Are Minorities in India Descendants of Hindus?
One of the rules that I believe in is that the more religious you are the less you know about your own religion. Individuals who know and read a lot about a religion or different religious typically tend to be skeptical. Many fundamentalist Christians in the United States not only go to Church a few times a week but also attend Bible study classes frequently. About 20% of Americans are fundamentalist Christians (belief in Biblical inerrancy, the divinity of Jesus and the Virgin Birth and the belief in second coming of Jesus and that Jesus died to redeem mankind). But does this make them an expert in Christianity or the Biblical stories?
The answer is no. Most Bible study classes focus on a few verses and understanding the meaning of those verses. But how many of these fundamentalist Christians know about paganism and Judaism, the religious from which Christianity evolved? How many realize that the stories found in the Bible like the Virgin birth, sacrificial god and the great flood are also stories found in many religions all over the world? How many times was the Bible edited and what were the reasons behind including certain stories in the Bible but leaving out other stories (like the Gospel according to Thomas) from the Bible? Most importantly how many realize that there is no historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ, the son of God?
In an article published in India Today the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that “All minorities in India are descendants of Hindus and have one ancestor. There is no minority here. It is used just as a definition”. India Today also foolishly adds the following comment to the article; “All those who live here are sons of India. Ethnicity is used to describe those who came to India from outside 40,000 years ago but DNA of the people in the subcontinent is the same”.
The comment by India Today that DNA of the people in the subcontinent is same is blatantly false. Every human being alive on the earth today can trace their DNA back to Africa. So every Indian is an immigrant from Africa. It is also a fact that India was populated by different waves of immigrants starting from about 65,000 years ago (when modern humans first started walking out of Africa) to about 5000 years ago when a wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Central Asia migrated into India. These are based on DNA data collected by Indian government agencies and also by National Geographic for their “Genographic Project”. I contributed my DNA for the “Genographic Project” in 2004 and I will disclose the results in an upcoming article (these studies prove that Indians have tremendous genetic diversity).
Let us go back to the comments made by the RSS chief. Mohan Bhagwat’s comments about minorities in India descending from Hindus. These comments are completely false from a historical perspective (I am not talking about some Hindus who might be converting to other religions in modern India). What is Hinduism? The word Hindu is not found in any Indian texts before the 17th century. It is widely accepted that Hinduism was a word used primarily by the British to group people in the Indian subcontinent who have somewhat similar religious beliefs and practices. So in reality Hinduism is a grouping of hundreds of religions. There is a popular saying that Hinduism has more religions in it than outside of it.
Some of the most important religious that are part of Hinduism today are Shaivism, Vaishnavism, the cult of Krishna, the cult of Ganesha, and Gods like Ayyappan and Murugan who are local gods but have been included in the Hindu pantheon. So how can the minorities (Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, etc.) descend from Hindus when the concept of Hindus and Hinduism only existed after the 16th century? The fact is that there were hundreds of religions in India and many of them trace their origins to the gods and stories found in the Vedas, Puranas and other ancient texts that we today falsely claim are “Hindu” texts. The Vedas are as relevant to a Buddhist as it is to a Hindu.
Both Shaivism and Vaishnavism were strict caste based religions. Many followers of these faiths who were at the receiving end chose to follow other less rigid religions (in terms of caste) like Islam, Buddhism and Jainism. Islam for the most part spread in countries like India peacefully and not by the sword like many Indians believe. It is trade with India that spread Islam to countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. None of these countries were ever part of a Muslim empire. Unfortunately we now know that the once caste less religions now follow the caste system themselves. So believing that minorities descended from Hindus is nothing but a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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- India Today: Cultural Intolerance among Fundamentalist Hindus
- Islam and the False Concept of Equality in Indian Society
Category: Culture & Religion
Hari, religion is in the mind, it exists not in the text but we think of those texts (often of what we have heard of those texts). Since mind is a layered gray matter, it links ideas coming from one end to different fields. Since religion appears to be something despite its narrow definitions has been given scope so broad that it seems to relate to all aspects and fields of life. So what comes out of mind is of interest to all. Religion is a make believe idea but one that is lived day to day. So for it to have validity and contiue to be practiced it needs to show that it has existed, that it passed the tests of different times, that it has following and so on. And in my view, this is why there is such a rush to claim history and historical affiliation of the people.
Thank you for visiting my site Nisha. Your comment is on the money.
Dear Hari,
A nice article. I totally agree with the fact tht Hinduism is a very new concept, majorly peddled by the brits in India.
Now, we should also know, before that, India was not divided on the basis of religion. We called ourselves the followers of ‘Sanatan Dharma’ which has many references in BhagwadGeeta and many other vedic scriptures. Our society was not divided in religious fragments but into caste lines.
Secondly, if you check out any good dictionary, you will find out that ‘Dharma’ and ‘religion’ have entirely different meanings!
Dharma does not restrict you from exploring new spritual paths.
Which led to discoveries of many newfound paths of enlightenment like shaivism, jainism or buddhism. But ultimately they all came from India!
I believe thats what Mr. Bhagwat wants to point out, we all are Indians and we all have our roots here. When Islam or chritianity came, many Indians were forcefully made to accept or wishfully accepted these religions. By hindus, he means people who live in India, not a sect of people worshipping deities.
This space is neither appropriate nor enough to on this discussion. But wish to discuss this at length with you someday!
Enjoyed reading the article. Made me think..!
Regards
Thank you for your feedback Azad. The issue I have is the word Hindu in the current context is clearly associated with a religion (although as you mentioned it does not have to be). In addition we should also consider the fact that Bhagwat speaks for the RSS which many Hindus and most of the minorities consider as a right wing organization.