Hinduism, Hindutva, Haindava Dharma, the names go on and on. Perhaps one of the most controversial terms in the present circumstances of India, is Hindutva, which has been shoving its roots deep into the BJP, RSS and basically everything that is leaning towards the right winged politics. But what actually is Hinduism? Many people around have had various definitions among which it (hinduism) being a way of life stands out to be the most common. In today's India, basically every other caste, other than those belonging to the Muslim or Christian community somehow falls under the category of "Hindus". For centuries, the caste system prevailed in our great country that discriminated, oppressed and tortured a great section of the population and kept them aside for various wanna be reasons. These oppressed people have had an entirely different set of lifestyle from the so called privileged part of the society. So the question which grows forward is that How can Hinduism be a way of life when everyone coming under it has always had different lives?
The ancient rishies who wrote the vedas and the gita have said "vasudhaiva kutumbakam" which translates to, The world is one family. Yet, there was no mention of religion or in specific to Hinduism. The origin of the word was led by the Mohammedan invasion that took place from the 12th to the 16th century. The people of the Islam community invaded through the lands of Afghanistan and slaughtered their way through and then made themselves settle down in the mainland of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Christian population, even though snuck themselves into India during the 52AD time period, it never really grew out to the northern India for a long time and hence, the numbers were less. The Mughal emperors and their predecessors who ruled most areas of todays Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India decided to call the natives of the land "Hindus" to distinguish between themselves and the natives. Taking inspiration from the Indus Valley civilization which was then colloquially termed as "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilization" by scholars, which helped in coining the term Hindu.
The country before the Mohammadan and Christian spike was of not the way we see today. There was no concept of religion but instead a division of castes. The so called privileged people ruled over and even basic human rights were denied to the poor or "low caste" people. Hindu as such never exists because it is only a collection of castes which happened due to the invasions of other religions into the country. Ironically, the supporters of the extreme right winged sectors who have pushing to the limits for an atmanirbhar bharat, have been holding on to a foreign ideology that was given by the very same people they want the country to get rid of. The caste system has had explanations from occupational reasons to the most bizarre reasons of genes. Hinduism was never a way of life, because Hinduism was never a thing in the first place.
The only thing that existed was the caste system which was the darkest and perhaps the most cruel timeline of the country. Each caste not only dined among itself but also married only to the member of the same caste. There was an utter lack among Hindus that sociologists called 'consciousness of kind'. Which was indeed the reason why Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said that Hindus cannot form a society or nation. The holy books never mentioned of what religion the book was for but didn't forget to mention the caste hierarchy.
Hinduism was only born in the 12th century, until then there was no Hinduism because there was no need for a name to mention a community. The people had already done the classifications on basis of a person's occupation and he and his bloodline would be locked on to that for the generations to come.
It was in a way the invasions that led to end of the caste systems. Around 42% of the Christians we see today, especially in South India are those who have converted due to oppression faced from the upper caste Hindu people. Even today the differences are visible in different castes even though they all come under the same umbrella of Hinduism.
Hinduism was never a religion, no books prior to the invasion mentions the term. Yet, the term has been one of the most controversial one. From being used to gain votes to create havoc, lives have been lost for a term that was imposed on the natives for distinguishing people from each other. But does the word fulfill its purpose is a question to which we have the answer but we won't look into. Today, none of those people who coined these terms or the ones who slaughtered their way in are alive, but their poisoned ideologies are. Every religious teachers hides the dark tales of a religion from the kids. From oppression to slaughtering to forced conversions, they are all hidden from the innocents that fall into the blindness of faith.
And sure, many people have said there is a change coming. "Coming", as in future tense. I mean its only been a few thousand years.
Comments
Post a Comment