President of HUA Kalyan Viswanathan gave a presentation that punctuated Saturday’s program, Director of Outreach Ankur Patel spoke on a panel on youth engagement during the day, Dr. Madhu Sharma presented on her continuing work on Hindu Chaplaincy, while many students, faculty, and friends of HUA attended and participated, including Chairman of the Board Dr. Jashvant Patel.

From September 29th to October 1st, the Hindu Mandir Executives’ Conference featured a range of Hindu leaders addressing many issues, challenges, and opportunities. Pointedly, the last session of the conference was the inauguration of Hindu Heritage Month.

The HMEC has become a key opportunity for mandirs across North America to come together and share best practices, strategies, and concerns. An initiative of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, the rebranded Hindu Mandir Empowerment Council is an important and overdue step in the Hindu movement. Spearheaded by Smt. Tejal Shah, many prominent members of the Hindu community eloquently presented on a wide range of topics.

Over 500 mandirs from across North America have participated in this rotating conference with 51 mandirs actively participating in this year’s HMEC.

President of HUA, Shri Kalyan Viswanathan gave a poignant and persuasive presentation on Saturday morning that left participants aware of the important mission and recognizing the purpose of Hindu University of America. “There is no doubt that HUA has acquired more mind space in the HMEC”, Kalyanji.

The conference provided HUA an opportunity to share information about our many initiatives aimed at engaging and synergistically working with the robust network of temples and mandirs across America. Some of the specific initiatives that gained traction include the Hindu Living initiative, the Bhagavad Gita Pariksha, Study Retreats at our Pine Lake Campus in Florida, and our wide range of courses and programs. 

HUA looks forward to taking our engagement with HMEC to the next level with brand new courses and a program soon to be announced! Meanwhile, HUA will continue to support and partner with mandirs across the continents on a range of initiatives, in person classes, lectures, or unique locally driven initiatives to restore, steward, and serve the Hindu community.

[From HMEC] About the event

Rebranded last year, the Hindu Mandir Empowerment Council is the largest annual conference for all the mandir stakeholders, including past and present executives, community leaders, volunteers, teachers of balvihar, and those engaged in various seva activities through temples. It brings together scholars from Mandirs, Gurudwaras, Ashrams, Derasars, and Hindu organizations in North America and the Caribbean to network, collaborate, and share best practices.

2024 Conference Theme: Hindu Diaspora: Deepening Their Sanatan Dharma Roots

Sanatan Dharma’s influence transcends spiritual traditions, intricately weaving itself into the social and cultural fabric of native civilization. The timeless wisdom of the Vedas and other shastras, including the Itihasa, Ramayan, and Mahabharat, continues to inspire and guide billions, upholding the principles of dharma encompassing justice and morality.

Hindus worldwide enrich the tapestry of the global spiritual, social, and cultural milieu through their lives and by respecting and honoring ancient traditions in their adopted lands. To fully understand the essence of Dharma and Hindu Thought, one must explore its core, its roots, stems, leaves, and flowers in depth. Practice it, realize it, and stay connected to Bharat.

Agenda includes:

• Webinars on temple safety and security
• Educational webinars in partnership with the Hindu University of America
• Building positive narratives on Hindu symbols like Swastika
• Helping temples when faced with Hinduphobic attacks

Some of the recent HMEC activities

• Publication of books on Hindu rituals and practices
• Alerts and webinars on temple safety and security
• Educational webinars in partnership with the Hindu University of America
• Helping temples when faced with Hinduphobic attacks
• Building positive narratives on Hindu symbols like Swastika

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Academic studies of Hinduism is a necessity, as it can shape the current and future generations’ understanding and appraisal of Hinduism. Academia has larger scale influence and starts impacting human life at a younger formative age. Next to the institution of family, academia has the strongest influence given the amount of time a student spends there. Also bringing an insider’s perspective to Hindu academic studies allows for development of an alternate Hindu worldview paradigm, which helps position Hindu thought, equitably, along with other worldviews. The symbiotic relationship between insiders in academic and non-academic settings, in terms of replenishing the “Śraddha Capital” or the level of one’s sincerity, in the Hindu society, ought to be recognized.

NECESSITY FOR HINDU STUDIES IN ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT

Introduction

Hinduism is a vast collection of several traditions. It is referred to, by many insiders, in the Hindu fold, as Sanāthana Dharma. The word Dharma has a multi-faceted import. For the purposes of this discussion, we can understand Dharma as a sustaining framework of universally beneficial mass of knowledge and traditions, that guides humanity towards felicity. Thus, Sanāthana Dharma can be freely translated as “Eternal Sustenance” – a framework, in which several mathas (religious traditions) and siddhāntas (well ascertained philosophical foundations) can thrive, while retaining mutual respect.

Problem Statement

If the parents of today’s youth are qualified “insiders” – i.e. well-informed proponents and adept practitioners of Dharma, then their children will have the benefit of receiving right Dharmic education and thus keeping their respective Dharmic traditions alive. But on the other hand, a growing mix of today’s families (Hindu or otherwise), is a product of Western-style education (which has intrinsic anti-Hindu bias, in varying degrees). Such parents are most likely disconnected with their Hindu roots or worse antagonistic to it! If this trend continues, the insider population will dwindle sooner than we are able to imagine!

