The Hindutva Movement: A Struggle Towards a “Hindu Secular India”

Over time traditions came together to develop recognizable religious traditions which was eventually known as Hinduism. Hindu’s have many different practices such as Sanatana Dharma, Vedic worship, yoga and many other different rituals. Hindu’s also have many other beliefs and celebrations such as reincarnation, karma, prana, puja, samsara and many more. Hinduism is known for its beliefs, practices and gods and as the years pass by the religion still stands strong to what they believe.

“India has never been a symbol of unity of Hindu-Muslim civilization. It is not possible for the British Government to create homogeneity between Hindu and Muslim culture and civilization as the two systems are distinctively opposed to each other. There is no way other than the partition of India”

In a world where the news is always about corrupting education, poverty and increasing violence, religious discrimination is the man behind the curtain. As an ancient issue accompanying mankind, religious discrimination has driven humans to commit many wrongful sins. With differences, come conflicts. The difference in people’s religion has The book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, displays the issue of religious discrimination as a main conflict throughout the whole book. Hazaras, Shi’a Muslims are often oppressed by the Pashtuns which are Sunni Muslim. They use the Hazaras as slaves and later on, even mass murdered them. However, in today’s society, religious discrimination is still not rare among people and it is causing unnecessary harm to the society. To prevent further damage, religious tolerance must be built as religious discrimination worsen the education condition for students, brings huge economic loss through conflicts, and takes away countless innocent lives. That way, people can save their energy and progress as one.

Disputes over land seem to be a catalyst for almost every hostility and war since the dawn of time. The addition of politics and religion into the matter only serves to aggravate an already tense situation. Kashmir knows this all too well. The conflict between Hindus and Muslims seems to be an ever reoccurring battle. This is also evidenced in population battles. Hindus make up the social majority of the population of India by almost eighty percent. Feelings of tension and uneasiness are a natural reaction to being dominated by a majority and are a problem unto itself.

q. This shows that Nationalism still plays a large role in keeping India together, regardless of their diverse religious identities. Secularism

(Document 5) This shows that even though Britain gave education to Indians they only gave it to who could afford it and hardly anyone could. Lalvani claims that over the 200 year span of British imperialism, India’s religions felt safer and less discriminated against. ( According to Dr.Lalvani) Although the British thought this was true it actually was not. Christians were mocking and discriminating against Muslims and Hindus. (Gandhi) Similarly Hinduism believes in nonviolence so when the protest at Amritsar took place the Indians were brutally slaughtered while being unarmed. (Gandhi) Because of their non-violence beliefs the Hindus had no defense and were killed by what they thought was their

There were conflicts in the early 1940s at religious events. An example is when the Hindu event Holi, also known as the festival of colors, featured riots. There were also cases when sacred cows were murdered. Additionally, there were times when Hindu music was loudly played by mosques during the prayer time. Segregation of the religions was promoted as Muslim’s could only use ‘Mohammedan refreshment room’ at train stations. Muslims could only use the tap waters labeled ‘Muslim water’ and Hindus could only use the taps labeled ‘Hindu water’. The president of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, told a British interviewer, “We are different beings, there is nothing in life which links us together. Our names, our clothes, our foods-they are all different; our economic life, our educational ideas, our treatment of women, our attitude to animals….We challenge each other at every point of the compass”. Professor Mohammad Mujeeb from the distinct

Afzal’s death further infuriated the Kashmiri people. Yet again not only were curfews put in place by the police, but violators executed. At this point, the Kasmiri people have been subjected to 20 years of military occupation. Strides had been made – in 2014 India was going to give Kashmir and Jammu back some of their rights by allowing elections. Executing Afzal Guru seemed to reverse all of their efforts.

Hinduism is a religion that is difficult to define. No one can say who the founder is, or connect it to a certain place or time. So in order to understand Hinduism, we follow a coherent set of assumptions upon which people base their lives; otherwise defined as the Indian Worldview.

After reading the article, I think rituals have some basic structures of meaning, and there are number of ways to show that rituals are meaningful. In the following thesis I choose Hinduism as an example to show how rituals are meaningful, how it relates to the living context of the Indian people, how the Indians enact the Hindu rituals, and so on.

This French article discusses the current cultural and religious conflict in India. The author cites various individuals who argue that Muslims are purposely blamed for violence that affects both communities. As well, it stresses that the government is lacking actions in order to resolve the conflict. This article applies to psychology.

This article is based around the disagreement of beliefs between fakirs and Muslim fundamentalists in India. It focuses on the ideas and beliefs that fakirs hold, these often being very diverse when looking at different communities. Sue Isherwood, the author, recounts some of her experiences in India with Abdul, one of the many Muslims associated with Fakirs, who has, like many others faced hardship from those who are of the fundamentalist view. Some specific encounters of mistreatment include the fakirs being forced to eat beef, being prevented from using the village well and having their instruments smashed, which was their source of income. This article mentions the constant focus on the tension between Hindus and Muslims, where now the

In this essay I hope to look at the issues of conflict in South Asia focusing on India and in particular the continuing Hindu-Muslim tensions, and look at possible reasons for the continuing conflict which appears to have escalated since the withdrawal of British Rule from India. Multiple events had shaped the Indian subcontinent with

To Rani, ‘people dying here, others dying there’ (cited in Butalia, 2000, p.268) was something that happened every day, it was no surprise to her. Thus, Rani’s cynical view about the future of India and Pakistan was conceivably drawn from memories of witnessing horrendous fights and strife throughout her whole life (cited in Butalia, 2000, p.268).

The communal politics in India started from 1970s when emergency was declared in India. The Congress was unable to fulfill its promises, conditions of India deteriorated, GDP dumps. Other parties were also unable to deliver the expectation of people, and then BJP comes with communal politics by raising Babri Masjid case. Rathyatra led by Advani is an important event which created enthusiasm in a particular section of community. After Dandi March, this is the one yatra which has succeeded because there were organizations in every level; it was pre-planned and executed carefully which made it successful.