Hinduism differs from Christianity and
other Western religions in that it does not have a single founder, a specific theological
system, a single system of morality, or a central religious organization. It
consists of "thousands of different religious groups that have
evolved in India since 1500 BCE."
Hinduism has grown to become the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 837 million followers - 13% of the
world's population.
It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri
Lanka. According to the "Yearbook of American &
Canadian Churches," there are about 1.1 million Hindus in the U.S.
The "American Religious Identification Survey" is believed to be
more accurate. They estimated smaller number: 766,000 Hindus in 2001.
Still, this is a very significant
increase from 227,000 in 1990. Statistics Canada estimates that there are
about 157,015 Hindus in Canada.
Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized
religion.
Most forms of Hinduism are henotheistic religions. They recognize a
single deity, and view other Gods and Goddesses as manifestations or aspects of
that supreme God. Henotheistic and polytheistic religions have traditionally been among the world's most
religiously tolerant faiths.
However, until recently, a Hindu nationalistic political party
controlled the government of India. The linkage of religion, the
national government, and nationalism led to a degeneration of the
separation of church and state in India. This, in turn, has decreased the level
of religious tolerance in that country. The escalation of anti-Christian violence
was one manifestation of this linkage. With the recent change in
government, the level of violence will diminish.
Name of the religion:
This religion is called:
Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion,"
and
Vaidika Dharma, "religion of the Vedas," and
Hinduism -- the most commonly used name in North America.
Various origins for the word "Hinduism" have been
suggested:
*It may be derived from an ancient inscription translated as:
"The country lying between the Himalayan mountain and
Bindu Sarovara is known as Hindusthan by combination of the first
letter 'hi' of 'Himalaya' and the last compound letter 'ndu' of
the word `Bindu.'" Bindu Sarovara is called the Cape
Comorin sea in modern times. *It may be derived from the Persian word for Indian.
*It may be a Persian corruption of the word Sindhu (the river
Indus)
*It was a name invented by the British administration in India
during colonial times.
Early history of Hinduism:
Beliefs about the early development of Hinduism are currently in a
state of flux:
The classical theory of the origins of Hinduism traces the
religion's roots to
the Indus valley civilization circa 4000 to 2200 BCE. The development
of Hinduism was influenced by
many invasions over thousands of years. The major influences occurred when
light-skinned, nomadic "Aryan" Indo-European tribes invaded Northern India (circa 1500
BCE) from the steppes of Russia
and Central Asia. They brought with them their religion of Vedism. These beliefs
mingled with the more advanced, indigenous Indian native beliefs,
often called the "Indus valley culture.". This theory
was initially proposed by Christian scholars in the 19th century.
Their conclusions were biased by their pre-existing belief in the Hebrew Scriptures
(Old Testament). The Book of Genesis, which they
interpreted literally, appears to place the creation of the earth at
circa 4,000 BCE, and the Noahic flood at circa
2,500 BCE. These dates put severe constraints on the date of the
"Aryan invasion," and the development of the four Veda and
Upanishad Hindu religious texts. A second
factor supporting this theory was their lack of appreciation of the
sophisticated nature of Vedic culture; they had discounted it as
primitive. The classical theory is now being rejected by
increasing numbers of archaeologists and religious historians. The originators of
the theory were obviously biased by their prior beliefs about the age of the earth
and the biblical story of
the flood of Noah.
Emerging theory: The Aryan Invasion view of ancient
Indian history has been challenged in recent years by new conclusions
based on more recent findings in archeology, cultural analysis, astronomical references, and
literary analysis. Archaeologists, including Jim Schaffer and David Frawley, have established
convincing arguments for this new interpretation. Archaeological
digs have revealed that the Indus Valley culture lasted from about 3500 to 1800 BCE. It was not "destroyed
by outside invasion, but...[by] internal causes and, most likely,
floods." The "dark age" that
was believed to have followed the Aryan invasion may never have
happened. A series of cities in India have been studied by
archaeologists and shown to have a level of civilization between that
of the Indus culture and later more highly developed Indian culture, as visited by the
Greeks. Finally, Indus Valley excavations have uncovered many remains
of fire altars, animal bones, potsherds, shell jewelry and other
evidences of Vedic rituals. "In other words there is no racial
evidence of any such Indo-Aryan invasion of India but only of a
continuity of the same group of people who traditionally considered
themselves to be Aryans...The Indo-Aryan invasion as an academic
concept in 18th and 19th century Europe reflected the cultural milieu
of the period. Linguistic data were used to validate the concept that
in turn was used to interpret archeological and anthropological data.""There was no invasion by anyone."
During the first few centuries CE, many sects were created, each dedicated to a
specific deity. Typical among these were the Goddesses Shakti and Lakshmi, and the Gods
Skanda and Surya.