This raises a serious question, what is the best way of communicating the Dharmic ideas and practices, from one generation to another? The ideas that are in Sanāthana Dharma, have the power to change the world for the better, but only if presented in a manner consistent with the understanding and the will of the human society. The ability to take an idea and reliably disseminate it needs an institution, which systematically bridges the gap between human understanding and will. Family, the most ancient institution available to us, is necessary but not sufficient (as discussed in the previous paragraph), especially when there is a need to operate at a large scale of outreach and influence.

Today the most reliable centers of learning about Sanāthana Dharma are the various āśrams and Gurus (for example  Sri Ramakrishna Mission). But the percentage of population accessing these traditional Gurus and ashrams is very small, in comparison to the regular school and college goers. Also, exposure to such Gurus and āśrams often happens very late in most people’s lives.  This means that the reliance on Academic institutions (schools, colleges, universities), to introduce Hinduism properly and fairly, at an early age, cannot be avoided.

Power and Influence of Academic Thinkers

Thinkers in academic settings – mainly researchers and professors, often form a very tiny fraction of the human population, in any country or society, but they are powerful enough to decide what ought to be studied by children, youth, and students in general. They influence many aspects of society – from school textbook content to government policies.

From India’s past (i.e. during British India) till date, we know that the academic environment and its output have been utilized as a tool, to create “intellectual sepoys”, out of the Indian society [1]. So clearly the ability of academia, to influence our society, popular discourse, and future generations, is time tested and proven fact. The question then is not whether Hinduism ought to be studied in an academic setting, but how to significantly increase the number of Hindu insiders, in academic Hindu studies.

Evolving Alternate Paradigm – Hindu World View

The argument so far in this essay was focused on the need for accurate representation, reliable communication, and broader outreach, as it relates to Hinduism and how this can be achieved, with the injection of insiders, into academic study of Hinduism. 

Now we will consider another strong motivator for academic study of Hinduism – namely leveraging the unique vantage point Sanaathana Dharma offers to researchers, to study non-Hindu world religions and systems of thought. As mentioned in section I, Sanāthana Dharma offers a framework for sustaining several mathas and siddhāntas, which can coexist and thrive, with abiding mutual respect. Their mutual respect is due to the mature understanding that finite human attempts at exploring the infinite, are bound to give rise to multiple expressions or approaches, along the way. This plural, inclusive, mature understanding is rooted in Vedas (or sacred revealed knowledge of the Hindus), which forms the bedrock of Sanāthana Dharma. 

The Vedas and Sanāthana Dharma also offer a non-dogmatic framework, encouraging inquiry and study, which can be directed towards studying different traditions and worldviews. This approach helps evolve a fresh alternate paradigm to studying different world systems of thought and religions, through a versatile Hindu lens. This kind of study in an academic environment will serve to highlight Hinduism’s unique credentials (suited to studying world thought systems) and also position the Hindu worldview, equitably, along with other existing world views. Such an effort will surely have universally beneficial – academic, cultural, and political ramifications. 

Śraddhā Capital

Śraddhā plays a key role in the insider’s approach to studying Hinduism. One of the key tenets of a person, being endowed with Śraddhā, is his or her, well-reasoned acceptance of Vedas as “Pramana” or reliable means of knowledge. This is usually achieved, after receiving valuable traditional insights from the Guru [2 – verse 25]. Now, this creates a unique situation, wherein, to introduce people endowed with Śraddhā a.k.a insiders, into academia, we need to draw from the “Sraddha capital”, in the society. Developing this “Śraddhā Capital ”, is a key prerequisite for evolving Hindu studies in an academic setting. This clearly shows the symbiotic relation between academic insiders and non-academic insiders of today (i.e. parents, traditional ashrams, and Gurus), which is instrumental to growing the insider voice and population. 

Conclusion

Investing into promoting the insider’s voice in the academic study of Hinduism is necessary, to (1) present a fair appraisal of Hinduism to current and future generations (2) develop an alternate, distinctly Hindu paradigm, of studying world religions and systems, and (3) thereby enriching the world. This whole process relies upon drawing from the “Śraddhā capital” in the Hindu society, which in long run, can be replenished by a growing level of insiders voice in academia.

References:

• Rajiv Malhotra, “Academic Hinduphobia: A critique of Wendy Doniger’s erotic school of Indology”, Voice of India, New Delhi, 2016
• Swami Madhavananda, “Vivekachudamani of Sri Sankaracharya”, Advaita Ashrama, Mayawati, 1944

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We learned early in the course about Insider vs. Outsider perspectives. Outsider-led orientalism and Indology were designed to support the colonial agenda painting Indians as the other and portraying the colonizers as somehow better in order to justify subjugating and exploiting the Indians. Over hundreds of years, Orientalism and Indology have become entrenched in academia, and only through a methodical and relentless academic process can the established “truths” be proven false.

Insiders have a right to take control of our own narrative and not be silenced. The Macaulayan Indian was a purposeful creation who looked Indian but thought and acted in English. Not only was this class of people employed to do the middle management tasks for the British Raj administration but they were also trained to look down on all things Indian as passé. For their subservient and loyal behavior, these Indians were rewarded. They permeated throughout Indian society at influential levels. Today, any attempt by insiders to tell our pre-colonized stories is treated as a threat and accusations fly without any attempt of debate. Having the insider voice in academia is critical to, at minimum, academic integrity, and, at best, the decolonization of Indian minds.

