Hinduism and Islam in Asia
By Greg McCulley
Drafted 20 May 1999
����������� Of all the world's major religions, Hinduism is one I know almost the least about.� I had heard of it prior to this class, but I knew nothing of its details.� This is probably because I don't know any Hindus.� And this is because Hinduism never really was popular far beyond India's borders for several reasons.� This paper is about why Hinduism is less exportable and less acceptable to other peoples than another major religion in the general vicinity, Islam.
����������� Hinduism brings with it a very structured societal system called the caste system.� This system determines by birth the position within society's hierarchy.� This position also determines the occupation of a person based on heredity and marriage.�� Many western religions advocate the spread of their religion, especially the Christian religions.� There are a number of reasons Hinduism did not share in this sort of expansion.
����������� To start with, Hinduism, as stated above, has the caste system.� In the rural parts of India, it is relatively easy to operate a system that dictates who will do have what occupations.� In small town settings, it is easy to discern who is of what class by recognition.� In a big city, you can?t do that.� In a big city, a person has anonymity.� How could a Brahmin, a priestly member of the highest caste, ensure that the person crowded up against him is not an untouchable, or Harajin?� How would he be able to tell who prepared his food in a restaurant?� Would he ask for a caste listing of all the employees?� These types of problems are a struggle for Hindus in a modernizing India.� Without the discipline and support of the Rig-Veda and other texts, there is too little to maintain the rigors outside of India.� Bali is another nation that has Hindus, but this is due to the old Indian trade routes and is the exception, not the rule.� Also, it is difficult to imagine Americans adopting Hinduism in any large numbers.� The United States is a very liberal society. The US and most of the rest of the world are getting more liberal every year.� The caste system puts so much restriction on the lifestyles of its practitioners that most Americans I know would not be willing to even try it.� It is hard to get many Americans to faithfully practice Christian religions, let alone a rigid one like Hinduism.� All and all, I don't think Hinduism could be successfully transplanted to western countries.
����������� In the past, some caste members were forbidden to travel outside India.� This was due to fears that liberal ideas from other cultures would pollute good Hindus if they traveled abroad.� V.S. Naipauil, in his book, India, A Wounded Civilization, said that Gandhi, being a member of the merchant caste, was not allowed to travel (Naipaul, 101).� In order to make his trip to England to study law, he had to leave two months early to give caste leaders the slip.� These restrictions do not make the Hindu religion easy to spread, and it looks like with these attitudes towards foreign influence, many Hindu leaders did not care if it spread or not.� What was more important was that the practices, with are very important in Hinduism, were not violated.� This is another reason Hinduism is not very exportable.� There is so much emphasis on practices and rituals, and there are so many restrictions on its members, why would anyone want to convert?� It is not salvific, so it does not offer salvation from this life, but only promises the chance to come back in the next life to continue improving.� In the best case scenario, a person, after many lives lived, becomes one with the universe.� To an outsider, this is not very attractive.� I think that Hinduism requires the support and discipline structure of being immersed among other of the same religion to take hold.� You need to be raised with something like that to really espouse it.
����������� Islam, however, is different.� Islam has spread to many other countries, and covers a multitude of nations around the world who claim Islam as their religion.��� Contrary to popular opinion, Islam tolerates other religious groups.� The holy texts of Islam, the Koran, make references to Christian groups who developed in close proximity to Islam.� They are referred to as "people of the book", meaning those who worship the God of the Bible. There are even cross-references in Islam and Christianity.� Islams believe that Mohammed was the last prophet of Allah.� They do not discount Jesus as a heretic, but rather consider him to be an historical figure and a mortal prophet.� They even refer to some Old Testament people as their older prophets.� With so many similarities between Islam and Christianity (more than with Hinduism, anyway), it makes sense that the religion can co-exist and spread more easily to other countries.
����������� For these reasons, the rigidity of the caste system, the more accepting nature of Islam, and the liberalized environment of western countries, I believe Islam is much easier to export and be accepted in other countries compared with Hinduism.