During discussions I
occasionally hear this sentence “Hinduism is a way of life “ . It is often said
with a sense of pride and to possibly assert that Hinduism is thus superior to
religions. So what doe this mean ?
Now if we look at the
major religions of the world, Islam, Buddhism , Christainty and Hinduism..
there are at least couple of things that
are unique about Hindusim. Hinduism, unlike the other 3 does not have a single
, identified “founder” . In Islam there is Prophet Mohammed, in Chrisitanty
there is Jesus and Buddhism has Gautam, but Hinduism does not have anyone
similar. We have multiple names of Rishis and Gurus but no one or 2 or even 10
names that can claim to have “authored” Hindusim. Also while Islam has the
Quran and Christianity the Bible as the chief and main source of their
teachings and faith, Hindusim does not have an equivalent. Instead Hinduism (or
more correctly Vedic or Sanatan Dharma) has over 50 texts consisting the Vedas
, Puranas and Upanishads and these lay down what a Hindu should and should not
do both in ritualistic and ethical terms. Hence the remark “A way of life”. In
addition of course we also have the Mahabharat and Ramayana regarded as sacred
texts , but again these are legends about good and evil and not really the
equivalents of the Bible or Quran
Therefore the absence of a
single book/ founder makes Hinduism different
from other religions, and hence the use of the phrase “a way of life” as
compared to “religion”. Now whether it makes Hinduism a better or “superior”
religion I leave to the readers to decide.
There also also some
interesting things about Hinduism which are visible but not noticed by many
people. Caste is a strong social driver in Hinduism and popular Hindu belief
recognizes 4 castes. But his is mainly in urban communities. Move to rural
areas and you come across prominent communities which do not fall within the 4
castes. These are essentially land –owning and farming communities , sometimes
described by the word “peasantry”. For example in the north we have the Jats,
Bishnois Patels and Yadavs and in the south there are the
Gowdas, Reddy’s and Patils. These communities form a sizeable chunk of the
population and are often economically and politically powerful. Interestingly
they are all endogamous (traditionally marrying only within the community)
thereby following the “caste system” without actually being a part of the well
known 4 tier caste system.
The second interesting
aspect of Hinduism in India is the place / status accorded to tribals (known in
different parts of India as adivasi, janjati,
girijan, vanvasi, banjara/ vanjara, lambadi, gujar, gujjar ) The census
records the number of tribals in India as 10 crores. More than 80% are classified
Hindu by the census (in MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal, Uttarakhand,
Ladakh, Odisha, Andhra Padesh) most of the
remaining are Christian (mainly North Eastern states of Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Arunachal and Mizoram) and few
have no religious affiliation (Andaman/ Nicobar) . Now interestingly, when the Indian
census records a person’s religion, if it is not Christian, Muslim, Sikh,
Budhism, Jain or Jew, it is by default recorded as Hindu. A bulk of the “Hindu” tribals are thus classified.
The question then arises, are (or were) they really followers of
Hinduism ? Till about 50 years back , most “Hindu” tribals did not worship
Hindu gods such as Shiva, Ram or Krishna or Ganesh. They had, in each region, their
own gods. In many cases their gods were similar to animist gods. Animals (monkeys
, cows, peacocks and cobra) and trees (Pipal, neem, Tulsi) were, and are, considered sacred. They did not believe in
re-incarnation. Their marriage rituals did not align with Hindusim. For example
the Santhals were polygamous and pre-marital sex was common. The contemporary traditional
Hindu society itself did not define them in terms of the 4 castes. With the passage
of time and spread of communications, many tribals (except in North East) have
now started identifying loosely with traditional Hinduism. For sociologists
this is an interesting example of cultural assimilation. Many others have
converted to Christianity due to efforts or christian missionaries. The lack of
a well-defined religion , and only a loose connection with traditional Hinduism
made the conversion to Christianity easier.
..to be continued
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