In 1835 Thomas Macaulay was instrumental in abolishing the Indian Sanskrit education system and replacing it with an English system. Thus began the most impactful disintegration of Hindu thought. There are over 30 million Sanskrit manuscripts with only a small fraction translated into English. As fewer people speak Sanskrit, we risk losing more and more knowledge. A revival of Sanskrit language is needed in academia not just for the study of Hindu thought in itself, but also for the benefit of all disciplines in the form of integrated studies.

Already a small fraction of the 30 million manuscripts in Hindu Studies has contributed to the progress of the world scientifically and spiritually. Imagine what potential lies hidden in the vast treasure trove of knowledge yet to be translated, that could benefit humanity.

For a revival of Hindu Studies, it needs to attract a younger generation who have been brought up in the Westernized form of institutionalized academia. Hindu Studies need to be an option available to young students. It could form part of a liberal arts program leading to a variety of specializations.

It also has a place in academia for people like me, those preparing for or already in their retirement years. Growing up in Canada, I represent a common profile. In my teenage and young adult years, I paid little attention to my parents’ traditions, and ashamedly, sometimes even dismissed or mocked them. But some of the little knowledge acquired passively was to be an anchor later in life. Further interest in history led to understanding the impacts of colonization and accelerated the desire, subconsciously, to learn about my culture. Naturally, I looked for universities to continue my studies in Hinduism. Luckily, I found HUA. I believe there are people like me who grew up in the West and who will come back to explore and reclaim our heritage. It will be important to present an alternative to Indology and South Asian Studies programs, which do not feel authentic to the Insider.

In spite of over 500 years of occupation, Hindu culture, albeit injured, still survives. For tens of thousands of years, our ancestors systematically passed down knowledge for the benefit of future generations. It is our duty. We owe them every effort to re-establish, reveal, preserve, and protect our rich legacy. One effective way, I believe, is through establishing formal education in academia combined with innovation in education, such as Sanskrit immersion schools prior to higher education and later education through various multimedia and online platforms. Further, there needs to be financial security and recognition to incentivize people to pursue these subjects in their earlier years. These could be in the form of scholarships, chairs of programs, and award recognitions.

Recently in Canada, there has been much attention on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as it relates to the Indigenous Nations and the colonizing Canadian residential school system. Vikram Sampath raised a similar idea for India at the India Today Conclave; that is, the need for a Truth and Reconciliation process to face the impacts of colonization and occupation in order to move forward. The damaging outcome of the many ‘truths’, rather falsehoods, propagated for years has been twofold: the perception of ethnic and cultural inferiority among Indians and second, the persistence of transgenerational trauma due to unresolved and unacknowledged grief. Hindu Studies belong and need to be in academia to support and augment the larger cause of decolonial studies as well as to enable India and Hindus to thrive authentically. For Hindus, this is a civilizational issue and I hope that more people will rise up to this endeavor.

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There is no single solution to the challenge of cultivating better narratives, methods, and paradigms to  improve and expand the understanding of Hinduism and Hindus.

“Do you speak Hindu?” 
“Are you Shia or Sunni Hindu?” 
“What caste are you?” 

These questions, unintentionally frustrating as they might be, are a feature of being Hindu in America. They are also the reason why my answer to the importance for Hindu Studies in academic environments is an emphatic yes.

In spite of being practitioners of the third largest religion and one of the oldest surviving family of philosophies and traditions, a survey by Pew Research Institute found that Americans as a whole know little about Hinduism, and those who know something or think they know something, have ambivalent impressions of Hindu Americans. At the same time, the popularity of Hindu practices like yoga and ayurveda continue to skyrocket, but are intentionally delinked from Hinduism. And scientific inquiry in quantum physics or cognitive psychology are increasingly converging with Vedantic understandings of reality and Consciousness, yet acknowledgement of Hinduism is all too often missing.

There are some 3.5 million Hindus living in America, several million across other diasporas, and over a billion  in the Indian subcontinent. We live in diverse and pluralistic societies across the globe. The world is  becoming smaller as a result of mass communication and globalization. Considering all of these realities, it becomes imperative that who we are as a people and how we engage with the world is understood. 

One way to do that is through the academic study of Hinduism. Unfortunately, the current state of Hindu  studies, built as it is on the foundation of Christian frameworks about religion and history, rather than provide accurate and nuanced understandings of Hindu history, teachings, and traditions, perpetuate outright  fallacies and harmful stereotypes. 

There is no single solution to the challenge of cultivating better narratives, methods, and paradigms to  improve and expand the understanding of Hinduism and Hindus. But here are a few that I believe are  feasible: 

1. Support through academic grants scholars committed to the study of Hinduism as a lived tradition who:

• highlight emic understandings; 
• explore lesser known aspects of Hindu history, philosophy or traditions; 
• expose biases in dominant paradigms and methods;
• develop new paradigms and methods to study Hinduism; or
• engage in the comparative study of religion. Given that we do not want, appreciate, nor find constructive oversimplifications or broad brushstrokes about the Hindu traditions, Hindus must gain more nuanced understandings of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. which can pave way  for deeper understandings of Hinduism through thoughtful comparative studies.

