| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| HINDU POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CRITIQUES | |
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course one can separate Hindu culture from Hindu religion. One can
define Hindu culture as Indian (Bharatiya). One can easily include
Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh traditions as Bharatiya because of the many
common cultural elements of these native traditions. In addition one
can identify Bharatiya elements in Indian Islam or Christianity,
with their devotional and mystical trends that reflect a Hindu
religious influence, and their dress, food habits, and other outer
aspects of life inherited from the local culture.
Yet one cannot pretend that there is no Hindu religious element in the field of Bharatiya culture. The Hindu religion permeates Bharatiya culture, whether it is the music, dance, poetry, mythology, or philosophy. A Hindu element permeates Indian culture more so than a Christian element does that of Europe. Europe had a Greco-Roman background for most of its art, law and philosophy that was pre-Christian in nature, but in India all of these cultural factors have a Hindu background.Of course India is a big country and there are areas in which an Islamic culture or other non-Hindu or even non-Bharatiya cultures have prevailed, but this cannot be used to override a greater Hindu influence. Therefore the idea that India is a composite culture of Hinduism and Islam, such as many scholars have proposed, is not really true. The dominant culture remains Hindu or Indian, while the Islamic influence is mainly on the religious practices of Indian Muslims. For this reason one cannot entirely separate Hindu religion and either Hindu or Indian culture. |
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