What is Hindu culture?

Every now and then, when one group doesn't like something that is happening in the country, a storm is raised over what is called Hindu culture

What is Hindu culture?

PROTECTOR!: Who decides that Hindu culture should be enforced. Sree Ram Sena Chief Pramod Mutalik at a press meet.u00a0 Pic/Vinod Kumar T

Though I am a religious man today, I have in the past been an alcoholic and a heavy smoker, so I can perhaps empathise with all groups concerned. But I still can't figure out what Hindu culture means because Hindus are a diverse lot.

In A Case of Identity, Sherlock Holmes says, 'If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generation, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.'

Similarly, if I could invite you to fly with me and hover over this country, we will see the Aghoris of the North who eat human flesh on certain occasions, the Brahmins of Bengal who eat fish but not garlic, and the orthodox Iyengars of the South who won't even eat potatoes. If we pause a minute to chat with them, they will all tell us, "We are Hindus." So, whose culture are we talking about?

Tell me, is this culture merely what has been created by men to control women? It is hard to say. Even if we were to look at authoritative texts like the Manu Smriti, we are bound to be confused because it is mentioned here that women must be honoured (III.55). At the same time, it is also said that a woman is never fit for independence (IX.3). So, are we following what suits us? Is this a case of the devil quoting the scriptures?
And even if we come across a real definition of what Hindu culture is, how do we enforce it? Who decides that it should be enforced? A group of people who are out to gain some political mileage by terrorising women at a pub? How manly!

And what does Hindu mean, anyway? Santana Dharma or 'the eternal law' is perhaps a better definition of the majority religion of India. But rather than discuss definitions and score brownie points, shouldn't all of us understand the true meaning of Hinduism or Santana Dharma, whatever we may choose to call it?

In its judgment on 14 January 1966 in the Sastri Yagnapurushadji case, the Supreme Court of India held that 'Though philosophic concepts and principles evolved by different Hindu thinkers and philosophers varied in many ways and even appeared to conflict with each other in some particulars, they all had reverence for the past and accepted the Vedas as the sole foundation of the Hindu philosophy.

Naturally enough, it was realised by Hindu religion from the very beginning of its career that truth was many-sided and different views contained different aspects of truth which no one could fully express.
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This knowledge inevitably bred a spirit of TOLERANCE AND WILLINGNESS TO UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE THE OPPONENTS' POINT OF VIEW.

And unless we understand this spirit of tolerance, we can never claim to have any Hindu culture.

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