Hinduism Primer May 4, 2009
Posted by eods in Reviews and Readings.Tags: Aryans, Ashoka, Bharat, Bramhasanhita, British, Bud, buddha, Buddhism, Gandhi, Ganges, Hinduism, India, Islam, jainism, Muslim invaders, Reviews and Reading, Sindhu, Tilak, Upanishads, Veda
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A debate continues within the Hinduism itself of the character of the religion. Hinduism is not simply a living thing, it is also a lively thing, a wide variety of beliefs and practices co-exist within it. After almost 40 centuries Hinduism is still in the making. No single version of it has completely dictated Hindu doctrine and values. Perhaps most remarkable of all, is the continuous religious tradition has survived and adapted over this long period. It is one of the oldest religion in the world. Despite the stresses and strains it has endured , nearly one billion individuals , in one way or another identify themsevels as Hindus.
This is how the five part documentary on Hinduism concludes. 50 minutes is hardly a time to explain anything in much depth but I must say that its a very good job done. The background music just takes you deep into trans. Unlike very few commentators on Hinduism, this documentary has brilliantly captured Gandhi’s influence on Hinduism and vice versa. A must watch for all students of comparative religion who want to begin exploring Hinduism.
The last video among all is the best one. Especially the fact that in a documentary on Hinduism Mahatma Gandhi gets so much footage it worth thinking in the light of rhetoric that gandhi was secular.
I’m not sure what rhetoric is proposing that Gandhi himself ‘was’ secular: by which I can only assume you mean the suggestion that he was atheist. As far as I am aware Gandhi was himself a Hindu, but he favoured the idea of the Government being secular so that people of all faiths could live together in peace. No contradiction there if you ask me, although I suspect the BJP may differ on that.
Gandhi did not favor idea of Secular (As proposed by indian polical class) nation. he favoured a nation based on what he called “Dharma”. Whatever it means it out of scope here.
Dan, if you are not an indian you will have a great difficulty in understanding what secularism means in India. It is radically different from the western concept of Secularism. Secularism in India is a tool by which votebanks a recreated and nation is divided. For example, U.K. refuses to ban Satanic Verses because it is secular but India does is citing the same reason “being secular”.
BJP precisely has been favoring the western concept of Secularism but the western media which looks through only the spects provided by incompetent Indian journalists has failed miserably to understand that.
Who voted for BJP in Elections?
* Rel!g!ous Bigots.
* Racists in Upper Caste Communities and
* Innocent and Ignorant sections of BC/SC/ST/Minority Communities.
Cool one indeed
* There is NO H!ndu!sm **till** 85% of all registered marriages in India are inter-caste.
* Till then the truth is there are only Castes and NO H!ndus in India.
dude , Consider a white woman, say Someone line Angelina Jolie. She is beautiful, smart and rich. Whom would she prefer to marry? 90% of the time someone like Brad Pitt who is also handsome rich and accomplished.
Do you think anything wrong with that ? If you are a reasonable man than you should not. With over a 40 years of existence, caste system has become more and more rigid just due to the above fact. The Genes have got refine over time.
But now with world changing even this scenario is changing significantly. Let the change come gradually but with certainty and efficiency and you will see caste system getting irrelevant.
If you dotn agree with me, will you agree that when we will have 85% of marriages in Ameria as interracial, we will have a more equal america?
H!ndu!sm is nothing but a covert mask for Casteism which intrinsically seeds HATRED in your Children.
H!ndu!sm is a hierarchical based irrational system of keeping one CASTE (Brahmins?) over everyone else.
In America there is no system in place today that forces people to remain separate or keeps one class subservient to another.
If you were born the son of a street sweeper, but excelled, you could become a doctor or lawyer or some celebrity or entrepreneur – and at the same time you would be fully accepted by your peers.
Not so in India. The caste system freezes everyone in place. It is extremely difficult – almost impossible – for someone from the lowest caste to rise in education and social status.
A Dalit would never be allowed to marry into one of the higher castes and would never be accepted as an equal.
And for a Dalit to make it into MEDICAL school or opening a RESTAURANT or become a PRIEST in a temple or become a member of high SOCIETY in India is very rare indeed.
Only by escaping from the grasp of H!ndu!sm do they have much of a chance.
Your opinion is based on prejudice based on wrong information.
I do admit that there is a caste problem in India. I have only explained to you the cause of the problem.
Your rest of the statements are gross overstatements.
“A Dalit would never be allowed to marry into one of the higher castes and would never be accepted as an equal.”
Ambedkar despite his attitude was not only accepted but very much respected in Indian political circles even 60 years back. You are probably not aware that Mayavati is a Dalit and one of the most powerful politician in India.
Narendra Modi is also an OBC though he never capitalizes on it.
There are very much Doctors and Engineers all over the country who are dalit. Most of the time they get help of reservation policy and sometimes pure merit. The latest reports show that the so called oppressed caste are already evenly represented in Private sector without reservations.
It might be the case sometimes that certain classes were denied even basic needs but to generalize it or to blame castes alone for all poverty and ignorance we have in society is a mistake.
Caste system certainly is a negative point of Hinuism but you simply making it appear bigger than actually it is while hiding the real reasons of the downfall of the people.
@Lost Paradise
You have conveniently IGNORED to answer
What percentage of DOCTORS are DALITS in India?
How many DALITS own and operate RESTAURANTS?
How many DALITS have become PRIESTS in a temples?
AFAIK
There 300+ million DALITS and TRIBALS in India.
And 99.99% marriages are still held within CASTE.
or become a member of high SOCIETY in India is very rare indeed.
300+ million Dalits and Tribals is purely overstatement. There has been no caste wise census since 1931 in India.
Government has given so many incentives for Dalits and so called lower castes that there is huge mass of population that wants to be identified as Dalit, SC/ST or OBC.
I really don’t understand the what you are trying to prove even if I answer your question like X % of Doctors are Dalit. ? How is it even related to Hinduism or the topic under discussion? If you have forgotten your topic was of intercaste marriages
I personally do not believe that any caste in India is being denied right for education or any other method of upliftment just because it belongs to so and so caste.
If there is any reason why such a large population of our country still illiterate and poor, it must be the wrong policies of the self proclaimed leaders of those sections. It is absurd to blame Hinduism for it.
REmembere people like Gandhi, Vivekanand or even the rightist Savarkar who are identified as staunch proponents of Hinduims themselves worked harder than any of Dalit leaders for their upliftment. The leader like Ambdekar on other hand merely tried to keep Dalits separate, oppressed and capitalized on them.
In my state goa we as of now dont have Dalits.
H!ndu!sm is nothing but a covert mask for Casteism.
as i have been writing here, your opinion is a prejudice based on misconception.
@Lost Paradise
H!ndu!sm is nothing but a covert mask for Casteism.
[...] An excellent Documentary of Hinduism has been shared by a blogger here. [...]