeah, Apathy is cool. Especially to the youth.
Agree with you! Good piece of writing!
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