Being a Hindu, growing up in a modern society, I have got this wonderful opportunity to research Hinduism in contemporary world. In this essay, I have explored Hinduism not only by juxtaposing it with modern Hinduism, but also with ancient religious practices. Modernity is not simply the western world, or connecting to contemporary and rejecting the old. Modernity, as David Smith says is theorization of modern world and according to modernity self is autonomous, and God is dead. This feature of modernity contradicts present day world.
For us, yes we are autonomous, but God is still alive within us, somewhere within our heart, in the air, in water and everywhere. We are not autonomous, we are controlled by the government and our future depends on some unnatural fate, which is in hands of God. Hinduism is a diverse and complex religion, comprising of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism. It is much like water, takes the shape of whatever vessel it fills, with new norms and traditions. The reason for is to be flexible like water, is that Hinduism has no founder, whose authority applies everywhere. Hinduism has 900 million followers worldwide.
These followers define themselves as a Hindu, but do not practice same traditions. Some might do a puja and burn some incense sticks in front of deities, some go to temple every day and some might go once a week or never, some might observe fast for Sai Baba on Thursdays; but they all are Hindus. Many of the followers argue about Hinduism not being a religion, but a ‘way of life’. While these 900 million claim to be Hindus, do they all know about the four Vedas? Did they ever read the Bhagvad Gita, Ramayana or Mahabharata? SO they know what Upanishads are? The answer is NO.
In modern day world, not all people care about history; yes they know the epic stories of Devis and Devas, but never read them extensively. All Hindus celebrate Diwali, Navratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Ram Navmi, Dusshera, and many other festivals, but only few of them know the story behind them. However, there is no evidence of those epics, but people still believe it blindfolded. To examine Modern Hinduism, we can look over the renaissance period between the 18th and the 20th century. As Stephens mentions in his book, this critical period when the religion was mostly reinterpreted including many practices.
Sati Pratha, today illegal was abolished through the protests done by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Sati was a funeral custom where the widow burned herself on her husband’s pyre. Often regarded as the “Father of the Modern India”, he marks the beginning of the renaissance. British colonial period had a huge impact on the Indian society, where leader including Ram Mohan Roy and other western educated Hindus soughed to create revolution within Hinduism to project new ideas for modern age. With revolution came new values: social equality, democracy, feminism, modernity and science.
B. R Ambedkar, who wrote the Indain constitution fought against untouchability and demanded for social equality. Backward classes or castes were always discriminated at schools and jobs and where oppressed by the landlords. The renasissance period brought equal status to the unctouchables and gave them their basic human rights. The reformers keen to redefine the fundamentals of Hindiusm, their religion also campaigned again child marriage, widow remarriage and women’s right to own property. Additionally, came democracy, which ended two centruries of British raj.
India was set free in 1947, they had to make new constitution, set new rules and regulations, and maintain law and order in the newly independent country. India has always been a male dominated society and will always be the same. Today women in India have far greater constitutional rights than before, but are still exploited in the society. A typical Hindu family or society is divided hierarchically, where women are always placed at the bottom. Goddess worship in Hindu society has not necessarily entailed women an equitable position in the society.
Even the Hindu epics are evidence of this claim, and are supported by two major incidents. Sita, who is fully devoted to Lord Rama, has to go through a purity test after returning from the Ravana’s Lanka. Why Lord Rama, another avatar of lord Vishnu, was skeptical of Sita, his own wife? Even after she is proved pure and honest, lord Rama banishes her from Ayodhya? What was Sita’s fault if she was kidnapped by Ravana? She didn’t even look at Ravana during her stay in Lanka and suffers the banishment for no reason. Why did lord Rama travel all the way to Lanka to rescue Sita, if he was to banish her eventually?
Another incident from the Mahabharata brings up the same topic of woman’s position in society. When Pandavas lose and gamble everything, they gamble Draupadi. Unfortunately, falling in prey of Shakuni’s witty moves, they lose again. Follwing their defeat, Draupadi’s vastraharan takes place in the court. Again it was a case of woman’s disrespect, whose honor was saved by the Lord Krishna. Therefore, it is women who always suffer and experience the same even today. What I wonder is Mahabharata a timeless epic or it is the contemporary world? Above mentioned were the anecdotes of women’s status on the Satya Yuga (age of truth and god).
