Is Hinduism a single religion?

Overview

Recall questions on where the words Hindu and Hinduism come from, sanatana dharma and sadharana dharma, Neo-Hinduism, the case for and against one religion, Hinduism as liberation, overcoming maya, uniting with Brahman or a way of life, and whether outsiders invented it.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Where does the word Hindu come from?

   Model answer

   It began as a geographical term rather than a religious one. Persian speakers used a form of the name of the river Sindhu to refer to the land and people beyond it, and Greek and later Arabic usage followed; the same root gives the name India. For centuries it meant an inhabitant of that region, so that a Hindu was defined by where he lived, not by what he believed, and Muslims living there could be called Hindus in early usage. Only gradually did the word narrow to mean an inhabitant of the subcontinent who was not a Muslim, and later not a Christian, Jain, Sikh or Buddhist either, which is a definition by exclusion.

2. 2

   When and how did the word Hinduism come into use?

   Model answer

   The abstract noun is modern, coming into English use around the turn of the nineteenth century. It was formed by adding a suffix that European writers used for systems of belief, and it was applied by orientalist scholars, missionaries and colonial administrators who assumed that the people they were describing must have a religion in the sense they were familiar with. Census taking hardened it, because a form requiring a single religious identity forces people who had never thought of themselves that way to choose one. Hindus themselves had used other categories: the name of a particular tradition or lineage, the path they followed, or simply dharma.

3. 3

   What is sanatana dharma, and why do many Hindus prefer it?

   Model answer

   Sanatana dharma means the eternal order or the everlasting way. Many Hindus prefer it because it is a term from within the tradition rather than one supplied from outside, and because it makes the claim they actually want to make: that what they follow was not founded by anyone at a particular moment but is the enduring structure of reality itself. It also avoids the implication, carried by a word ending in ism, that this is one competing system of belief among several. Critics note that calling something eternal is a way of protecting its historically variable features from criticism, and that the term is now used politically as well as devotionally.

4. 4

   What is sadharana dharma and how does it differ from sanatana dharma?

   Model answer

   Sadharana dharma means the common or universal duties: those binding on every human being regardless of birth, sex or stage of life, typically listed as non-injury, truthfulness, not stealing, purity, self-control, patience, compassion and generosity. Sanatana dharma refers instead to the eternal order as a whole, and is used as a name for the tradition itself. The distinction matters in argument. Universal duties allow a Hindu to say that certain obligations apply to everyone and can therefore be used against caste-specific rules, whereas appeals to the eternal order tend to be appeals to the permanence of the whole system.

5. 5

   What is Neo-Hinduism?

   Model answer

   It is the label often given to the reformed Hinduism articulated from the early nineteenth century onwards by figures and movements responding to colonial rule, Christian mission and modern science. Its characteristic features are the rejection or reinterpretation of image worship and ritual, the presentation of Hinduism as monotheistic or non-dualist and rationally defensible, selective appeal to the earliest scriptures against later custom, opposition to untouchability, child marriage and the treatment of widows, and an emphasis on social service. Whether it is a genuine renewal of the tradition or a version of it reshaped by its critics' assumptions is one of the standing arguments in the study of modern Hinduism.

6. 6

   Set out the case that Hinduism is genuinely one religion.

   Model answer

   Its adherents recognise one another as belonging together and have done so long before any European named them. There is a shared conceptual vocabulary of dharma, karma, samsara and moksha which cuts across every tradition. There is a common ritual grammar of puja, offering, prasad, darshan, and rules of purity and food, so that a Hindu can worship in an unfamiliar temple and know what to do. There is a shared sacred geography of rivers, mountains and pilgrimage cities, and shared festivals. The Vedas are acknowledged as authoritative even by those who never read them, and there is a common priesthood. Hindus also hold in common a broadly inclusive attitude to religious difference which distinguishes them from their neighbours.

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