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OVERVIEW
"I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world
both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in
universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud
to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the
refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to
tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of
the Israelites, who came to southern India and took refuge with us
in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces
by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has
sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroas-
trian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn
which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood,
which is everyday repeated by millions of human beings:
'As the
different streams having their sources in different places all mingle
their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men
take through different tendencies, various though they appear,
crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.'
Swami Vivekananda - At the World's Parliament of
Religions, Chicago, 11th September 1893
India is home to many religions. Four of them - Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism — originated in India. Millions of
followers of other religions — Christianity, Islam, Judaism and
Zoroastrianism- enjoy total religious freedom.
Everyone in India has the fundamental right, according to the
Constitution of India, to profess, practise and propagate any relig-
ion without interference from the community or the state. There is
no religious or denominational bar to the holding of public office.
The majority of the people are Hindus. Hinduism, unlike the
other religions of the world, is not a revealed religion. It was not
founded by a historical personage as a result of a revelation. It
evolved from a variety of cults and beliefs, some of which had a
foundation in the Vedic religion of the Aryan settlers in India. The
term Hinduism was given currency by the Arabs in the 8th century
A.D., when referring to those who followed the prevailing religion
of Shiva and Vishnu. The monotheistic philosophy of the
Upan-
ishads
of the Aryans, with its concept of the Absolute or the
Universal soul, led to the idea of the Trinity of gods with Brahma as
the creator, Vishnu as the preserver and Shiva as the god who
eventually destroys the world when it becomes evil-ridden.
Vishnu has manifested himself in various forms or avatars to
save the world from evil. He is believed to have manifested himself
in nine incarnations so far, the most important being that of Krishna
who figures in the great Hindu epic, the
Mahabharata.
The 10th and
final incarnation is yet to come. Vishnu will come in the form of
Kalkin, a man mounted on a white horse with a flaming sword in his
hand who will punish the wicked, reward the good and restore the
golden age.
Shiva evolved from the Vedic god
Rudra
with whom merged
elements of a non-Aryan fertility deity Murugan. The phallic
symbol,
lingam,
is an important element of Shiva worship.
The followers of Vishnu, Vaishnavites, and the followers of
Shiva, Shaivites, constitute the two dominant sects of Hinduism.
Within these sects there are smaller groups with their own vari-
ations in belief.
The Hindu social order is divided into four castes. When the
Portuguese came to India in the 16th century they found the Hindu
community divided into groups which they called “castas" meaning
tribes or clans. The caste system began as a measure of self -
protection by the Aryans who feared that assimilation with the dark
skinned indigenous population of India, the Dasas, would lead to
loss of identity.
The Brahmins, the priestly class, constituted the top caste.
Next came the Kshatriyas, the warriors and aristocracy. This was
followed by the Vaishyas, the petty merchants and cultivators. The
Dasas or those of mixed Aryan-Dasa origin made up the fourth
caste, the Shudras. Below the Shudras and outside the caste sys-
tem were the untouchables who performed very menial and dirty
tasks.
Unlike the Christian concept of immortality in which the soul is
incarnated in a body only once the Hindus believe that the soul
passes from one body to another with its new body and life being
conditioned by its former behaviour (the theory of Karma).
Buddhism which was to become the prevalent religion in Asia
was founded by Gautama Buddha (the Enlightened One). He was
born in a grove of sal trees called Lumbini near Kapilavastu in the
Nepalese Terai in 566 B.C. and lived the life of a young prince until
his 29th year when he left his family to become an ascetic. After
leading an austere life for six years he began to meditate. On the
49th day he received enlightenment and understood the cause of
suffering in the world. He preached his first Sermon at Sarnath
(near Benaras) where he gathered his first five disciples.
Buddha rejected caste. He also discouraged belief in the
existence of a supreme God or creator of the universe. According to
Buddhism there is a cosmological scheme which accounts for the
existence of the world without the intervention of the creator.
The Buddha's end came in a grove near Kusinagara at the age of
80 after an attack of dysentery. His last words were, "All composite
things decay. Strive diligently."
After the Buddha's death differences of opinion arose over the
original teachings of the Buddha resulting in the. followers being
divided into two main sects — Mahayana and Hinayana. Mahay-
ana Buddhism became popular in India while Hinayana Buddhism
went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from where it spread to Burma, Thai-
land and other parts of South-East Asia. Mahayana Buddhism was
carried by Indian monks to China and from there to Japan but in
India it lost its ground. The Buddha came to be regarded as an in-
carnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and Buddhism gradually lost its
individuality.
(In 1951 there were 2487 Buddhists in India. But subsequently
there have been large-scale conversions of Scheduled Castes to
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Eternal India
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