Hinduism Articles

Hinduism is patriarchal like most other religions. However, it is also feminist, unlike most other religions. Please note: many Muslim women insist that the Quran for its time gives women unprecedented agency and rights, though social practice of Islam, led by conservative male maulvis, tends to be patriarchal. Likewise, Hinduism contains many feminist ideas that are often ignored, often deliberately, especially by male Hindu leaders and activists who are generally uncomfortable with religion, Hinduism in particular. Broadly, there are two types of feminism. Equality feminism believes that men and women are equal. Liberation feminism believes that women, like all humans, have a right to make decisions about their bodies, and their lives. Hinduism aligns more to “liberation” feminism than to “equality” feminism. In fact, equality as an ideology has its roots in Christian mythology that rejected the notion of social hierarchy and saw all men (not women) as equal in the eyes of ...

Sport, as we know it today, comes from ancient Greece where games were part of the funeral rituals to honour dead heroes and leaders. India also has a long history of sport. In Harappa, one finds seals that suggest that the people of Harappa were familiar with bull fighting or bull leaping, a common agricultural sport, similar to Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu. Amongst Harappan toys, we find dice. In the Vedas, we find reference to chariot racing and gambling with dice, popular outdoor and indoor sports respectively. In Ramayana and Mahabharata, the warrior princes are shown as being proficient in archery, mace-warfare, fencing, wrestling, and similar military sports. Thus, we can safely say that sport in India began in both agricultural communities as well as martial communities. In early Buddhist art, we find images of Surya on a chariot flanked by female archers, indicating that women, like men, enjoyed archery and often took part in hunting expeditions. In the Mahabharata, we hear ...

Published on 30th January, 2018, in The Economic Times In the Ramayana, how did Bharat demonstrate to the people that he had rejected his mother’s ideology of capturing the throne through cunning, and how he wanted Ram to be king and spend his life serving as Ram’s regent? He did so by placing Ram’s footwear on the throne. He did it by choosing to live as a hermit outside the city of Ayodhya. As a member of the royal family, he knew demonstration was key to communicate with the public. People see more than they hear. Darshan is far more effective than shruti. Likewise, in Islam, it is important to repeatedly say that ‘God is Great and there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is his last and final prophet.’ And it is important to demonstrate your daily allegiance to God by praying to him in a particular choreographed way facing a particular direction. And it is important to reaffirm this annually by fasting during the month of Ramzan and by participating in the Hajj pilgri...