When we speak about Hinduism in Europe, in our classrooms or in the media, we are conveying to people the idea that a religion such as Hinduism exists and that this is what Indians are. By doing this, we are explaining what the people of India are, what they do, why they do it, etc. We make sense of Indian cultures and traditions according to this definition of Hinduism, very much connecting it to the caste system and a range of other issues that have arisen at the conference.
The question is: Does all this really help us to understand people in India?
Let’s now turn to India. Several Indian participants at the conference have done a wonderful job of showing that this understanding of “Hinduism” is more or less the product of interactions between European and Indian people, and is thus also a part of the colonial legacy and the question of what colonial rule had to do with Western perceptions of India. It is during those interactions that the notion of “Hinduism” emerged. But the basic tenets of this construct called Hinduism are older - they are rooted in Christian theology and have been repeated in Western desriptions of other cultures for centuries.
Of course, there are people who suggest that the term “Hindu” itself is much older (well known in this regard is David Lorenzen). Interestingly enough, a colleague from Japan mentioned that expressions such as “Hindu Dharma” can be found in 16th century Chaitanya Vaishnava texts. But if you study the material carefully, you see that these descripitions arose from the long-term interaction with Muslims. For me, it is no wonder that, after years of Muslim rule in Bengal, people came to use the foreign (but already several-hundred-year-old) term to talk about Hindus. But when you come to the process of Indian communities’ self-description in situations like ritual or philosophical discussions, you will find that the term “bhakta” is used (which is loosely translated as devotee, or somebody who has submitted to the deity), or the term “Vaishnava” (one who is devoted to Vishnu), etc. The existence of the word “Hindu” at that time does not prove that it was used to describe a religious community.
Prof. Balagangadhara.
This leads us back to the question of the conference. Balagangadhara feels that we are replacing the entire experience of people in India with something different.