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WHO ARE THE HINDUS?
Hindus of India, are native or indigenous people, similar to Native Americans in the Americas, Aboriginals in Australia, Polynesians, native Africans and Asians.
Out of over a billion Hindus worldwide, around 99% live in the Asia Pacific region.
Hindus of India, are native or indigenous people, similar to Native Americans in the Americas, Aboriginals in Australia, Polynesians, native Africans and Asians.
Out of over a billion Hindus worldwide, around 99% live in the Asia Pacific region.
In India, Nepal and Mauritius they are the majority demographic. In some states, like Kashmir, they are the First Peoples and minorities in the Kashmir Valley.
Non-Indians choose to be Hindus from diverse cultural, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds.
Non-Indians choose to be Hindus from diverse cultural, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds.
@TulsiGabbard, a Samoan, is one example. Hinduism, being flexible and non invasive, can be assimilated easily into other cultures which is why they are known as “model migrants".
It is partly due to this easy going nature that Hindus face the present predicament of being soft targets of propaganda.
WHAT IS HINDUISM?
Hinduism is pluralistic, complex and diverse with no single definition. Like practices of many other indigenous and native peoples all over the world, Hinduism is traditional knowledge and culture.
Hinduism is pluralistic, complex and diverse with no single definition. Like practices of many other indigenous and native peoples all over the world, Hinduism is traditional knowledge and culture.
It is not just a religious or political identity.Originating from the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization, it is a multiplicity of interrelated spiritual traditions, philosophies, and practices.
These help individuals understand their true nature and purpose in order to live a meaningful life. Collectively known as “Sanatana Dharma” which translates to “Eternal Natural Law” Hinduism has many founders and is an ongoing living tradition.
There is no central figurehead, no singular text, authority or creed. Hinduism is not a dogma or exclusivist. It does not authorize one group to conquer and control some “other” although self defense is permitted. Hindus do not have a history of wars of religious conquest.
They do have a history of fending off colonizers for almost a millennia, like British Imperialists. In the same way, America fought to become Independent from the British.
But the difference is that India is Hindu native land, as if America had not been conquered and its First Nations people had retained the majority population.
This is why it is incorrect to support separatists, who genocided the First Peoples from Kashmir in the 1990s because they were Hindus. That is like solidarity against Native Americans.
Hindu knowledge systems include medicine, astronomy, mathematics, ecology, geography, astrology, geometry, politics, sociology, culture, art, music, and dance to name a few. Each are linked to the cosmology of Hindu thought.
The 4 main traditions in Hinduism are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Smartism, and Shaktism each with a different principal deity or deities and containing many sub traditions as well. All share atman, karma, reincarnation, and dharma as core concepts.
There are 6 major darshans, or views on reality: Sankhya(School of Complete Knowledge), Yoga (School of Contemplation), Nyaya (School of Logic), Vaisesika(School of Particularlty), Mimamsa (School of Vedic Rituals), and Vedanta (The School of Brahmavidya).
Each as its unique contributions to Hindu thought and philosophy.
All teach that atman, which is distinct from the body, continues to exist after death. Yoga is now practised by around 10% of westerners and draws from Hinduism popular values like honesty, non-violence, not stealing, devotion and self purification.
It includes practices like self study, critical discernment between truth and untruth, meditation, body-mind unity and chakra healing to name a few.
The four aims of life are called dharma, artha, kama, moksha: duty, livelihood, pleasure, liberation.
The four aims of life are called dharma, artha, kama, moksha: duty, livelihood, pleasure, liberation.
The deities of Hinduism are localized and universal. They are not all just depictions of one singular monotheistic faith or doctrine.
Each God and Goddess may have no form, hundreds or thousands of forms with stories holding historical, spiritual and cosmological traditional knowledge.
There are innumerable scriptures, codes, philosophical systems and practices spanning at least five millennia of indigenous Indian intellectual and cultural capital.
The ongoing process of Hindu culture is a non-linear, open-ended and a living form of knowledge. It is not static or fixed but applied through practice with new knowledge being added to the canon by learned contributors.
This continuum of truth unfolding is evolutionary and is often congruent with some aspects of western science.
This includes systems theory, ecology, consciousness studies, aspects of quantum physics and has had cultural exchange with Greece, including Pythagoras studying with Indian sages.
The East has been synonymous with wisdom to the west, including Abrahamic culture, since ancient times.
Therefore, Hinduism is not reducible to any particular worldview and holds space for multiple, intersecting and at times oppositional paradigms. Hindus can choose to have many gods, see the god in all things, see all things as God.
They can worship nature, have a single god, believe in dualism or non-dualism, see all things as one, or not, have no god, a god that cannot be truly known, or just practice humanist values.
Among all this diversity in Hinduism, there is also a binding philosophical unity as well. That is, we are all one family, and share diversity in unity.
Hinduism does not fit western notions of religion and is best understood on its own terms. Many concepts expressed in Sanskrit result in distortions and misunderstandings when translated to English.
For example, “atma” is often erroneously translated to “soul” but is in fact a different concept. The word “Dharma” has no equivalent in English and has a multitude of meanings depending on context.
Just a quick note on what Hinduism is NOT. It is erroneously believed by many that caste is the essence of Hinduism. This is false. Caste is NOT the essence of Hinduism as per the Purusha Sukta in the Vedas.
