Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Are we just Hindu?
Our country is suffering from many issues of social division and these are due to misconceptions about identity. Our past as known to us is read mostly by anthropologist and historians from Europe and many interpretations of them are in perspective of their cultural evolution. They evolved science and their investigation paradigms according to their understanding and tried to fit those model in our context. For example the age of man division is not fit for our land. In Bhimbetka people lived for more than 30,000 year or may be more. Paintings tell us that in some later phase along with them, there were settled communities in Malva region who did farming and other commercial activities prior to Harappan period.
If something seems a myth to westerners does not necessarily mean it is actually. We never consciously tried to investigate facts and places mentioned in old texts. When some evidence comes from foreign agencies which conforms with our texts we just claim ourselves superiors! Actually we are not our ancestors were! Ignorance is at Everest here because we don't know what is the source or on what line of what ved or other texts it is written. I feel bad when our forefathers are declared myths and their story mythology. This might be because no one among next generation has read from the true sources. TV serials, blogs or interpretations from our elders or critics are our primary sources.
To understand our true past we need to rise above from our economical needs and look beyond. Looking into past must be seen as a social service. There must be things in our past that kept us on edge with others. I think it will be an answer to endless suffering of all sections fighting each other and will unite us more.
To understand our true past we need to rise above from our economical needs and look beyond. Looking into past must be seen as a social service. There must be things in our past that kept us on edge with others. I think it will be an answer to endless suffering of all sections fighting each other and will unite us more.
We are much more than just idol worshiper, we saw through nature and are most connected to it . We are not just Hindu or Indian people. I am not sure about the word that will define us, which is more relevant to our culture, defines and includes more who are left out of these word's ambit but surely we will come across one someday when we become enlightened!
Thanks for reading and I leave the conclusion up to you. My aim was to sow the seeds of my interpretation into your brain. I encourage you to find our true identity and legacy in the mist of misconceptions by digging into our past and by understanding it holistically.
Thanks for reading and I leave the conclusion up to you. My aim was to sow the seeds of my interpretation into your brain. I encourage you to find our true identity and legacy in the mist of misconceptions by digging into our past and by understanding it holistically.
Why western ease is our oblivion
As it is clear, these 2 words are in a way symbols of slavery. And a slave is not master of its own will and lacks self awareness. Word Hindu and Indian, apart from their literal meaning, gives a sense of Idol worshipers and Brown skin primitive people respectively, which is not true at all.
We were not just blinded by faith of idol worship, neither were superstitious nor believed in myths. Actually idol worship is a Greek thing that came along with changed Buddhism. Greeks transformed symbols associated with Buddha and Bodhisatva into idols and as a cultural exchange it came to this land. Now people of this land found humanization of symbols fascinating and started building temples. This tells us that temples were just our expression of art and we associated some religious importance to them. So called Hindu Dharma is now totally based on what was earlier a mere art expression. This is due to killing of saints and destruction of literature of this land after 13th century. Now what remained were these temples (most of those were also destroyed) became the religion basis of the people of this land. The slaves were in oblivion of their past, the learned were murdered and no one to teach the true Dharma! So the naming and a new path people of this land took are contemporary. Thus the word Hindu has dual connotation.
India, the new name (the popular among 2 names) is the gift of some people in constitution assembly who favoured India over Bharat. While the word Bharat is purely indigenous as it is 1st mentioned in Rig Ved and used for describing this land and then there is a whole historical documentation by name MahaBharat, India has origin in charters of British Emperors and official documents of British Parliament and similar documents of other Europeans. I am unable to understand how these evidences weighed less in minds of assembly members who favoured the name India.
Now back to main point : Brown skin and primitive - Indian. We know we are not only Indians in this world. American and Australian aboriginals are also called Indian. Do you think we share all aspects of life and culture with them? Are we all Brown skinned? No we all are not brown skinned, we actually have all shades. Are we primitive? We actually till a time had some state of the art technologies, mathematics, human science and earth sciences, macro sciences, astronomy etc. name it and you will have a documented research on it in ancient times. How we are primitive? Our ignorance is now keeping us behind.
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We were not just blinded by faith of idol worship, neither were superstitious nor believed in myths. Actually idol worship is a Greek thing that came along with changed Buddhism. Greeks transformed symbols associated with Buddha and Bodhisatva into idols and as a cultural exchange it came to this land. Now people of this land found humanization of symbols fascinating and started building temples. This tells us that temples were just our expression of art and we associated some religious importance to them. So called Hindu Dharma is now totally based on what was earlier a mere art expression. This is due to killing of saints and destruction of literature of this land after 13th century. Now what remained were these temples (most of those were also destroyed) became the religion basis of the people of this land. The slaves were in oblivion of their past, the learned were murdered and no one to teach the true Dharma! So the naming and a new path people of this land took are contemporary. Thus the word Hindu has dual connotation.