2. Call out bias and advocate for higher standards in the various academies engaged in the study of religion, history, etc. For example, see my call to the American Academy of Religions to adopt a code of academic integrity: Academic Integrity: It’s What’s Missing at the AAR

3. Build bridges between academics, activists, and communities with other previously colonized civilizations or countries working through their own decolonizing processes to exchange ideas, share best practices, do comparative work, and cooperate constructively.

4. Encourage more second and third generation Hindu Americans to pursue the academic study of not only religion, but history and other humanities and social sciences. This cannot be done in a vacuum. It will require investment in our own svadhyaya, sadhana, and positive identity building as contributing members of our respective families, communities, and sanghas, sampradayas, or mathas.

5. Encourage more second and third generation Hindu Americans to pursue the academic study of not only religion, but history and other humanities and social sciences. This cannot be done in a vacuum. It will require investment in our own svadhyaya, sadhana, and positive identity building as  contributing members of our respective families, communities, and sanghas, sampradayas, or  mathas.

References

1.    “What Americans Know About Religion.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (July 23, 2019)
2.    Shukla, Suhag A. Web log. Academic Integrity: It’s What’s Missing at the AAR (blog).

This blog is an adaptation of a term paper submitted for the Fall 2020 quarter of  Orientation to Hindu Studies (HSF 5000)

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Considering that there are so many facets to Hinduism, wouldn’t it suffice for one to practice one or more of them? If so, why is there a need to embark on an academic pursuit of the Sanatana Dharma?

I practice Hinduism; then why do I need to study Hinduism?

Many amongst us are keen believers of Hinduism and its philosophy – only, we express it in different ways. Some of us follow rituals and traditions; others focus on their Gods and places of worship; a few delve deep into scriptures and read them regularly; some are vocal about the role of Hinduism in today’s society; and some have embraced a certain community under the guidance of a Swami or a Guru. For many, Hinduism is purely the joy of celebrating festivals and holy days; for a few, it is a spiritual experience that leads them to dhyāna and dharma, and there are those who are very particular about their beliefs and practices.

Considering that there are so many facets to Hinduism, wouldn’t it suffice for one to practice one or more of them? If so, why is there a need to embark on an academic pursuit of the Vedas and Sanatana Dharma?

Just as all other aspects of practising Hinduism have their place in our lives, so does structured and supervised learning of the great tenets of this ancient religion. Imagine practising yoga without being formally trained in it – we are constantly at risk of injury or health risks because of incomplete understanding of the science, or because we have failed to learn the intricacies of each asana. While each asana comes with its own health benefits, there are clear guidelines about who can perform them, and when, and how they need to be performed. Hence the need for formal training and a guru.

The need to engage in an academic pursuit of Hinduism is equally important, for the following reasons:

1. The need to know: How is the ātman different from brahman? What does the Bhagavad Gīta tell us? What is the significance of vegetarianism in Hinduism? Why is yoga not an end in itself, but merely the means to the path of spiritual enlightenment? Why is the knowledge of Sanskrit paramount to understanding Hinduism better? What is the truth behind the much-maligned caste system that is attributed to Hinduism? Is the suffix of -ism justified when Hinduism is slotted with other world religions despite the fact that it is thousands of years older than any of them? There are many more questions to which we need the answers. We need to know, because it is this knowledge that will propel us on our spiritual journey. And this knowledge cannot be obtained by casual research on the internet. It takes an academic resolve to explore, study, introspect and find these answers. It takes the guidance of the experts who become our gurus in this journey.
   
2. The need to lead: Many of us follow or practice certain aspects of Hinduism because we were initiated into it by our elders, and we obeyed them unquestioningly. However, when it comes to encouraging our next generation to follow in our footsteps, we need to be able to address their questions and satisfy their need to understand before they accept. How many of us can put our hands up to claim that we know the nuances of Hinduism, what they mean, why they must be practised and how they benefit us? Contrary to popular Western belief, every aspect of Hinduism, be it tradition or practice, belief or worship, is built on the strong foundation of a rationale. Everything can be explained, but only if we have the answers. That can happen only when we open ourselves to learning and being guided through an exercise that broadens our horizons of what we know about Hinduism. An academic study makes this exercise possible.  
   
3. The need to uphold: Hinduism has been subjected to a long, endless phase of discrimination, because of its ‘majority status’ in India and because of misconceived notions about it in the West, resulting in it being called polytheistic, idolatrous and pagan. This has resulted in a dilution of its core values amongst a majority of Hindus, who have been deviating from its original path of spirituality and instead have been choosing the hybrid route dictated by Western practices. There is a long-standing need to clear the fog that has obfuscated this path and show the way for those Hindus who have been led to believe that their religion has riddled society with discrimination and superstition, which is again, a colonial narrative that needs to be disproved. This can be done only by a detailed study of Hinduism and acquiring Vedic wisdom. Only an academic pursuit can help fulfil this objective.
   
