For me Hinduism is an ecosystem as is for millions of Hindus.
A Hindu will feel very comfortable in a Buddhist temple and practice and vice versa. Hindus themselves have extremely diverse traditions.
I see where we have diverging views. My Swedish landlords who happens to be a Christian once asked we where is your holy book.
In her mind not having a one-one equivalent with Christianity delegitimises the religion.
In trying to intellectualise the debate, you have taken the limited view of a Christian.
The vast majority of the Hindus are open to the ideas of Buddhism as well as 1000s of tribal/rural/regional gods and rituals. Not only is there no conflict, there is perhaps no clear boundaries.
For Hindus, claiming everything in the subcontinent as their own seems like a favorite passtime. Jainism, Buddhism are not part of Hinduism and never were.
Buddhism is very distinct from Hinduism. In particular, there aren't multiple deities to worship and there is no caste system.
Buddhism, the dominant religion of India circa 400AD (as per Chinese travellers), was already under attack from Brahmins who made it a key strategy to get royal patronage, set up the religious rules for society which heavily favored themselves and also focused on acting as confidantes to kings, leading to the elimination of Buddhism(focused on monastic life) from much of the Indian subcontinent even before Islam was founded.
Name may be modern, but Hinduism refers to Sanatan Dharm that is indigenous to India.
Let's not confuse religion with culture. By the above logic:
An average Pakistani has more in common with Hindu/Sikh Punjabi. A Bangladeshi had more in common with Hindu Bengali. Indonesian Muslims have more in common with Malay. Central Asians with watch other than Arabs, Africans with each other. Yet, there is singular Islam. Same goes for every other religion.
I am biased as a Hindu but I find that Hinduism stands apart here as a religion in that the emphasis is on one's own and the truths discovered therefrom rather than blindly accepting beliefs.
>strong believing hindu, you obviously culturally associate yourself with the massacre of muslims, and vice versa
Hindus dont have religious literature (and Hindu countries dont have laws) against other religious. Muslims do, Muslim countries do. I dont know anything about Christianity though, but yes, I guess you do culturally associate with all churches if you are openly Christian and wear a cross at work,etc.
That is the great thing about Hinduism as a religion, that it does not preach one true dogmatic doctrine, but love of the universe. Buddhism is not too far from that either.
You define Hinduism as an ecosystem of ideas, with no clear boundaries, sometimes adopting ideas from Buddhism as well as other tribal rituals.
In another comment you said that casteism was brought by the West to India. (I do not agree with this but lets go with for now). So it clearly follows that Hindus (Hinduism) adopted casteism from somewhere externally. This is not for debate because we have seen and continue to see Hindus practicing casteism for whatever reason.
Hinduism can be simultaneously extolled for adopting "good" ideas from Buddhism but is also beyond criticism for adopting casteism from the west?
You arbitrarily laid the boundary for Hinduism at "caste" arguing that it was brought externally and hence not an inherent Hindu feature, yet somehow you take pride in Hinduism being a religion that does adopt external ideas. Which one is it?
It would be interesting to see a candid interview with what the real reason for not liking then is. I suspect it’s rooted in the Muslim conquests which are still mentioned in Buddhist texts. Needless to say the Muslim religion is not held in much regard due to that, as opposed to Hinduism which is considered worthy of debating.
Nor sure how the Muslim minority sees Hinduists (as opposed to Hinduism, most religions preach love of your neighbors in theory and ignore it in practice, Buddhism included) "love of the universe".
A Hindu will feel very comfortable in a Buddhist temple and practice and vice versa. Hindus themselves have extremely diverse traditions.
I see where we have diverging views. My Swedish landlords who happens to be a Christian once asked we where is your holy book.
In her mind not having a one-one equivalent with Christianity delegitimises the religion.
In trying to intellectualise the debate, you have taken the limited view of a Christian.
The vast majority of the Hindus are open to the ideas of Buddhism as well as 1000s of tribal/rural/regional gods and rituals. Not only is there no conflict, there is perhaps no clear boundaries.
This is completely alien to xtianity/Islam.
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