India, the new name (the popular among 2 names) is the gift of some people in constitution assembly who favoured India over Bharat. While the word Bharat is purely indigenous as it is 1st mentioned in Rig Ved and used for describing this land and then there is a whole historical documentation by name MahaBharat, India has origin in charters of British Emperors and official documents of British Parliament and similar documents of other Europeans. I am unable to understand how these evidences weighed less in minds of assembly members who favoured the name India.
Now back to main point : Brown skin and primitive - Indian. We know we are not only Indians in this world. American and Australian aboriginals are also called Indian. Do you think we share all aspects of life and culture with them? Are we all Brown skinned? No we all are not brown skinned, we actually have all shades. Are we primitive? We actually till a time had some state of the art technologies, mathematics, human science and earth sciences, macro sciences, astronomy etc. name it and you will have a documented research on it in ancient times. How we are primitive? Our ignorance is now keeping us behind.
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Why were we identified geographically and not of culture
There is no denying that we have a very different life style, thinking and approaches towards life issues than others. We never stick to general rules defined by a book of ancient times with crude and hard rules but improvised in the environment and times we lived while sharing same faith. Yes we acquired many false practices but that is an issue for later. Just because every one here on this land enjoyed a type of independence to evolve, this land got enriched with diversity, of thoughts and life. Because of this there are infinite ways to achieve Nirvana, one can choose a defined path or find its own. Thus path of salvation is not fixed like in other regions and religions. Arts flourished without any censor. Dressing had no censor. Treaties were formulated from understanding of nature. Knowledge flowed in songs, poems and shloks. Think tank was allowed to criticize the rulers. People had high morals. So the reason is clear why we have a very rich culture and cultural heritage.
Why then a geographical Identity for us?
There was always an absence of a common tongue and a persistent dynasty. Vastness of this land and extent of its rule is also one factor. Political situation was different than rest of the world. We had accumulation of wealth more than anyone and many resources and techniques were indigenous. It was hard for westerners to assimilate our cultural diversity so they gave a name associated to geography i.e. place of origin for their ease.
Why not stick to western Identities like Hindu and Indian
There are no edicts or texts older than 13th century found on this land, called people of this land Hindu. Hindu word was used by 13th century invaders or foreigners from west to differentiate people of this land from them. It was based on religious beliefs. As we lost authority over our sovereignty, we accepted the term. In my view Hindu word is the first tag of slavery we got from western world. We are still enslaved in it. What is to deduce from here is that we carry along with us a tag which is not justified and also we never tried consciously to find the worth of it for us. This is the first instance of ignorance of people of this land. And that is why we are still Hindu - just people who live beyond Sindhu.
It may have provided us an ease to connect to others with same beliefs on this diverse land but cost of this ease is very high. This ease of unification may be a reason of this tag's prolonged use but it could also be one facet of ignorance among us, we never stopped using it. As it is clear the need of this tag at older times was necessary because some foreigners were present on this land and may served as a resistance to accept their faith. But we indirectly accepted them as our masters. They NAMED US! I am not blaming our forefathers, what was necessary at those times was done in absence of a strong leadership or central think tank but now times have changed and I feel now we can analyze these things from past and put up a discussion. It will definitely help people who associate with this identity.
Same goes with the word Indian. In about 16th century Europeans came to this land in form of trading companies, most of them had India in their name. Contemporary name of the land was Hindustan, named by Persian rulers. No one till that time on this land called it India. In 18th Century they stared conquering this land and English succeeded. Now a need was felt to govern this new earned authority of company from Britain, hence some acts were passed in British parliament and we got this name! New masters new name!
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Hindus and Indians
These both are western terms or words. Hindu is some what Persian term and India is purely a word of Greek origin. Both are used for people who live beyond Indus. Now Indus is again a Greek word. From this information one question arises in my mind and I am sure there are many others who came across the same : Is our identity is just being some people in East who live beyond Indus river?
Hindu and Indian is not our true identity. I always doubted why we feel proud to call ourselves Hindus or Indians, we are much more than some people with geographical connection. We have a very long legacy of our forefathers and once were center of this world. What turned us into mere geographical subjects? How that center shifted towards west? My blog is just my realization of truth and I am writing to share it with my fellow Hindus and Indians. We have been ignorant towards our own identity and now seeking to win over the world again. Through my posts I would try to put some light on few aspects, those we were ignoring because we are very much indulged in our own life issues. I am open to good criticism and fruitful discussions which could lead to rejuvenation of old legacy in us. Also discouraging the words Hindu and India doesn't mean that I am against the force they carry. Our common life styles and our beliefs are what makes us peculiar and conspicuous. I value Sanatan Dharma and its teachings but I am against of using Hindu and India to define ourselves!
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