Is there a religion called Hinduism ? ( Translated from writer jeyamohan article )
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Is Hinduism a religion?
For the past one month I have been asked this question through mail whether Hinduism is a religion at all.. Of them many are youngsters, modern educated and with a good amount of interest in cultural matters. But the trouble is they take information from social media and political gossip.
I gave them a mocking reply with a bit of irritation that in the whole world only hindus know about their religion from the enemies and detractors of Hinduism.
We do have to think of the fact that a number of philosophers & Seers have lived and enriched our country. There are also a good number of books available to read about their contributions to our religion and culture . These people do not take any effort to know about them. But instead they do form their opinions on hinduism from people who do not know either the history of hindu gnostic lineage or about the great sages of this great country. Is there any more pitiable and sorry state for any other religion in the world?
Thought is formed from reading and contemplating an idea. The idea is generally taken from a book and gets formed and understood with the relevant historical background. If one speaks on something based on mere messages from whatsapp chats or simple gossiping, it is sheer ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.
The people who raise questions on the existence of Hinduism are only political novices who are totally ignorant on religious and cultural history of our country.
The question before us now is if there is a religion called 'Hindu' and whethet it existed thousands of years ago.
What we must understand primarily is that the term that today we often use "Religion" is only a recently coined term. Only half baked literates will tend to believe that whatever concepts which are prevalent today always existed. But that is not the truth. Many present day ideas got into shape within 300 years only. Like Democracy, individual rights, et al.
These ideas which were in abstract form early got concretized with times and spread across the globe. The historical evolution of such concepts have been well documented. No person can talk without having any knowledge on these developments.
One such concept is 'religion' and this term came to be used from C E 16 th century in Europe. The word religion got derived from the French word Religio. Upto 17th century the meaning of the term 'religion' was 'worshipping the sacred'.
In the Common Era 16th century many dissenting and new sects cropped up against European Catholic Church. They are called Protestant Christian sects. The word religion was first used only to denote such Christian sects. In course of time the term Religion got the meaning of today.
So, the meaning of Religion is totally Christian faith based and until even today it is used in that sense by European scholars. According to them a religion should have four basic characteristics.
a. A worshipping god or gods
b. Methods and places of worship
c. Philosophy and sacred book/s
d. A system of administrative control for worshipping
A religion must have in it all the four characteristics above.
We all know that from the seventeenth century Europeans traveled all over the world and started doing businessess. And then they conquered and colonized the places.The European colonisers saw the worship patterns in their colonies and identified them as religions. Similarly they called the practices too in India as Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religions.
If so, what were the names of the spiritual practices in India in the pre European era?
In fact, the earlier spiritual practices and worship methods were never called as religions. Islam called itself as "The Path" (margam) and the indic systems like Hindu jain and buddhist way of life were Dharmic practices. Even Christian faith was calling itself only as "Order" in the early days. Religious identity was foisted on them during the later periods by scholars.
If that is the fact then when has the term religion come to be used? The word religion was already in vogue here with the meaning "Firm (belief) system" or "Principle". The word samayam in Tamil denotes the same. If I hold the opinion that drinking coffee in the morning is good, that is my religion or principle.
There were many such religions here. All principles inside a philosophical system were called as religion. Vedanta is one such religion and within that fold those who believe that Brahmam evolved as universe were vivarthas. There were religions or schools within Jain and Buddhism too. Those sects which define truth as only logical were tharkigas ( logicians) and charvaka philosophy followers were pure materialists.
The term religion was never used in the European sense upto and until the eighteenth century here. All worshipping practices in India were categorized as religions by the British administrators. They got them legalized and it spread through print media in those days.
The word religion which was used by Europeans for their worship methods was translated with the indian version of the words matham ( மதம், சமயம் ) and samayam. That is how the word religion came into this country. That way we started to believe that there is a religion called Hinduism. All the methods, sets of practices and sects were to be called as one homogeneous system. Scholars and many others always denounced using the religious term indiscriminately for all kinds of spiritual and worship practices here in this country.
The practices which have been here for thousands of years are not to be termed as religion per se as defined in Europe. The important and three major spiritual systems in India which are Hindu, Jain and Buddhism are only to be denoted as Dharmic and not as religions.
Dharmic systems are not religions as they don't have the basic characters which define a religion. So my answer to the question, 'whether there exists a religion called Hindu' is NO, there is no such religion here and what we have today in this country is Hindu Dharma.
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