04-28-2007, 07:36 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-saik+Apr 27 2007, 09:27 PM-->QUOTE(saik @ Apr 27 2007, 09:27 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->sectorial analysis will lead to inter-sect issues and complexities including personal bias and depicting it on to the religion. i am a brahmin, i hate mr. x of y religion. hence i hate y religion is the larger mentallity of normal daily-wagers and street talks of hinduism.
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Saik - an analysis and faithful record of the "sectorial analysis" that has already happened in many millennia of Hindu history is essential, because "sectarian differences" is precisely what is used by Islamists and Evangelists to divide and rule Hindu society.
The more we avoid these questions, the more the "dark, undocumented areas" of Hindu society we are leaving for someone else to pick up and write a false narrative that then becomes the "Hindu story" that we have to swallow and accept. Caste, sati, "idol worship" etc are all catchwords and catch phrases that have been created by people outside Hindu society picking up isolated facts that they thought they noticed and then highlighting them as "This is what Hinduism is all about". The Hindu narrative that you find today has been written by all sorts of people, and they have chosen to highlight the negative more than the positive, and they have even converted positives into negatives.
This ridiculous situation needs to be turned upside down. In my view that can only come from telling the Hindu story (narrative) unabridged and truthfully. Hinduism has given Indians the strength to survive onslaughts from militarily powerful people with narrow bigoted beliefs who have used death as a tool to spread love and peace. But there have been weakness that have allowed Hindus to be pushed aside, killed, persecuted and otherwise "modulated", and we cannot begin to comprehend those weaknesses unless we document the entire Hindu narrative and then look at it objectively with a view to seeing what it was that made a society of people who were minding their own business so vulnerable to onslaught. It is also equally valid to try and analyse what strengths made Hinduism survive when so many civilizations were wiped out by love and peace. A complete and honest documentation is only the beginning.
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Saik - an analysis and faithful record of the "sectorial analysis" that has already happened in many millennia of Hindu history is essential, because "sectarian differences" is precisely what is used by Islamists and Evangelists to divide and rule Hindu society.
The more we avoid these questions, the more the "dark, undocumented areas" of Hindu society we are leaving for someone else to pick up and write a false narrative that then becomes the "Hindu story" that we have to swallow and accept. Caste, sati, "idol worship" etc are all catchwords and catch phrases that have been created by people outside Hindu society picking up isolated facts that they thought they noticed and then highlighting them as "This is what Hinduism is all about". The Hindu narrative that you find today has been written by all sorts of people, and they have chosen to highlight the negative more than the positive, and they have even converted positives into negatives.
This ridiculous situation needs to be turned upside down. In my view that can only come from telling the Hindu story (narrative) unabridged and truthfully. Hinduism has given Indians the strength to survive onslaughts from militarily powerful people with narrow bigoted beliefs who have used death as a tool to spread love and peace. But there have been weakness that have allowed Hindus to be pushed aside, killed, persecuted and otherwise "modulated", and we cannot begin to comprehend those weaknesses unless we document the entire Hindu narrative and then look at it objectively with a view to seeing what it was that made a society of people who were minding their own business so vulnerable to onslaught. It is also equally valid to try and analyse what strengths made Hinduism survive when so many civilizations were wiped out by love and peace. A complete and honest documentation is only the beginning.