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In recent days, you might have noticed (primarily on X, formerly Twitter) somewhat of a harsh awakening being experienced by many in relation to the Hindu question. Outside of South Asia, most previously had a glamorized image of the religion until now, mainly due to a combination of genuine ignorance and pop propaganda, seeing the Hindu faith reduced to nothing more than its most aesthetic manifestations such as Yoga.
This sudden, newfound consciousness was sparked by the tragic news of the barbaric gang rape of a Brazilian-Spanish tourist, who had been traveling with her husband by motorbike throughout much of Asia (including countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). Yet, she had only been met with such a horrible and inhumane fate in the Hindu-majority country of India, with her husband having been beaten brutally and left completely helpless as his beloved wife was assaulted, abused, and raped by seven disgusting and depraved monsters.
RELATED: India: Another Woman Gangraped and Paraded – What Does Hinduism Say?
It naturally pushed the world to ask some meaningful questions about precisely what role the Hindu religion plays in the normalization, if not rationalization, of such debased and reprehensible behavior.
As such, I thought we could perhaps peruse some of the thoughts of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, commonly referred to as Dr. Ambedkar.
Dr. Ambedkar is not just some random nobody either. He served as the first Law and Justice minister of Independent India and helped draft its Constitution. In a 2012 nationwide and representative poll, he was voted by the public to be “The Greatest Indian” (after Gandhi).
Dr. Ambedkar was a Dalit. The Dalits, of course, are quite literally considered to be subhuman, as they do not occupy a place in the Hindu caste (varna) system. Thus, the very fact that he had earned doctorates in economics from prestigious Western universities made him, by default, a representative of Dalit political aspirations, as most of the Dalits (around 200 million today) are confined to remain as nobodies. This is why you’d struggle to find a single famous Dalit outside of politics (due to numbers alone). In fields that define India’s pop culture, such as Bollywood celebrities and cricket stars, relative to their numbers, you’d be extremely hard pressed to find any Dalits at all.
Dr. Ambedkar was, of course, certainly no fan of Islam as demonstrated in his book, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1945), in which he formally validates the Two-Nation Theory, that is, the unbridgeable incompatibility between the Islamic and the Hindu civilizational propositions. Nonetheless, he was actually even more critical of Hinduism, focusing his critique primarily on its theology, whereas his critique of Islam was based primarily on its sociology (for example, the Burqa’). Towards the end of his life, he had eventually actually converted to Buddhism, leading to a huge revival of the Buddhist religion within the country, a religion which had been devastated by Hindus for over a thousand years. (Today, there are more than 10 million Buddhists in India, virtually all of whom are followers of Dr. Ambedkar.)
During the final years of his life, he authored an entire book about Hinduism: Riddles in Hinduism. (You can access a PDF copy of the book here or here.). Unfortunately, this book did not receive the attention it deserved, probably because it wasn’t ever published by any major publishing house.
The book itself is a methodic and rigorous deconstruction of Hinduism through the religious angle (part I), the social angle (part II), and also the political angle (part III). The book doesn’t consist of chapters but 24 short essays, which are called “riddles.”
The first of these “riddles” are about the Vedas, a set of books deemed to be the most sacred literature in Hinduism, some of which are designated as Shruti or “revealed,” while others are designated as Smriti or “written down.” Dr. Ambedkar demonstrates that we actually have no real clue regarding the authors and that the Brahmins themselves weren’t always exactly sure of its sacredness to begin with.
As I like to do with all of my book reviews, I will reproduce a few selected excerpts here which I feel might have the effect of encouraging people to go ahead and pick up the book and give it a complete and thorough read.
RELATED: Phallus Worship in Hinduism: How Hindus See the Shivling Everywhere
In recent days, you might have noticed (primarily on X, formerly Twitter) somewhat of a harsh awakening being experienced by many in relation to the Hindu question. Outside of South Asia, most previously had a glamorized image of the religion until now, mainly due to a combination of genuine ignorance and pop propaganda, seeing the Hindu faith reduced to nothing more than its most aesthetic manifestations such as Yoga.
This sudden, newfound consciousness was sparked by the tragic news of the barbaric gang rape of a Brazilian-Spanish tourist, who had been traveling with her husband by motorbike throughout much of Asia (including countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). Yet, she had only been met with such a horrible and inhumane fate in the Hindu-majority country of India, with her husband having been beaten brutally and left completely helpless as his beloved wife was assaulted, abused, and raped by seven disgusting and depraved monsters.
