From: Xavier William <varekatx@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 4:21 AM
Subject: Indian culture - Hinduism is a way of life.
To: india-unity@yahoogroups.com, indiathinkersnet@yahoogroups.com, KeralaDD@yahoogroups.co.uk, Mahajanapada@yahoogroups.com
According to one of BJP's most popular slogans "Hinduism is a way of life" The slogan caught the fancy of even many educated Indians. Maybe this slogan gives a clue to the evolution of religion as an ethnic factor. It says that the way of life of Hindus distinguish them from Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsys and other religious groups. If this slogan can be taken at face value, it is these variations in the ways of lives that distinguish one religion from another and lead to the so-called distinct ethnicities based on religion.
Applying the methodologies of clear thinking to this slogan and its concept that different religions endorse different ways of lives, we see that things could not be farther from the truth. There are far more significant factors that determine 'ways of life' than religion.
Women have common problems as distinct from men irrespective of their ethnic status and religion. As a result, the way of life of a Hindu woman is far more identical to that of a Muslim or Sikh woman than to the way of life of her own husband. Children have the same problems everywhere and so do the aged, and so age contributes in a major way to 'way of life' in comparison with religion. In most tribal societies age is an important basis for group formation, and in some tribal societies there are "age-sets"- compulsory groupings of individuals of roughly similar age- who advance through life together. Education and income are other factors that determine 'ways of life.' Thus an educated Muslim is far more likely to think and act like another educated Hindu or Christian than like an illiterate man from his own religious group. The same goes for income too in determining 'ways of life' of a man or woman. However these factors- sex, age, literacy, income etc – do not seem to contribute to ethnicity whereas the nebulous factors of religious dogmas do.
The much touted Indian culture is another nebulous factor that is given too much significance. If culture means a way of life then there is no such thing as Indian culture. Culture is determined more by sex, age, literacy etc than by being Indian. Being Indian does not define one's culture any more than being a Hindu or a Christian does expect may be for very superficial things such as Hindus go to temples whereas Christians go to churches--
Xavier William |
--
Palash Biswas
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http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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