Hinduism, being one of the oldest civilisations, had no doubt, the lion's share in philosophy, culture & religion to contribute to mankind. But as per an ancient saying, it held that "Sarvey Janah sukhino bhavantu" i.e. let all mankind be happy. This was in stark contrast to the Semitic religions' attitude. The Jews believed that they are "The Chosen People" as if God was a stepfather, discriminating among his children. The Christians came up with Christian/Heathen dichotomy. Islam divided people into Believers & Kaffirs (Unbelievers) with Jannat (Heaven) being only open to the Believers.
Amidst all these divisive ideas, Swami Vivekananda, espousing his master Sri Ramakrishna's belief, boldly proclaimed that ALL religions are true. This is also rational in that God, being omnipotent by definition, could have created only a single religion, but didn't choose to, presumably to cater to different races with different needs.
With the above background, replacing Eurocentrism with Hindu-centrism, as is being done now by a section of Hindus, may not be quite accurate. A more balanced approach may be to consider a multi-centric approach, where all civilisations get due credit for their unique contributions.
This in no way takes away the enormous contribution to World Culture by Hinduism.
The cartoon choice is perfect. The British and other Europeans came to India with a loot bag, pillaged through all the major cities, religious sites and took most of India’s prized possessions to be displayed in their museums as art. They also made the Indian people think that the western way was superior.
ReplyDelete