Hindu fundamentalists are a threat to the happy,

hippie ways of Hinduism

Arvind Kala
November 22, 2015

I was born a Hindu, but have been an unwavering atheist all my life.
Even so, I have always considered Hinduism to be the world’s most
evolved religion. What I like about Hinduism is its innate chaos. It
has no single founder, no holy book, no date or year of origin, no
dos and don’ts. Worship the sun, moon, stones, trees, Hanuman,
Ram, Ganesha, or mice. Everything goes.
The emergence of a new deity in a religion is unheard of. Yet, we
saw the birth of a new Hindu goddess, Santoshi Ma, after Bollywood
produced Jai Santoshi Ma four decades ago.
The movie was about Santoshi, a daughter of Ganesha. She was
born above the clouds and grew up to be a beatific pastry-like
woman. It was bunkum. However, Santoshi and the film’s
devotional songs touched a chord among women in North India to
the extent that Santoshi Ma became a goddess overnight.
Small Santoshi Ma temples sprang up everywhere, attracting
women devotees from the poorer classes. I know of a woman from
Delhi who believes that Santoshi Ma’s blessings got her an
American husband.

Hinduism leaves you alone

The birth of Santoshi Ma shows the openness of Hinduism—it
admitted a new goddess without a blink. Could Islam or Christianity
spawn the birth of a new deity? Their path is fixed. Christianity has
Jesus Christ and the Bible. Islam has Prophet Mohammed and the
Quran. Christianity has its ten commandments. Islam has its own
prescriptions: no liquor, no gambling, no lending money on
interest, Friday is a day of prayer, one Haj pilgrimage in a lifetime.
Hinduism prescribes no guidelines for Hindus. It leaves you alone.
At heart, Hinduism is a true hippie religion. That explains why it is largely
a one-country religion. Christianity and Islam are global. Christianity
ranges from the Americas to Europe to Australia. Islam stretches from the
Middle East to Africa to Indonesia. But Hinduism is not even regional. It
is local. Most of the world’s Hindus live in India.
Hinduism’s laid-back nature could be the reason for its limited global
reach. Throughout history, the religion never tried to spread. Christianity
and Islam are missionary religions. They urge their followers to spread the
word of the Bible and the Quran.
But Hinduism has never sought converts. The irony is that Hinduism’s
strength comes from its laid-back nature. Buddhism was born in India, but
it couldn’t survive as it offered nothing new to the Hindus.

Hindutvabadi underestimates Hinduism

Alas, Hinduism is changing. Shrill Hindutva followers have taken control
of it. They spew venom at India’s Muslims every day. Their chief
accusation remains the same: India’s Muslims are single-minded in one
aim, which is to produce more children and outnumber Hindus one day.
I used to hear this Hindutva charge 50 years ago. And I hear it today. The
Hindus who say this actually believe it.
These Hindus underestimate Hinduism. India is perhaps the only country
that was ruled by Muslims and Christians, but didn’t embrace Islam or
Christianity. Muslim conquerors ruled us for 600 years, but Muslims
comprise less than one-fifth of our population today. British Christians
ruled us for 200 years, but the number of Christians in India at present is
negligible.
By contrast, look at Africa. Europeans colonised Africa for only 60 years,
beginning in the early 1900s. But vast swathes of Africa embraced
Christianity. So did the Korean peninsula and Latin America, which fell to
Spanish conquerors centuries earlier. But in India, Hindus saw no reason
to leave their own religion and embrace another.

A word of advice
The religion’s central feature is a certain lack of self-consciousness. I
sometimes get the feeling that Hinduism isn’t even aware of its own
existence. Its chaos is glorious.
Lord Ganesha, with his elephant trunk, sitting on a mouse; Lord Shiva
with a cobra around his neck; Laxmi with four hands; Yumdoot, the
goddess of death, astride a buffalo: nothing makes sense in Hinduism. Yet
everything does. How else could it have survived 3,000 years?
Even the word Hindu has no religious origin. It’s a geographical term
derived from Sindhu, the old name of the Indus river. Contrast this with
the word Christianity, which comes from Christ. Or the word Islam, which
is an exhortation (Islam means surrender—surrender to God).
But Hindu from Sindhu? There is a certain irony here. The word Hindu is
derived from a river that now flows through Muslim Pakistan. But
Hinduism doesn’t care.
A word of advice to Hindutva militants in India today: our religion doesn’t
need your protection.