RELATED: India: Another Woman Gangraped and Paraded – What Does Hinduism Say?
It naturally pushed the world to ask some meaningful questions about precisely what role the Hindu religion plays in the normalization, if not rationalization, of such debased and reprehensible behavior.
As such, I thought we could perhaps peruse some of the thoughts of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, commonly referred to as Dr. Ambedkar.
Dr. Ambedkar is not just some random nobody either. He served as the first Law and Justice minister of Independent India and helped draft its Constitution. In a 2012 nationwide and representative poll, he was voted by the public to be “The Greatest Indian” (after Gandhi).
Dr. Ambedkar was a Dalit. The Dalits, of course, are quite literally considered to be subhuman, as they do not occupy a place in the Hindu caste (varna) system. Thus, the very fact that he had earned doctorates in economics from prestigious Western universities made him, by default, a representative of Dalit political aspirations, as most of the Dalits (around 200 million today) are confined to remain as nobodies. This is why you’d struggle to find a single famous Dalit outside of politics (due to numbers alone). In fields that define India’s pop culture, such as Bollywood celebrities and cricket stars, relative to their numbers, you’d be extremely hard pressed to find any Dalits at all.
Dr. Ambedkar was, of course, certainly no fan of Islam as demonstrated in his book, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1945), in which he formally validates the Two-Nation Theory, that is, the unbridgeable incompatibility between the Islamic and the Hindu civilizational propositions. Nonetheless, he was actually even more critical of Hinduism, focusing his critique primarily on its theology, whereas his critique of Islam was based primarily on its sociology (for example, the Burqa’). Towards the end of his life, he had eventually actually converted to Buddhism, leading to a huge revival of the Buddhist religion within the country, a religion which had been devastated by Hindus for over a thousand years. (Today, there are more than 10 million Buddhists in India, virtually all of whom are followers of Dr. Ambedkar.)
During the final years of his life, he authored an entire book about Hinduism: Riddles in Hinduism. (You can access a PDF copy of the book here or here.). Unfortunately, this book did not receive the attention it deserved, probably because it wasn’t ever published by any major publishing house.
The book itself is a methodic and rigorous deconstruction of Hinduism through the religious angle (part I), the social angle (part II), and also the political angle (part III). The book doesn’t consist of chapters but 24 short essays, which are called “riddles.”
The first of these “riddles” are about the Vedas, a set of books deemed to be the most sacred literature in Hinduism, some of which are designated as Shruti or “revealed,” while others are designated as Smriti or “written down.” Dr. Ambedkar demonstrates that we actually have no real clue regarding the authors and that the Brahmins themselves weren’t always exactly sure of its sacredness to begin with.
As I like to do with all of my book reviews, I will reproduce a few selected excerpts here which I feel might have the effect of encouraging people to go ahead and pick up the book and give it a complete and thorough read.
Divine Infighting
RELATED: Phallus Worship in Hinduism: How Hindus See the Shivling Everywhere
Krishna and the Morals of His Times
Generalized Incest
Sexual Immorality
Human Sacrifices and Ashvamedha Ritual
The religion of the Vedic Aryans was full of barbaric and obscene observances. Human sacrifice formed a part of their religion and was called Naramedhayagna. Most elaborate descriptions of the rite are found in the Yajur-Veda Samhita, Yajur-Veda Brahmanas, the Sankhyana and Vaitana Sutras. The worship of genitals or what is called phallus worship was quite prevalent among the ancient Aryans. The cult of the phallus came to he known as Skambha and recognized as part of Aryan religion as may be seen in the hymn in Atharva-Veda X.7. Another instance of obscenity which disfigured the religion of the Ancient Aryans is connected with the Ashvamedha Yajna or the horse sacrifice. A necessary part of the Ashvamedha was the introduction of the Sepas (penis) of the Medha (dead horse) into the Yoni (vagina) of the chief wife of the Yajamana (the sacrificer) accompanied by the recital of long series of Mantras by the Brahmin priests. A Mantra in the Vajasaneya Samhita (xxiii. 1shows that there used to be a competition among the queens as to who was to receive this high honour of being served by the horse. Those who want to know more about it will find it in the commentary of Mahidhara on the Yejur-Veda where he gives full description of the details of this obscene rite which had formed a part of the Aryan religion.
