| They have been
beaten down by centuries of foreign rule and ongoing attempts to convert them. The British
treated them as racially inferior and both Christians and Muslims treated them as
religiously perverted. That some Hindus may express pride in their religion is a good sign
and shows a Hindu awakening. Unfortunately the groups who may be challenged by this
awakening have labeled this pride chauvinistic. Naturally
some Hindu groups may express this pride in an excessive way, just as happened with the
Black pride idea in America during the civil rights movement, but this is only an attempt
to counter a lack of pride and self-respect, it is hardly the assertion of any enduring
cultural militancy and does not have the history like the fundamentalism of Christianity
and Islam, which goes back to the early eras of these faiths.
Such terms as "fundamentalist" and "chauvinist" are much less
applicable to Hinduism than to other religions and generally a great exaggeration. They
are a form of name calling, and do not represent any clearly thought out understanding. It
is also interesting to note that many of the people who brand Hindus in this light are
often themselves members of more exclusivist ideologies, which have an agenda to gain
world-domination and to take over India. |
