Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Is Islam compatible with modernity?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Hinduism is an evolving religion, and accepts changes-unlike Islam which always looks into the past for answers..
Hinduism has dfferent sects like 'Arya Samaji's' (who don't pray to idols and only believe in "om")-they live peacefully with the other Hindus-unlike some Muslims who kill anyone who does'nt follow their interpretation of Islam eg Sunni's kill Shias, and Ismailis etc.
Hinduism is basically a tolerant religion-for centuries different people of different faiths have settled in India. Whereas, Pakistan in its 50 odd years has almost rid itself of all other faiths by its intolerance, and now are busy killing each other.
As such I can safely say, Hinduism is a followable religion in the modern world-can you say the same about Islam?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
indeed…which answers both this thread’s question, as well as the question about whether or not a certain other religion is followable in the modern world…
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
**“Statistics compiled by India’s National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.” **
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
what part of this idea do you not understand: these texts are totally expunged from the mainstream and the fringe, and their teachings have been expunged from the mainstream and will be expunged from the fringe as well in due time.
there is nothing wrong with a caste system. the problem is with discrimination and superiority complexes. the caste system as described by legitimate texts is totally benign and simply reflects the occupational divisions of society…and most importantly, it is an open system that draws from a man’s natural inclinations, not bloodline. There is nothing wrong with that, and no Hindu should be required to condemn it. there is no need for a caste system today, so most Hindus would be indifferent to even a proper caste system.
are you willing to come forward and say that passages from the Quran prescribing physical violence against an uncooperative wife should be totally and unequivocally stricken from the book?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
What in another 1500 years you mean, until which time millions of low castes will continue to suffer at the hands of the high castes. Remember it only takes a fringe minority to cause great suffering on others. I would be interested to see the Hindu religious texts if you have them to hand, which describe the Caste system in such benign terms as you do.
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
and hinduism condones slavery. wait, thats islam. hmm..
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
how about word slavery in quran do you own slaves it is followable now?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
You are isisting us to read this again and again.
Kindly enlighten me where did you find these statistics and what is India’s National Crime Records Bureau?
Thanks in advance!
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
i asked you a question. why didn’t you answer it?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
I posted this thread to talk about the Hindu caste system, yet a lot of Hindu’s are patently unable to answer the difficult questions in this regard. You said that the offensive texts will take time to expunge, and praised the Hindu Caste system, and I asked you questions in this regard, which I am still awaiting answers for.
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
i asure some selfish elements twist the messsages
As per shloka numbered IV (13) of the Bhagavad Gita, depending upon a person’s guna (aptitude) and karma (actions), there are four varnas. As per this shloka, a person’s varna is determined by his guna and karma, and not by his birth. Chapter XIV of the Bhagavad Gita specifies three gunas viz. satva (purity), rajas (passion and attachment) and tamas (ignorance). These three gunas are present in every human in different proportions, and determine the varna of every person. Accordingly, depending on one’s guna and karma, every individual is free to select his own varna. Consequently, if their gunas and karmas are different, even members of the same family can belong to different varnas. Notwithstanding the differences in guna and karma of different individuals, Vedas treat the entire humanity with the same respect and do not sanction any caste system or birth-based caste system.
Veda is the Foundation
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/
To be born a Hindu in India is to enter the caste system, one of the world’s longest surviving forms of social stratification. Embedded in Indian culture for the past 1,500 years, the caste system follows a basic precept: All men are created unequal. The ranks in Hindu society come from a legend in which the main groupings, or varnas, emerge from a primordial being. From the mouth come the Brahmans—the priests and teachers. From the arms come the Kshatriyas—the rulers and soldiers. From the thighs come the Vaisyas—merchants and traders. From the feet come the Sudras—laborers. Each varna in turn contains hundreds of hereditary castes and subcastes with their own pecking orders.
A fifth group describes the people who are achuta, or untouchable. The primordial being does not claim them. Untouchables are outcasts—people considered too impure, too polluted, to rank as worthy beings. Prejudice defines their lives, particularly in the rural areas, where nearly three-quarters of India’s people live. Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down.
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Census for 1901 for the Province of Bengal records the following interesting facts regarding the Muslims of Bengal :—
" The conventional division of the Mahomedans into four tribes— Sheikh, Saiad, Moghul and Pathan—has very little application to this Province (Bengal). The Mahomedans themselves recognize two main social divisions, (1) Ashraf or Sharaf and (2) Ajlaf Ashraf means ' noble ' and includes all undoubted descendants of foreigners and converts from high caste Hindus. All other Mahomedans including the occupational groups and all converts of lower ranks, are known by the contemptuous terms, ' Ajlaf , ' wretches ' or ' mean people ': they are also called Kamina or Itar, ' base ' or Rasil, a corruption of Rizal, ' worthless '. In some places a third class, called Arzal or ' lowest of all ', is added. With them no other Mahomedan would associate, and they are forbidden to enter the mosque to use the public burial ground.
"Within these groups there are castes with social precedence of exactly the same nature as one finds among the Hindus.
' 1. Ashraf or better class Mahomedans.
(1) Saiads.
(2) Sheikhs.
(3) Pathans.
(4) Moghul.
(5) Mallik.
(6) Mirza.
II. Ajlaf or lower class Mahomedans.
(1) Cultivating Sheikhs, and others who were originally Hindus but who do not belong to any functional group, and have not gained admittance to the Ashraf Community, e.g. Pirali and Thakrai.