4. The need to protect: When the colonial powers left India, they unfortunately left behind a legion of sceptics – Hindus who were critical of their own religion. Rather than question the beliefs, practices and ancient scriptures in an attempt to seek answers, they ended up questioning their religion more to voice their disagreements and flaunt their Western mindset. This continues to this day with the growing liberal voices that have been indoctrinated into the colonial perspective of believing that the West is the ultimate source of knowledge and authority and that everything in the world must meet their acceptance to exist.
   
5. The need to correct: For centuries, the written word on Hinduism has mostly come from the pen of the outsider. Theirs is deemed to be ‘more objective’ and their interpretation of Hinduism is upheld as the world view, which is considered ‘more informed’ and more ‘in line with’ the colonial narrative that has been forced on us. If we need to respond and offer the right narrative, which is the insider’s perspective, we need to be better equipped to do so. That requires an in-depth knowledge of our own past, our ethos, philosophies and our scriptures. It also requires a working knowledge of the wonderful language in which all our scriptures have been presented to us – Sanskrit. A casual reading or internet research wouldn’t suffice. Chances are, such endeavours may lead us back to the colonial perspectives that may appear as search results. Or we may end up reading Westernized versions of our epics because we choose to study them in English. That is why we need to undertake a formal academic journey into Hinduism.

There could be many more reasons why one needs to undertake an academic study of Hinduism to discover various aspects of it. And there is one place of learning that nurtures such studies, offering several courses at various levels to both entrants and experts.

This could be the opportunity you have been looking for – to find the answers, to set right what’s gone wrong, and to reinstall the dormant values in future generations. An entire world of Vedic wisdom awaits, to be explored, revered and understood. All it takes to begin this fascinating journey is for you to get in touch with us.

So, when is the best time to start? Now! And where does one begin? Right here!

Cover Image created in Word Art by JS.

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If we are to defend our religious heritage from these corrosive forces, we have no choice but to develop a strong cadre of Hindus committed to acquiring deeper knowledge of its philosophical underpinnings.

Introduction

Religion is an inescapable part of our lives. It deals with some of the most fundamental questions which humanity has grappled with from the dawn of time. Religion is a major source of inspiration, meaning, as well as controversy in human culture, history, politics, economics, art, and literature. Consciously or not, religion forms an important part of our individual identity and our psyche; it informs our attitudes and responses in matters big and small.

Yet paradoxically, a vast majority of us know very little about our religious beliefs. What little we know often comes by osmosis from watching family elders perform rituals and festivals. While this is broadly true for all religious groups, for reasons to be discussed shortly, it is especially true for the Hindu society.

This raises some important questions: Is it necessary to “really know” one’s religion to be a good practitioner of it? Why is it not enough to have just a working level understanding of its practices and rituals? If the answer to the first question is affirmative, what is the best way to study it?

These are important questions for any religion to answer. However, we are going to address these questions specifically from the perspective of the Hindus and Hinduism.

Complexity of Hinduism

Without a doubt, Hinduism is a very complex religion, especially when compared with the other major world religions. Indeed, to a casual observer, it can appear as a baffling collection of beliefs and rituals.

Firstly, Hinduism encompasses multitude of Sampradayas or traditions. Each one has its own history, thought system and practices. Often their philosophic perspectives and practices appear to be mutually incompatible.

Secondly, the source literature of Hinduism is massive, to say the least: 30 million Sanskrit manuscripts, according to one Google search! Even the list of its core scriptures is quite large: 4 Vedas, 108 Upanishads, 18 Maha Puranas, and so on. When one considers the countless number of scholarly commentaries on these scriptures, the amount of Hindu sacred literature can be quite overwhelming, especially when compared to the three Abrahamic religions where the entire belief system rests on a single source text.

Thirdly, the cultural and regional diversities impart additional layers of complexity to the Hindu belief system.

Finally, the concept of personal deity or Ishwara, gives a very sharp and visible layer of complexity to Hinduism. The same deity can appear very different from one Sampradaya or cultural or regional entity to another. Many of the popular Hindu deities appear visibly abnormal or unnatural.

It is quite a challenge, therefore, for the uninitiated to square such a bewildering array of beliefs and practices with the “Ekam sat, viprah bahudha vadanti” tenet of Hinduism.

How Complexity Affects Hindus

Those who have good grounding in Hindu philosophy would rightly argue that underneath this confusing collection of beliefs, lies a strong unifying thought system that supports Hinduism. However, without a good understanding of this thought system, the apparent complexity and contradictions in Hinduism lead to confusion, unease, and eventually doubts about the veracity of the entire belief system. This, in turn, gives rise to such phenomena as the “Hindus in name only” (HINO) and “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR).

Clearly, a HINO or SBNR parent cannot be expected to reliably transmit his or her inherited traditions to the next generation. Not only do such parents lack the commitment to their heritage, they also lack the capacity and confidence to articulate their inherited faith to their children. While this is a huge problem for the Hindu society at large, it is an existential threat to Hindus communities living in countries where they are but tiny minorities.

That is not all. Leaving aside the HINOs and SBNRs, many deeply committed Hindus who do not have a good understanding of the philosophic structure of Hinduism, find themselves inadequate in articulating their belief system to non-Hindu audiences. To make matters worse, they often default to utterly clumsy and embarrassing responses to basic questions about Hinduism, thereby contributing to a distorted and negative image of Hinduism.

