Religions in India - Research Paper Example

Religions in India India is one of the biggest democratic and secular countries in the world having more than billion population. Though most of the Indians are Hindus, other religions like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists are also common in India. Indian constitution has ensured equal treatments for all religions irrespective of the majority or minority. In fact some of the minorities and socially backward class people are getting reservations and special attentions in civil services in India. Indian constitution has given the right to every citizen of India to believe in any religion and also spread their religious beliefs. Since India is a secular country, though majority of Indians are Hindus, there are certain conflicts often occurs between the major religion Hindus with the minorities like Muslims and Christians. The recent unfortunate incidents happened in some of the Indian states like Orissa and Gujarat underlines the conflicts between Hindus and other minority communities. Hindu Religion “The foundations of this oldest surviving religion were laid by ancient rishis (sages), who taught their disciples the eternal principles of life they had discovered through their meditations.” (Devshoppe, 2008) The origin of Hindu religion is not based on a single person like other religions. For example, Christian and Buddhists religions are indebted to Jesus Christ and Buddha for their origin. There is no single person as such in Hinduism who can claim the fatherhood of Hinduism. Anyone who practices Dharma can be considered as a Hindu. Hindu religion is the religion of Vedas based on the practice of Dharma. (Dharma is the code of conduct of life principles). India, which is having the second largest population in the world have majority believe in Hindu religion. Hindu religion is considered to be one of the oldest religions in the world. Hindu religion is standing out from other religions because of their belief in multi God theory “According to historians, the origin of Hinduism dates back to 5,000 or more years. The word "Hindu" is derived from the name of River Indus, which flows through northern India. In ancient times the river was called the Sindhu, but the Persians who migrated to India called the river Hindu, the land Hindustan and its inhabitants Hindus. Thus the religion followed by the Hindus came to be known as Hinduism.” (Subhamoy Das) Unlike other religions, the Hindus have many classes, cultures and Gods in their religion. Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu were the three main Gods the Hindus worship. There are 4 different types of people in the Hindu religion basically as per the ancient belief; Brahman, Kshathriya, Vaisya and Shudra. Only the Brahman people got the rights to do the rituals in the temple and they are considered as the highest class in the Hindu religion. Kshathriya people had the right to rule the country while the other two were the working class. The Hindu religion is believed to be originated near the Sindhu River and hence this river is one of the sacred rivers in India along with Ganga and Yamuna. The greatest strength of Hindu religion is the unification of different beliefs for the integration of the country. It is because of the Hindu doctrine, Sanatana Dharma” or Universal Truth, the Indian people have the rights to believe in different religions and spreading their beliefs. India is considered to be a secular country because of this. Pakistan, once a part of India, is difficult for the Hindu people to stay in because of the dominance of Muslim beliefs in Pakistan. In India, people can believe in any religion and can spread their beliefs also because of the Hindu doctrines. Hindus normally practices vegetarianism and they do respect all the living things apart from the human being which is reflected in their beliefs also. India would be an utterly different place without the Hindu dharma Muslims in India Another dominant religion in India is the Muslims. India was one of the biggest countries in the world before 1947. The British who once ruled India has divided India into two different countries, India and Pakistan. Pakistan again split into Bangladesh and Pakistan later. Muslims dominated places were under Pakistan and Bangladesh while the Hindu dominated places were under India. “The Muslims are about 12% of Indias population. But their influence on the Indian society was much stronger. The main reason was that there were many Muslims rulers in different parts of India. Most of the Muslim rulers of India were invaders from the west. The process of converting Indians to Islam began in the 8th century, when the Arabs began invading north India and present day Pakistan. After the Arabs other Muslims invaded India. These invasions by Muslims in India were not continuous and not all Muslim invaders were Islamic fanatics. Most of the Indian Muslims converted to Islam were belonged to the lower classes of the Indian society” (Daniel) Unlike other religions like, Christians or Sikhs, Muslims population is scattered all over India. Christians are mainly concentrated in Kerala, Goa, and Mizoram while Sikhs are mainly staying in Indian states like Punjab, Haryana etc. Influenced by different Muslim preachers, lot of different communities are there in Muslim religion also like other religions. “In west India the Bohra and Khoja are Muslim communities who adopted Islam influenced by different Muslim preachers. The Khojas also split into different communities. The leader of the Khoja (Nizari) community is Aga Khan. The Nawait are descendants of Arab and Persian immigrants. In south India in the state of Kerala, the Mophilla community is descendants from Arab merchants. A well known Indian Muslim community is Pathan. The Pathan is Muslims who arrived from Afghanistan.” (Daniel) Christians in India “Christianity is Indias third-largest religion, with approximately 24 million followers, constituting 2.3% of Indias population. The earliest form of Christianity in India predates European arrival and is believed to have arrived with Thomas the Apostle during