Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity

BOOK REVIEW Defending Hinduism’s Philosophical Unity Indra’s Net explores and debunks eight myths about Hindu tradition that are widespread in the Western academic world Eminent author and scholar Rajiv monolithic religion. To his surprise, Malhotra has worked vigorously the critics at the panel “barely for decades to counter the tsunami engaged with the ideas in the book. of misconceptions about India and Instead they were fixated on argu- Hinduism propounded by Western ing against the very existence of academia. This misinformation suf- any unified Hindu tradition. What fuses the media, fills our textbooks, I knew as Hinduism was now is echoed by Western-influenced being rebranded as ‘ne0-Hindu- intellectuals in India and confounds ism,’ a false ideology. I was shocked the minds of Hindu youth in univer- by the allegation that my reference sities worldwide. What is the source to the notion of Hinduism marked of these ideas? Find out in the au- me as a dangerous person. I won- thor’s book, Indra’s Net, which we dered: ‘What could be the basis of summarize and excerpt from below. such an attack? Why was it being represented thus by respected ajiv malhotra writes: scholars?’ ” “Indra’s Net is about the Malhotra describes his subse- ongoing battle over Hindu- quent research into the roots of R ism’s positioning on par with these allegations. He exposes the the world’s major religions. It rebuts history and characters behind an increasingly powerful academic the flawed conclusions that have school which posits that Hinduism, become pervasive assumptions as such, has never existed. Hinduism and the default consensus-reality today is dismissed as a potent myth held in academia and modern concocted by Swami Vivekananda. media. It began, he says, with “the This thesis brands Vivekananda’s Christian missionaries charac- movement as neo-Hinduism, where terization of India’s past as being neo implies something phony. chaotic, incoherent and without “This pernicious ploy is used to clear ethical and philosophical fragment Hindu society by pit- foundations.” He quotes T. E. Slater ting its spiritual giants against one of the London Missionary Society, another and distorting their subtle who wrote in 1902, “The Hindu and deeply intricate viewpoints. In writings are a product of national the political arena, the neo-Hindu- genius, but there is no orderly ism thesis claims thatVivekananda development, no progressive mani- manufactured Hinduism in order to unite of colonialism and conversion. Explicit con- festation of truth....they constitute an anthol- the Indians against the British—an elitist version is not even necessary; one is systemi- ogy, not one organic whole. What is styled enterprise undertaken at the expense of sup- cally reprogrammed to believe that one was ‘Hinduism,’ is a vague eclecticism.” pressing the traditions of the Indian masses. never a Hindu in the first place; and that one Malhotra continues, “Paul Hacker, a promi- “The ramifications of a discourse that pits loses nothing by abandoning Hinduism other nent German professor of Sanskrit and Indol- contemporary Hinduism against its hoary than the label.” ogy, was the first academic to develop this past are profound and terrifying. The claim set of ideas in the 1950s. He popularized the denies the existence of an integrated, unified The Author’s Awakening term neo-Hinduism to refer to the modern- spiritual substratum in ancient India. This Malhotra says he discovered the scope of the ization of Hinduism brought about by many battle, therefore, is also an intellectual one, “neo-Hinduism” thesis in 2012 as a member Indian thinkers, the most prominent being with implications for the very survival of of an American Academy of Religion panel Swami Vivekananda. Hacker charged that Hinduism as a tradition with a rich past, to discussing his book Being Different: An ‘neo-Hindus’ had disingenuously adopted be understood on its own terms. Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. Western ideas and expressed them using “This school of thought represents an insid- In that book he contrasts Hinduism’s unity Sanskrit.” ious, subtle, but nevertheless powerful form in diversity with the Western paradigms of Hacker’s protege, Wilhelm Halbfass, was 66 hinduism today october/november/december, 2015 among the most influential Indologists of him as authoritative. In his article [2004] there is the conclusion that Indians ought his time. He brought Hacker to teach at the ‘The Invention of the Hindu,’ he articulates to simply deny any unified positive identity University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Halbfass his thesis that ‘Hinduism is largely a fic- based on their own past, and instead seek translated many of Hacker’s writings and tion, formulated in the eighteenth and nine- a common identity based on the further edited the translated collection of Hacker’s teenth centuries.’ He regards Hinduism as importation of modern Western principles works on neo-Hinduism, giving his mentor a construct of colonialism that was enthu- of society and politics. Those few individu- high praise. Hacker’s ideas quickly pervaded siastically and dangerously endorsed by als who dare articulate Indian coherence are US academia and were also promoted by Indian modernizers and reconfigured as a characterized as dangerous and accused of prominent UK Indologist Ursula King, some global rival to the three big monothesisms. fascism, identity politics, fundamentalism, of whose students later became top profes- Hinduism, he claims, did not even exist prior links to atrocities, oppression of Dalits, tribal sors of Indian studies in US universities. to the arrival of Muslims in India, and then it communities, minority religions and women. got crystallized by the British.” This misconception denies India’s cultural Dual Agenda unity based on the dharmic traditions.” Malhotra argues that Professor Hacker was EIGHT MYTHS not an unbiased academic: “What is less Malhotra implores Hindus to “do their known about Hacker is that he was also an homework” and gain an in-depth under- MYTH 2: Colonial lndology’s biases unabashed Christian apologist who freely standing of the issues. “My goal is not to were turned into Hinduism used his academic standing to further the force readers into an ‘either/or’ position, but cause of his Christian agenda. He led a paral- to encourage more participants to enter the “In general, the colonial Indologists presented lel life, passionately advocating Christianity debate.” In Part I of Indra’s Net, he explains Hinduism so as to depict the heathens as while presenting the academic face of being that from the basic premise of neo-Hin- lowly and uncivilized, requiring evangeliza- neutral and objective.” duism originating from Hacker’s Christian tion. Many Europeans labored hard to recov- Halbfass never translated any of Hacker’s agenda, eight myths have developed. Readers er Sanskrit texts, did important philological works on Christianity, which would have who understand these issues will recognize work and struggled to understand Hindu exposed this side of his work. However, long them as they emerge in different arenas of traditions, but through their own lenses. after Hacker’s ideas had spread, Halbfass the public discourse about Hinduism. “It is tendentious and untrue to claim Indi- confessed in a biography of Hacker that his ans passively read their own texts under the ideas were problematic for being so rooted tutelage of Europeans, without any sense in his Christianity: “Hacker presents himself MYTH 1: India’s optimum state of their traditional meanings, (adopting a as an Indologist and historian,...yet through is Balkanization Western definition of Hinduism). all the documentation and analysis, we also “Being open to influence from others does hear the voice of an advocate of the European “One of the most dangerous assertions being not render a culture ‘inauthentic.’ Hinduism tradition and, more specifically, of a Chris- made is that India’s natural state is one of has always insisted that its traditions are tian theologian.” See: www.sunypress.edu/ Balkanization (division into smaller regions). interpreted and practised in the context of pdf/53259.pdf In other words, before colonialism, it was place, time and custom.” never unified. Those who hold this view Reverberations in Indian Intelligensia believe India should be returned to that Malhotra states that Hacker’s ideas have state, largely by disempowering Hinduism, MYTH 3: Hinduism was manufactured become accepted as truth by the large major- (because it is considered a unifying force and did not grow organically ity of Western academics. He cites numer- believed to benefit only the elites), and by ous references to Hacker and his ideas by empowering the forces of fragmentation. “A basic claim is that contemporary Hindu top professors of Indian studies in key US “Such a discourse on the fragmentation of leaders, particularly Vivekananda, Gandhi institutions. Malhotra notes that the myth India has been used to stir up internal divi- and Aurobindo, invented an artificial new of neo-Hinduism has spread to mainstream siveness and conflict—ironically, in the name religion called Hinduism. media, popular portrayals of India, and gov- of human rights. [Malhotra’s book Breaking “This shows a serious misunderstanding of ernment policy-making. Leftist, secular India shows how this has come about, along Indian culture. Since earliest times, promi- Indian writers have adopted this self-alien- with its political ramifications.] nent Hindus have disagreed

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