Last, but not the least, Hinduism, for a long time, has been under sustained attack from a host of interests in academic, media and political circles. Some of the criticism may stem from honest differences of opinions. However, a lot of it appears to be bad-faith mischaracterization of the Hindu ideology. If we are to defend our religious heritage from these corrosive forces, we have no choice but to develop a strong cadre of Hindus committed to acquiring deeper knowledge of its philosophical underpinnings. Not only that, they also need to possess a thorough understanding of the main points of attack on Hinduism (i.e., the “purva paksha”), as well as a working knowledge of the attackers’ own religious beliefs.

Academic Study of Hinduism

From the foregoing it is clear that, for Hinduism to sustain its vitality, the Hindu society needs to focus less on observation of rituals and pay more attention to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of Hinduism. What is required is a clear, comprehensive and, above all, unbiased perspective of how different elements of Hinduism mesh together, how apparent diversity is supported by a unified thought system with shared values and perspectives, as well as a comparative analysis of Hinduism relative to other major world religions. Faith based institutions can certainly help in this enterprise. However, their views will always be open to challenge for being too vested in their respective traditions. Academic institutions, on the other hand, can offer a believable, panoramic and clinical treatment of the subject, and therefore, are better suited to the task.

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The time has come that insiders are able and equipped to impart Hindu Studies in authentic form. I am encouraged that as part of its mission, the Hindu University of America has undertaken to do so.

The Importance of Hindu Studies in Academic Environment

Regrettably, in India, secularism is interpreted to mean absence of religious education from curricula of schools, colleges and universities. Its proponents invoke Article 28 of the Constitution of India, which prohibits imparting of religious instructions in educational institutions maintained by state funds or receiving state aid. Thus, it is asserted, religious education is against the spirit of the Constitution and has no place in schools. It is noteworthy that a very thin line exists between imparting religious instructions and religious education. Students have to learn about Hinduism on their own, from their parents, in temples and gurukuls, or in private institutions.

On the other hand, till recently in the U.S., Hinduism has been taught by cultural outsiders through a Western prism. The piece on Hinduism in Inside Higher Education, titled “The Religious War Against America Scholars of India,” and a response in Huffington Post titled “The Propaganda War Against Hindus in Academia: A Response to Inside Higher Education,” highlight the challenge to Hindu Studies in American colleges and universities. And what is taught in schools is a distortion of Hinduism as vividly illustrated by the ongoing struggle of textbooks in California Public Schools.

Here is the problem and the challenge. A group of certain South Asian Studies faculty had questioned the historical accuracy of using the word “Hinduism” as a description of ancient India’s religion, suggesting it is inaccurate and further arguing that certain references in the textbooks to “India” should be replaced with either “South Asia” or “Indian Subcontinent.”

Several Indian scholars opposed these proposals, and so did parents of Hindu children studying in California schools, who submitted a petition with over 23,000 signatures, contending that these faculty members proposing curriculum changes were seeking “to erase India and Hinduism from California’s schools.”

In response to the South Asian Studies faculty members, Vamsee Juluri, professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco, contends that the worldview “offered by writers . . . (such as Wendy Doniger, Martha Nussbaum, and others) . . . seems to have little respect, if not consideration, for how Hindus themselves see their religion in the first place.” In his views, they have distorted myths and history without “engaging with Hinduism as it is lived and understood by Hindus.” In his words, “At the heart of the battle between ideological Hinduphobia in the academy, and the much more complex, diverse, and disorganized (and hardly well-funded in my view) campaign in the Hindu community,” is essentially the assertion by Nussbaum about “false claims for Hindu indigeneity to the Indian subcontinent.”

Juluri poses the question which he considers to be the most important issue in this prolonged conflict: “[W]hether the diverse traditions that Hindus today broadly refer to as ‘Hinduism’ ought to be recognized as an integral part of India or whether Hinduism is nothing more than a Nazi-like ideology imposed by the mythical invading Aryan race in 1500 B.C.E.”

Among other Hindu scholars opposing such Western writers on Hinduism, Rajiv Malhotra challenges the statement that “there is no such thing as a unified Hindu tradition.” He states that such concepts “were introduced by missionaries . . . [and are] questionable when applied to any period prior to the nineteenth century. Both the religious practice and theological doctrine . . . go against” such concepts advanced by many Western scholars. Malhotra warns that these mistaken concepts have now “entered mainstream media, government policy-making, and even popular cultural portrayals of India . . . American school textbooks [and are] increasingly assumed by cosmopolitan Indians.”

Challenging the old Western paradigm, Professor S.N. Balagangadhara Rao asks, “Can the academic community move from a paradigm that promotes mere propaganda as pure knowledge, to a new paradigm that is established in the authentic pursuit of knowledge? To embrace a new paradigm, the current day academicians, both Western and Indian, must answer the question: ‘Is the Western Academia providing knowledge about India?’” In a similar vein, several other insider academicians who have studied Hindu history, thought, and values have convincingly and compellingly argued for a new paradigm where Hindu studies are accurately portrayed. These include the current instructors at Hindu University of America, such as Kalyan Viswanathan, Kundan Singh, and Vishwa Adluri.