the 1st century. The real spurt in the growth of Christianity came during the colonization of India which started after the discovery of the sea route to India by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498” (Christianity in India) Though Christians are mainly concentrated in states like Kerala, Goa, and Mizoram, they are trying to spread their ideology throughout India which quiet often brings conflicts with the majority religion, the Hindus. Though the Indian constitution has provided the freedom of spreading the religion and the beliefs, the Hindus argue that the Christians forcefully converting the illiterate tribal groups by offering money and other complements. Buddhism in India “Buddhism in India began with the life of Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.), a prince from the small Shakya Kingdom located in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal.” (Buddhism in India, ancient Buddhism in India) Gautama has been not at all interested in luxuries and has abandoned his palace, searching for the meaning of existence. Finally he has achieved the knowledge he was looking for which later expressed as the Four Noble Truths; “all of life is suffering; the cause of suffering is desire; the end of desire leads to the end of suffering; and the means to end desire is a path of discipline and meditation” (Buddhism in India, ancient Buddhism in India) Buddhists believe in karma and rebirth. Karma determines in which form a person is reborn and rebirth is a second birth” (Michaela) The teachings and beliefs of Buddhism is different from that of other religions. Other religions mostly believe in a God or a number of Gods. For example Muslims and Christians believe in a single God while the Hindus believe in more than one God. Buddhists are more interested in karma and rebirth. They believe that human life consist of so many rebirths which will be ended once a person attains Nirvana. Karma or the activities of a person in the present life will determine in which form he will rebirth after his death. Buddhists never believed in soul. Since they believed in rebirths for them, soul will be changing from one form to another based on the rebirths. They called soul as "self “which is just a bunch of changing characteristics” (Michaela,). For them everything in our life is constantly changing and there is nothing satisfactory in life because of the temporary nature of things in life. The four noble truths as per Buddhism are; Life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable and the path to the cessation of suffering. (The Four Noble Truths) Buddhism is mainly concentrated at the states like, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal etc. Though Buddhism was one of the prominent religions in India and most of the parts in Asia earlier, the current trends show huge decline of Buddhism in India and other countries. At present Buddhism is embraced by some tribal people only in India. Religion and politics in India It is a common scene in India where the religions interfere in politics. At present India is preparing for a parliament election and the reports from various parts of the country shows that the religions are actively campaigning for their political ideologies. The Baharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) is trying to utilize the Hindu religion for their political advantages by offering them a temple at their God, Ram’s birth place at Ayodhya. On the other hand most of the Muslims and Christians believe that BJP is trying to make India a Hindu country and hence they are supporting other political parties for their survival. In another development, the left parties have lost their roots among Christians and Muslims because of their actions against religion and beliefs. The left wing has reportedly made lot of laws in the states where they were in power to control the religions activities mainly in educational sector. In Kerala the ruling left government has revised the educational curriculum and implemented certain topics which question the authenticity of religion. These activities are strongly criticized by all the religions and they have shifted towards other parties. Most of the leaders of the Christian and Muslim community have polarized towards other parties like the Indian National Congress because of their strong differences with the BJP and the left wing. Thus religion plays a vital part in India’s political elections though nobody want to admit that publicly. The religions are interfering in politics for streamlining the politics and the government for their own advantages. The political leaders force to act as per the advices of the religious leaders after the elections because of the help these religious leaders extended to the political parties before the election. Conclusions Though Hindus are the majority in India, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists etc are also prominent in India. India is a secular nation where all religions can keep their own beliefs and also they can spread their beliefs to others as well. But because of the growth of religious fundamentalism like all other parts in the world, India also witnessed some unfortunate incidents in which the majority Hindus clash with the minorities, Christians and Muslims in some of the Indian states like Gujarat and Orissa recently. Religion plays a vital role in Indian politics. All the religions have strong political interests and most of the religious leaders, advice their religion about to whom they should elect. The strong influence of these religious leaders among their religion forces political leaders to seek help from the religious leaders which will ultimately result in the religious leaders taking undue advantages by controlling the governments after the elections. India’s curse towards development is this religious interference in politics. Works Cited 1. Devshoppe, (2008), Details About Hinduism, Retrieved on April 7, 2009 from 2. Subhamoy Das, Theories About the Origin of Hinduism, Retrieved on April 7, 2009 from 3. Daniel Aharon, 2005, Islam in India, Retrieved on April 7, 2009 from Read More