Introduction
A religion or idea surviving for thousands of years is not an easy task. That too when there are heavy odds against it for over a thousand years. But, Hinduism did that. It is flourishing for atleast 3000 years(many believe it to be over 6000 years). Every time there is a challenge, it survived by adopting and reforming itself. I believe, this is another moment when more reforms are needed. In this article, I want to briefly touch some of the major challenges faced by Hinduism in the past and how it survived before going through the reforms needed.
Major challenges faced in the past
Arrival of Aryans
When the mostly undocumented Indus Valley Civilization is in the path of decline due to climatic changes. The natives encountered Aryans entering their land and merging with them. These 2 different cultures would have merged in a wonderful way taking ideas of each other and formed a primitive version of what is now followed as Hinduism. From the archeological evidence so far, this seems to be a peaceful merger where Gods of Indus Valley are accepted by Aryans and vice versa. From my understanding, I assume Siva is from Indus Valley culture while Vishnu and other Devas might be from Aryans. Fascinating literature like Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and many more are composed by this culture.
Advent of Buddhism and Jainism
Ancient India is sometimes called as cradle of religions. Everything that we might think now is already tried there. Be it Polytheism, Monotheism or Atheism. Even multiple variants of each of these. The most notable religions are Buddhism and Jainism. Of these, the farmer swept through Indian subcontinent and looked like to become the dominant religion. This has triggered some major changes to the Hindu religion. Some of the notable ones I can think of are-
- Establishing a concreate place of worship(Temples).
- Identifying Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu.
- Non violence and vegetarianism.
- Expanding the geography.
To briefly touch each of these, there is no evidence that Hindus have any established place of worship like temple before 2000 years. The Buddhist monasteries would have probably influenced Hindus to start having established places of worship for themselves. I was not aware of any temple in India which is over 2000 years of age.
Similar to how ideas of Aryans were accepted by natives earlier, Hindus readily accepted many ideas of Buddhism and Jainism. In the same way, Hindus identified Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. One aspect that astonishes me is how an Atheist like Charvaka, (who contributed majorly for Ayurveda and also founded Ajwanka religion that propagates Atheism) is accepted as a Muni(learned one) by Hindus.
Promotion of Vegetarianism and non violence are some important additions to Hinduism happened around that time. At present, most of the Vegetarians in the words are Hindus. The seed for this huge impact is sowed during this time. The non violence philosophy of Jains became a part of Hindu society such that, a Hindu like Mahatma Gandhi became its face.
Another notable change is, spread of Hinduism to south east Asia. Buddhism might be worlds first religion that expanded through missionaries. This forced Hindus at that time to take their ideas outside of India(might be for the first time). This resulted in massive Hindu empires through out south east Asia till 1500AD. The largest Hindu religious structure ever constructed is not in India but in Cambodia.
Islamic Invasions
It is an understatement to say Islamic Invasion is the most brutal phase of Hinduism. Millions of Hindus from Afghanistan to Bangladesh perished during this phase. A lot more were converted to Islam forcefully. This phase introduced social evils like forced sati and confinement of women. While all this is happening, the magic of India continued to work. Hindus wrote down Vedas for the first time in History(probably to save them for future generations). Fascinating religious experiments were tried by Emperor Akbar and Shah Jahan to combine aspects of both religions to form a new religion. Sadly, that is a failure. Islam also saw the highest resistance they ever faced in India. Both militarily and ideologically. This period also saw a consolidation of Indic ideas.
Colonization
While the Islamic invasion is brute force, colonization is a much subtle and high impact phenomenon. This phase saw the wealth of India being drained continuously for almost 150 years. Food produced by India is given to Indians only after making sure Europe is properly fed resulting in the most brutal famines in the known history of India. This phase painted shame on Hindu practices and projected Hinduism as inferior to western ideas. Caste system is solidified and Hindu practices are seen from a western lens. The responses from Hindus is also note worthy, like always Indians tried to add some great concepts from western religions and created organizations like Brahma Samaj, Arya Samaj and ISKON. Indian scholars like Swami Vivekananda traveled to the west and shared ideas of Hinduism to the west and sparked an interest about the great Indic religion. The speech of Vivekananda at world religious conference in Chicago is noteworthy where he called for everyone to come out of their little well and see the larger picture. Which is what Indian society is doing from millennia. The impact and response to colonization is still on going.
Immediate reforms needed
Caste system
Caste system is the biggest social evil continuing and eating Hindu society from within. This needs to be taken care as soon as possible. Major strides are made in many parts of India after independence. But, still a lot needs to be done. It is possible that this system was introduced to establish order to the society few thousand years ago based on the circumstances at that time. But, we are not living at that timeline. There is no reason to follow that system at present. The philosophy of Bhagavad Gita needs to be shared with everyone in the society. The mentions of Brahmin and other upper caste superiority needs to be taken out from daily practices and republish the literature after taking out those aspects. We need to understand why that the 3 greatest Sanskrit poets of all time are non Brahmins(Valmiki, Vyasa and Kalidasa). Some of the greatest representatives of Hinduism in recent history like Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda are not Brahmins). Even the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who is called Emperor of Hindu heart is not a Brahmin. But, yet I feel overwhelmed whenever I read scriptures that mentions Brahmin birth is the most noble one. Satyanaraya Swami puja done for every auspicious occasion is filled with stories to prove Brahmin superiority. Saying this, I have nothing against Brahmin community. Even some of my close friends are Brahmins.
Women Empowerment
The stories from Hindu classics are filled with strong women. Women like Gargi and Maitreyi are not scared to question Sage Yagnavalka in Vedas. Ubhaya Bharati Devi didn't hesitate or stopped from debating with Adi Shankaracharya. We worship Saraswathi for education, Lakshmi for prosperity and Kali for strength. Yet, women in current Indian society are facing multiple obstacles. While I believe this has more to do with society then religion. Religion has to do more in this aspect.
Accept LGBT community
Society is fast changing. We have to accept that homosexuality is part of some humans(or animals) and that is not a terrible thing. I hope to see a day when Hindu weddings are performed to same gender couples.
Reject ideas that doesn't make sense anymore
A gold ornament will keep accumulating dust and loses its shine overtime unless it is cleaned periodically. Similarly, many of the ideas from Hinduism doesn't make sense any more. Those needs to be abandoned. Some of those are-
- Rituals for everything. From birth to death there are multiple rituals Hindus perform, these shouldn't be enforced.
- Reject the notion that Vedas has everything and even superior to modern innovations.
- While Karma Siddhanta is marvelous, don't drag it to multiple births. You are not born poor because you did something terrible in previous birth. It is just luck.
Accept good from other religions
While I am not familiar with philosophy's of other religions and generally dwells into Bhagavad Gita to get philosophical support whenever required. There is one aspect I like in Christianity, that is congregation on every Sunday. We should start similar congregations in our temples weekly. There instead of performing pujas in a language not understood by many, explain the teachings of Bhagavad Gita and other great scriptures in an easy to understand language. I am sure there will be other ideas we can take from other religions that will help connect Hindus of all walks of life with their roots.
Conclusion
These are some thoughts I had in my mind for a while. I am sure many of these ideas can't be implemented immediately. But, they need to be gradually added for the future. At the same time, Hindus should come with new ideas to save their major inhabitate to be taken over by other ideologies.
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