I have described at length the challenges Hindu Studies currently faces in this country. They arise because many faculty teaching Hinduism in academia are products of teachers such as Wendy Doniger, who carries a colonial view of Brahmins and Sanskrit and continues to champion the now discredited myth of Aryan Invasion. This continuing struggle illustrates the reason why it is important to have a true portrayal of Hinduism in this country, especially in the academic environment. It is generally in the institutions of higher learning that young American minds get their training, and these are the people who will be tomorrow’s opinion makers and decision makers.

To talk about the need and importance of Hindu Studies in academia seems obvious. After all, understanding Hindu traditions and studying Hindu concepts and values in a historical setting is essential, especially in the current environment. Vedas, Upanishads, Itihasas, the Epics – what a rich literature! As we talk about Sanatana Dharma and Hindu tenets such as vasudhaiva katumbakum (the entire world is one family), sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramaya . . . (may all be happy, may all be free from illness, may none suffer, Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih), and countless other gems in shlokas need to be understood and widely disseminated, especially in today’s world known for intolerance and hatred.

The study of Sanskrit and sacred Hindu scriptures, which is essential to understand and appreciate Hinduism, but has been given inadequate attention, must be given priority. Teaching of yoga and Ayurveda as an integral part of Hindu Studies, must be equally valued. The time has come that insiders are able and equipped to impart Hindu Studies in authentic form. I am encouraged that as part of its mission, the Hindu University of America has undertaken to do so.

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The Hindu community in India and globally have a dual role and responsibility: as direct inheritors of Hindu legacy and as its custodians. … The collective body of Hindu literature and writings is vast and rich, and merits a status of a world heritage and a study for its own sake.

Following the Roman empire’s decline and fall, European and Near East histories have been rife with accounts of hegemonic battles among the three Abrahamic civilizations. Islam overran nations at the point of a sword, crusaders inspired by the Popes attempted to wrest back control of their Holy Land, Christians’ inquisitions terrorized heretics, and their conquests decimated the indigenous cultures of the New World. And in the post-medieval world, while Islamic civilization remains stymied by nostalgia of its losses to Judeo-Christian rivals, there has been some moral redemption for the West through its science and material progress that have lifted millions out of poverty and the grips of disease. Yet, contemporaneously, many nations have been colonized and enslaved, pogroms unleashed and masses killed and nature’s ecological systems nearly destroyed in the pursuit of unbridled materialism and the imposition of a narrow and constipated set of religious doctrines and philosophical ideas. On balance, there has been material progress — but, at a huge cost. It is, therefore, only natural to ask: “Could a mindset different from a Western one, which dominates most of humanity today, offer a countervailing perspective and tend us toward a more balanced one?” Yes, it is an idea worth studying – and, a contemplation of the Hindu mindset offers hope. Such a mindset, when rooted in a disciplined study and understanding of a Hindu perspective, promises that alternative to the world, outside of India. Equally, inside India, such a study of Hinduism is imperative for the curious Hindu as an inheritor and a custodian of its bequest so that it may reclaim, conserve and live its heritage – a heritage which faces a possibility of being lost to time. All this aside, the collection of Hindu ideas and all their accompanying disciplines merit a study for its own sake as a world heritage. Hinduism has created by far the longest surviving civilization, has offered a deeply contrasting set of views on life and post-life through a body of literature that is manifold vaster than the collective set of classical writings of the West, and in a language – Sanskrit – admired not just for its antiquity but also for its grammatical precision. Furthermore, in academia, there is a need to address a skewed discourse on Hinduism, led in large part by its detractors, by encouraging and fostering an exhaustive, well-researched, cogent and targeted body of academic writings grounded in the hermeneutics of shraddha. All in all, a disciplined and academic study of the body of Hindu literature and philosophy is essential and needed today to offer a counterpoint to an all-pervasive Western way of thinking, to safeguard, preserve and pass on Hindu philosophical thought, to study for its own sake an ancient, rich and vast body of world heritage literature, and to countervail against the predominantly outsiders’ perspectives in academia.

Only a few limited concepts from the Hindu way have moved from the periphery and exotica to mainstream on the global stage – others remain untouched or confined to study by a coterie of scholars in Western academic institutions. Uniquely, it is Yoga which in the last several decades has been embraced by large numbers of people for its palpable benefits to the well-being of individuals and society. Vegetarianism and ahimsa toward all beings and nature – quintessential Indian and Hindu1 concepts – have also begun to gain currency.2 Yet, to an informed insider to Hinduism, these concepts are merely incidental outgrowths from a larger set of foundational philosophical ideas. Yoga, from an insider’s perspective, is just one among numerous ways to follow in the quest for answers to existential questions; its salutary effects, while important to prepare the body and mind for contemplative meditation, are only incidental to the larger goal of seeking Brahman. The larger body of Hindu thoughts has many other underlying principles that can benefit humanity: for instance, there are multiple ways to get to the same Truth (an absence of a singular doctrine), that an individual may see the same God in his/her own way but different from another individual, and that a path to spiritual goal traverses one’s inner self and doesn’t require an external and disassociated God (the concept of Advait). Over millennia, these principles have permitted freedom of thought and expression, and created a civilizational mindset of accommodation and acceptance of different ideas quite in contrast to Abrahamic religions’ hegemonic belief of conversion to their form of the Truth. So, with time, Hinduism has responded to the new ideas and debates that have arisen from within and without, and spawned three other bodies of religious thought, viz. Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism; and these have brought forth distinct, and sometimes contrasting, positions to that of Hinduism itself. Ahimsa came from Jain philosophy of non-violence against all beings and living things – and, Hinduism, later, accepted and incorporated this as its own basic tenet. For the people beyond its boundaries, it has nurtured a civilization of refuge, which has made room for people persecuted elsewhere and accepted their religious ideas and manifestations as still a new set of perspectives, meriting respect and understanding. So, if a greater number of people are exposed to Hindu ideas by way of academic study and discourse, humanity could together, perhaps, find a middle path that offers hopes of a world more peaceful and of planet Earth more sustainable.