Inferring from this, I wouldn’t be surprised at the present situations in India. If this was the case of gods’ wives in the age of truth, we can’t expect more from today’s world. Women are calm from outside, but inside them lies ‘Shakti’. Don’t think Indian women are for wearing bangles and sitting at home, looking after children. According to Sugirtharajah, they can turn into goddess Kali for empowerment and justice. Marking down the renaissance period with emerging reformation, there was a radical change in the attitudes of the feminism in India.
As Hindus attempt to become more contemporary, they shed some old traditions or adopt new ones. But, not all of them do it, like villagers who live far from the modern city. These people are more orthodox and believe in all old traditions like child marriage, dowry, offering bali and many other superstitions. After the birth of the Hinduism, it has changed a lot, or become modernized; people have changed it. When we talk about modern Hinduism, we should see less religious violence, more love, less stupid traditions, more rationality and hope.
According to me, Hinduism is still the same in some aspects. If it has really modernized, why Hindu people still believe in female feticide, get bald at Tirupati, pay priest to pray for them, ask for dowry, believe in untouchability, follow babas undoubtedly, and arrange child marriage? These vital questions need to get a NO in return for Hinduism to be called modernized. No photos of gods and goddesses used to circulate in old time. People usually have an idol at home or visited temple regularly to worship. In today’s global world, everything is marketed and not surprisingly including religion.
Images of god and goddesses are printed and circulated prolifically, which impacts the Hindu society. People buy these god-like products for mini temple at their home, deck of the car, calendar, at work. By putting up the posters of god at work, people find a short way to reach god as it these methods saves time. They can pray for their success and profit right there. Alongside posters, CDs and DVDs invention also advantaged Hindu devotees. Overall, it was all for business, but technology did attract millions of consumer through religion.
CDs and DVDs were used to pass some quality time, at religious occasions, festivals, weddings and temples. With the invention of this new technology, the need of listener to be physically present at place was lessened. Mythological films and daily TV series were next in the line to ride the religious bandwagon during the late 20th and early 21st century. Nobody use to miss even a single episode of Mahabharata or Ramayana, first aired on Doordarshan. Ramanand Sagar, known to have produced most of the mythological TV serials, is also called the Tulsidas of the media age.
His shows use to be so much influential, as Stephen continues, some people took watching the serials as a ritual. They even took bath before the start, offered garlands to the TV and lighted incense sticks. After the emergence of Doordarshan, many new channels like Tata TV, Sankar, and Aastha which broadcasted bhajans, kirtans, kathas and artis. Hinduism also made it online, and surprisingly invented online puja. Honestly, I don’t believe in this; doing puja online seems a joke to me. Puja needs physical presence of the devotes, performing some religious tasks in front of an idol, on commands of the Brahman(pujari).
However, cyber pujas do exist and people pay happily for these virtual task. Lots of babas and modern gurus have emerged before and after my birth. These gurus are seen as a god man, with their own institution. As Smith says, the word guru means ‘ venerable teacher’ in form of visible god. Anybody can become guru, however they should possess some miraculous powers to heal people’s problems, and be enlightened. In present world, there exist thousands of gurus and Babas and while most of them are fake, only few are honest and real.
Most infamous gurus are Rama Krishna, Vivekananda, Ramana, Maharshi, Aurobindo, Shivananda, Prabhupada and Sathya Sai Baba. Today many gurus and Babas are in jail in cases of fraud, rape, extortion and are still followed by uneducated people. Today Hinduism has been divided into more religious sects, which has given rise to diversity and vibrant traditions. Being one of the most oldest religion, Hinduism is preserved till date by its vast followers in not only India, but worldwide. While it is not same as of the Vedic, medieval and reform age, some elements still hold an important place in the society.
Presently, modern gurus dominate the world by their spiritual teachings and political power. On other side, where women have reached moon, their equitable status in society is still questioned. People have become more rationale and welcomed the new ways of performing rituals with globalization. However, to some critics it seems threatening to the ancient values and beliefs; people instead of coming out, experiencing the religion practically, are confined to the TV and computer performing virtual tasks. Amending of a centuries old religion seems god and bad, but time will heal everything.
