Thread: Are you Hindu
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Old 09-22-2011, 11:19 PM   #30
Sheelldaw

Join Date
Oct 2005
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432
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Please let us understand that the renaming of Hinduism to Sanatana Dharma is big business. Billions of dollars business. It is also part of a marketing strategy.

Now let us see why some Hindus were unhappy with the name Hinduism and why they wanted it to be changed.

Two major groups were involved.

1. The English educated intelligentia. This group did not approve of two aspects of Hinduism.

a. The caste system or Varnashrama Dharma.

b. The religious practices of the Tantriks and castes other than Brahmins. Animal sacrifices, drinking of liquor and worship of female and Village deities. What we call as Folk Hinduism which does not depend on Vedas or any scriptures.

2. The Orthodoxy. I am using this term in the absence of any other suitable term. Surprisingly this group shared the same concerns as the first one.

a. Varnashrama Dharma. According to this group Varnashrama Dharma is Hinduism.

b. This group also intensely disliked the religious practices of the Tantriks and castes other than Brahmins. Animal sacrifices, drinking of liquor and worship of female and Village deities.

In this dislike of Folk Hinduism both the groups were united.

Group 1:

This group was appalled by the prevalence of the caste system. Some (very few) of thes people took up social restructuring to remove the caste system. But it was done rarely and not effectively. This group are/were not social reformers.

Group 2:

This group was against abolition of sati, widow remarriage, the shrada act which abolished child marriages and giving property rights to women. They were appalled at making knowledge of the scriptures available to one and all irrespective of caste. This is knowledge which they had zealously guarded for thousands of years. Knowlege which gave them power.

Both these groups are extremely poweful. They have money. Tonnes of it. They also have political power.

The new name movement got an impetus from the renaming of the Islam religion. It was called as Mohammedism, Mohammedanism etc. The term Islam was used by the followers who objected to the name Mohammedanism.

In my next post we will see how these groups went about renaming and modifying Hinduism to suit their objectives. In fact they went about rewriting Hinduism. You may call it sanitizing hinduism.

I am writing all this because In India the people who practice Folk Hinduism are in a overwhelming majority. The above groups have tried to keep Folk Hinduism outside the Hinduism fold. This has weakened Hinduism and enabled other religions to convert Hindus.
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