The Hindu community in India and globally have a dual role and responsibility: as direct inheritors of Hindu legacy and as its custodians. However, over the last thousand years and particularly in the last three centuries, Hindus have ceded control of their institutions of learning and grown diffident about their inherited knowledge. Pride, the sense of ownership and of responsibility to conserve and embellish this knowledge has given way to an ambivalence about their own inheritance and a consuming need to acquire outsiders’ systems of values and education. The historical discontinuities of conquests and forced arrogation of power by invaders and colonizers have diminished and interrupted the natural intergenerational flow of knowledge. It is therefore a challenge to resurrect a mindset of pride of ownership, of research and conservation. The challenges for the curious and academically inclined Hindus are further compounded because Hinduism resides not in any one book, but in a vast compendium of writings, discourses and commentaries. To string it all together without easy access to in-depth knowledge and the teaching methods of its living practitioners – gurus and acharyas – is a daunting task for most. Besides, an ecosystem of learning and livelihood to sustain a quest for its study is practically non-existent, even after seventy years of the end of colonial rule. As hopeless as it might seem, there are some green shoots of a growing awareness of this problem and the need to fix it. Against this backdrop, it is essential to create centers of learning within existing Indian and select foreign academic institutions that focus and engage in rigorous study and research into Hindu writings. Given the vastness and range of philosophical subjects and thoughts, the study must be undertaken by not a limited few, but a larger number of institutions – with each institution becoming a center of specialty of a unique school of thinking. This way a wide range of subjects and thoughts can be addressed simultaneously and collectively by a distributed and connected network of academic institutions. With time and focused curation, the overall standard of research and writing would improve and attract brighter minds, and livelihood opportunities would emerge in academia and beyond – the flywheel of Hindu studies would then begin to turn and gain momentum. From this ecosystem would emerge future scholars – gurus and acharyas – who would then propagate and sustain an academic study of Hindu writings within and without India and offer an intellectual and academic counterweight to balance the scale in debates on Hindu philosophy and schools of thought.

The collective body of Hindu literature and writings is vast and rich and merits a status of a world heritage and a study for its own sake. Greek and Latin writings – classical works of Western civilization transcribed in about 30,000 manuscripts – enjoy a disproportionate status in academia. In contrast, Hinduism’s Sanskrit, Tamil and other writings – estimated to be in many million manuscripts – are relegated as esoterica even before an impartial study and discourse are conducted. Hindu deliberations offer a very distinct set of points of view on life, death, co-existence with others and nature, health and well-being, and on the visible universe around us and what may lie beyond human perception. It is this combination of being distinct, multi-disciplinary and voluminous that makes a case for academic institutions to dedicate resources and study Hindu philosophies while maintaining a balance between the two approaches of academic study, viz. the hermeneutics of suspicion and hermeneutics of shraddha.

Western academia, while being an outsider to Hinduism, is ironically the largest producer of commentaries and research on the latter. And, not surprisingly, given its Abrahamic roots, the balance of writings tends to have a preponderance of hermeneutics of suspicion. Such an academic environment has its own dynamics, which essentially regurgitates and validates a prevailing point of view from one writing to the next. The voice of an insider scarcely finds a set of sponsors and supporters. This lopsidedness is self-perpetuating. An externally originating thrust which pushes against this imbalance is therefore imperative to reclaim space and control the narrative. Only a deliberate plan and action to address this need can succeed in the academic world. Indian institutions, alongside some other sympathetic places of learning could be encouraged and fostered to develop a veritable counter narrative. Such an effort must lay down and adhere to the most rigorous academic standards for the evaluation of research which rival those of eminent academic institutions anywhere in the world.

While it may seem that Hindu studies have a very arduous climb up the academic hill, its success is achievable, for there is a reassuring confidence in an informed insider rooted in the durability of Hindu ideas, which have endured the longest journey of many millennia and created a civilization that has given the world alternative perspectives through the wisdom of Gita, Buddha, Mahavir, Nanak and Gandhi, of yoga and ahimsa to name a few – and, all this with the power of thought, appeal and debate, and without violence and without being an existential threat to fellow beings and nature itself.

Endnotes :

1. This paper speaks of Hindu philosophy and ideas in a broader sense, embracing with it ideas found in other Indic traditions, like Jainism and Buddhism.
2. Unlike Yoga in the West, these concepts are generally not directly attributed to the Hindu way, but as ideas emanating from the need to have a healthier life and a sustainable planet.

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