A friend sent me two e-mails about Hinduism titled -
.1. "Beliefs and Facts of Hinduism" and
.2. "Does Hinduism allow Atheism?".


I agree with majority of the content of the articles. But as most of you would expect, I still have a lot to say about them since it's a religious issue. Due to the lack of time, I may not be able to say it all in one post, so I'll post my comments about a part of the articles everytime I get a chance to write.

Here today, I will discuss the second comment made in the first article – “Hinduism is the most peace-loving Religion of all. This can be proven by the fact that Hindustan (the land of the Hindus) or India has never attacked or invaded another nation. The Hindus have never stolen land belonging to others. The other religions certainly cannot say the same.”

First of all, it’s a shame to be looking at India as the land of Hindus in this era, due to the number of religions in India. I do agree with this comment to a certain extent as the Indian history supports this comment. At the same time, I wish that the author had considered the political situation in India in the recent years. The aggressive attitude of the Government towards Pakistan, the Nuclear Tests and other such traits may not be completely unjustified, but they do prove this statement wrong in the modern era.

The image of war and weapons of mass destruction that the Indian Government and many Hindu Religious Institutions have been projecting in the recent years can not be justified. War with Pakistan is being glorified, victories are being portrayed as Hindu Victories, Indian weapons are being portrayed as Hindu Weapons (being compared to Shivji’s Trishul) and being compared with the so called Muslim Weapons of Pakistan. I wonder where these claims leave the traditional Hindu Claims of being the most peace loving religion..!

I must however contradict myself here to state that the above mentioned pro-war traits are not necessarily what Hinduism preaches. I am saying this in spite of the fact that many national Hindu organisations along with the ruling party (BJP) have been actively involved in the pro-war propaganda. The reason is that I believe that it is not the religion that causes religious hatred and violence. It is actually the interpretation of religion that is to be blamed. But then why should Hinduism alone get away with that excuse? Aren’t all religions (or at least most of them) then same in this respect? Most of religions preach peace, but people interpret the religion to try ‘n justify their violent actions.

There is yet another way of looking at this statement. It is true that Hindus have not invaded another nation. But I wonder if it was because they were not capable of doing so. I mean, if Hindus never invaded others, they were also incapable of defending themselves. They themselves were invaded at numerous occasions and at times found it hard to even defend their faith. When they were being forced to convert to Islam by the Mughal rulers, they turned to the Sikh Gurus for help.

When I get told that Sikhism is a violent religion, this is what I say..:
The unprovoked invader or the aggressor is a criminal who is full of LUST for Power and Wealth.
The one who is not able to defend him/herself is weak.
One who doesn’t even try to defend him/herself is a coward.

Sikhs chose not to be cowards. They fought… regardless of wether they win or lose. In my opinion, it is acceptable to be weak and lose, but not acceptable to be a coward.

Now you chose what you would like to be.