(2) Darzi, Jolaha, Fakir, and Rangrez.
(3) Barhi, Bhalhiara, Chik, Churihar, Dai, Dhawa, Dhunia, Gaddi, Kalal, Kasai, Kula Kunjara, Laheri, Mahifarosh, Mallah, Naliya, Nikari.
(4) Abdal, Bako, Bediya, Bhal, Chamba, Dafali, Dhobi, Hajjam, Mucho, Nagarchi, Nal,Panwaria, Madaria,Tunlia.
III. Arzal or degraded class. Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugia, Mchlar."
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
The shocking realities of the Hindu Caste system, and still so many live in denial, or even submission?
**Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: “Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers”; “Dalit tortured by cops for three days”; “Dalit ‘witch’ paraded naked in Bihar”; “Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool”; “7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash”; “5 Dalits lynched in Haryana”; “Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked”; “Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits”. **
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Sir, the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Darfour – over 50,000 people killed and 2.2 million displaced from their homes, and in urgent need of relief aid – includes the systematic rape of African Muslim women and girls, as well as their enslavement. In her scathing Report to the Commission on the situation in the Sudan, released last Friday, the Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial killings could not have been clearer on the motives. This is arousing an international solidarity, a subject addressed by Mr. Dos Santos Alves in his working paper
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Despite the denial mentality of some Hindu’s in facing upto the evils of their Caste system, the Indian media has been exposing this kind of shocking discrimnation.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=62212
**Tsunami can’t wash this away: hatred for Dalits **
In Ground Zero, Dalits thrown out of relief camps, cut out of food, water supplies, toilets, NGOs say they will start separate facilities. There’s something even an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale and a tsunami that kills over 1 lakh people can’t crack: the walls between caste. That’s why at Ground Zero in Nagapattinam, Murugeshan and his family of four have been living on the streets in Nambiarnagar. That’s why like 31 other families, they have been thrown out of relief camps. That’s why they are hounded out of schools they have sneaked into, they are pushed to the rear of food and water lines, given leftovers, not allowed to use toilets or even drink water provided by a UN agency. That’s why some NGOs are setting up separate facilities for them. Because they are all Dalits. They are survivors from 63 damaged villages—30 of them flattened—all marooned in their own islands, facing the brunt of a majority of fishermen who are from the Meenavar community—listed in official records as Most Backward Class (MBC)—for whom Dalits are still untouchable. The Indian Express toured the camps to find an old story of caste hatred being replayed in camp after camp:
• In the GVR Marriage Hall Relief Camp, Dalits cannot drink water from tanks put up by UNICEF. The Meenavars say they ‘‘pollute’’ the water.
• In the Nallukadai Street Relief Camp, a Meenavar Thalaivar, or leader, grabbed all cartons of glucose biscuits delivered by a Coimbatore NGO. The Dalits were told: these are not for you.
• At Puttur Relief Camp, the Meenavars have hoarded family relief kits, rice packets, new clothes and other relief material. When the Dalits asked for some, they paid a heavy price—they had to spend the night on the road.
• At the Neelayadatchi Temple Camp, Dalits are not allowed inside the temple, especially when rice and cash doles are being handed out.
• Dalits from three villages taking shelter at Ganapati cinema hall in Tharambagadi are thrown out every night because the Meenavar fisherwomen say they did not ‘‘feel safe’’ falling sleep with Dalits around.
• So 32 ostracised Dalit families took shelter in the GRM girls’ school in Thanjavur. But four days ago, even the school asked them to vacate saying it was due to re-open.
One day hopefully we will see all Hindu religious leaders combine to take on this sort of discrimination?
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
The book says that the condition of dalit Muslims is “worse than dalit Hindus”. “It’s a big farce that there is no untouchability in Muslim society. The disease of untouchability is very much prevalent in Muslim society. In fact, neither the Muslims’ ruling elite nor the religious leaders have so far made any meaningful efforts to remove the disease of inequality that has made the dalit Muslims to suffer for centuries.” The author says that the Muslim political and religious leaders have rather tried to conceal the casteism, untouchability and inequality in the community to serve their vested interests.
Interestingly, the book disputes the general opinion of historians and social scientists that the Muslim society adopted the vices of social inequality and casteism from the Hindu society. “The general belief that Muslim society has absorbed the caste based disparities from the Hindu society is not wholly true.”
The book says that the disease of social inequality was prevalent even in the Arab society during the pre-Islam and post-Islam days. To drive his point home the author asks: “If there was no inequality in Arab(ia)-where Islam was born-how does the Arabic literatures contain the words, ashraf, azlaf and arzal? These three Arabic words are derived from their Arabic roots, sharf, zalf and razl which mean gentle, lowly and pariah respectively.”
http://www.bihartimes.com/book_review/book_review5.html
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Reza-seems to have a single agenda in his mind, 'how to rubbish India". No matter how anyone explains things to him, he refuses to believe anything except his own prejudice.
Like some of his co-religionists, he's still trying to find answers from the past.
Re: Is Hinduism a followable religion in the modern world?
Not at all, I have asked some pretty straight forward questions about the Hindu Caste system, it’s religious significance, and continued impact on Indian society, but all I have got is denials and diversions from your side, but no real answers. Just look at the opening post in this thread, are people like Suraj Bhan, the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes also anti-Indian when he asks what I have been asking?
Ongoing persecution of the low castes, as mentioned in very recent examples including the Tsumani are present examples, not looking at the past.