Yes, that there are major caste issues in India with a long, complex history. But Hinduism itself has the solutions to these issues and caste discrimination has been banned by law in India for generations. Just like racial and class discrimination is in the west but still occurs.
WHAT IS HINDUPHOBIA?
Hinduphobia(or Anti-Hindu sentiment) is fear and hate of Hindus and Hinduism. It utilizes suggestion and innuendo, unfair characterization, strawman attacks, denigration, and even outright lying and smearing to portray Hindus and Hinduism in a negative light.
Hinduphobia(or Anti-Hindu sentiment) is fear and hate of Hindus and Hinduism. It utilizes suggestion and innuendo, unfair characterization, strawman attacks, denigration, and even outright lying and smearing to portray Hindus and Hinduism in a negative light.
Hinduphobic portrayal of Hinduism is of an oppressive and regressive, superstitious tradition inextricably bound up with social institutions like caste and patriarchy.
This, coming from nations that have high rates of male pattern violence, entrenched wealth inequality due to class systems and long standing racism issues is a double standard.
Where it is propagated in the media it breaches journalistic standards applied to other religious, indigenous or marginalized groups in the US. There are many types of Hinduphobia and the form it takes depends on context.
This continues the oppression of Hindus by negating the value of the so-called 'religion ‘whilst at the same time we see “cultural piracy" in the west and China, who are cherry picking for medical and industrial patents the tradition's intellectual property.
Hinduphobia is to justify erasure and continue exploiting India for wage slavery, resources, labour, professional services and products.
Given the vast majority of Hindus, unlike other Abrahamic religions, belong to one indigenous 'race', it is often directly linked to racial prejudice.
Racialisation is part of colonialism. This includes the myth of an Aryan race that was fabricated by Europe to explain how India became civilized by invaders and it is now debunked.
Further, stereotyping Indians as inferior to the invaders on the basis of evolution, skin tone and impaired intelligence meant they could be dominated whilst being taught the high points of their own culture had came from the Imperialists.
Other facts of history include attempts to culturally or physically genocide Hindus unless they agree to convert to Islam or Christianity.
This includes killings, rapes, bride theft, forced conversions, desecration of Hindu temples, denial of the right to practice the religion and destroying educational systems to stop cultural continuity.
Hinduphobia in the media includes hypocritical bias, stereotyping, slandering, fake news, racism, false allegations such as Hindutva extremists, Hindu Nationalism, and Saffron Terror.
One clear example is the failure of western news cycles to accept that Modi was cleared in 2012 by the Supreme Court of any involvement in the Gujarat riots.
Another example is selective outrage and virtue signalling over the Indian army’s use of reasonable military force to defend its borders from terrorism in Kashmir.
The lawful abrogation of a temporary article 370, was to end conflict and elevate rights to all Indians of Kashmir as per India's secular Democratic Constitution.
When America’s regime change wars have cost the nation lives and untold billions, all to Democratise a foreign country, it is a double standard that PM Modi is called a fascist simply for Democratizing a rogue State within India’s own sovereign borders.
Hinduphobia is a form of violence that includes physical, emotional, psychological, economic and social abuse. It includes victim shaming and the overt denial of centuries of atrocities against Hindus.
If Hindus retaliate against oppressors during decolonisation, they are accused of targeting minorities due to the idea that oppression of majority by minority groups is impossible.
Cases like female oppression by males, the working and poor classes by the rich, the colonial administrators of
India over the population, developed countries over developing ones and human beings over every other species illustrate how foolish it is to assume larger populations cannot be dominated by small groups. India’s generous minority protections have become weaponised.
Since most Hindus are of Indian origin with generally brown or even black skin, much of this type of Hinduphobia outside India is due to racism.
This, with India's rising geopolitical empowerment, is comparable to a similar dynamic of white people in the United States fearing that if black and brown people become politically and economically powerful, they will retaliate for slavery and racism.
Public Enemy produced an album about this called Fear of a Black Planet. The stereotype of Hinduism as a dirty and wicked scourge which needs to be eradicated is also common among missionaries.
These are the same ideas that were held against pagans, indigenous peoples, slaves and witches which lead to witch trials, indigenocide and took centuries to try to abolish. It is not abolished yet.
Trial by social media is no better than the inquisitions where rumourmongers vilified innocent people to be brutalized. Third world maltreatment takes other, equally barbaric forms.
Consider the millions of Indians who perished after Colonials prevented food donations reaching Bengal from Europe to punish India for winning Independence. Or the bloody conflict and terrorism that India still faces.
Hinduphobia actively promotes by actions and non-actions, Hindu and other Indian genocides both historically and presently. The most egregious form of Hinduphobia is to deny the existence of Hinduphobia and denying Hindus agency to speak on their own behalf.
A prime example is the absence of this term in most common dictionaries: http://Dictionary.com , Merriam Webster, and Oxford English Dictionary all have an entry for Islamophobia. None for Hinduphobia.
Similarly, Hinduphobia encompasses this definition with an additional racist element due to Hindus being 99% people of colour, unlike Islam, Christianity or Judaism which are not genetically uniform and are commonly spread through evangelism in hopes of conversion.
Hinduism is non evangelical and practices true religious freedom, even going so far as to legalise in India beef consumption and export for minorities who are non Hindus.
