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A little while ago, we had brought people’s attention to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist movement that has indirectly influenced tens of millions of Hindus through the Arya Samaji presence within Bollywood, particularly its most influential directors, producers, and actors.
However, Arya Samaj isn’t the only Hindu reformist movement. For example, in the Bengal region, which was noted for having soaked up British colonial influences, the Brahmo Samaj was very influential. It predates the Arya Samaj movement by a few decades, and they both share some important features, such as an emphasis on some sort of monotheism and an aversion to idolatry. As it turn out, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, had studied Islam to some extent, both in Arabic and Persian, at a couple of local madrasahs.
We read in a 2019 article:
As has been the case with Bollywood and its Punjabi artists, we see that, through Bengali intellectuals, Hindu reformism has shaped modern Hindus in other ways too.
One of the most pressing issues for the Hindu reformers was that of Hindu widows being able to remarry. In fact, it was so important for them that Swami Vivekananda—the most influential of the modern Hindu gurus and himself also a modernist (he was a Bengali and had joined the Brahmo Samaj early on)—said sarcastically in a 1894 letter:
RELATED: Burning Widows: The Basis of Sati in Hindu Religious Texts
More often than not, the answer would be appear to be Islam.
Unlike Hindu women, who found themselves trapped in the Hindu concepts of karma, dharma, and various “purity” concepts, Muslim widows are allowed to remarry. This created a sense of sexual anxiety within the Hindu men, and there were fears that Muslim men were “stealing” Hindu women—especially those from the Hindu upper-castes—and converting them to Islam.
Indian scholar Charu Gupta has written the following in her book, Sexuality, Obscenity and Community: Women, Muslims, and the Hindu Public in Colonial India (Springer, 2002, pp.309–311):
We thus see that the Hindu reformers felt particularly threatened by the fact that Islam’s teachings on marriage and divorce, as well as Muslim masculinity, were essentially winning over “their” women. This was to the extent that they felt they had no choice but to completely change and redefine Hinduism in order to deal with this supposed “menace,” which gave Hindu widows the opportunity to become Muslim, after which they were free to remarry and have children. Many other changes were also implemented to try and stop sane Hindus from leaving such an insane religion, including the integration of the Dalits.
Most modern Hindus are completely clueless about how, today, they are dedicating themselves to a completely warped shadow of what true Hinduism actually is. They have abandoned many aspects and teachings of their religion, particularly when it comes to social issues (including caste dynamics).
If Hinduism was true, as they believe, then why would it have to constantly be chopped and changed in order for it to survive? And what would they think about the fact that the reformers who transformed (and essentially “saved”) their faith—Arya Samaj in Punjab and Bollywood or Brahmo Samaj among the elite intellectuals of Bengal—have been directly or indirectly influenced by Islam? What does it say that, in order for Hinduism to even stand a chance at survival, it had to change and become more like Islam, which remains unchanged and continues to spread and grow in every part of the world?
Will today’s Hindus call for a return to the unadulterated Hinduism of the past? Are they happy with holding onto selected parts of Hinduism and the regular updates that’ll be required for it to remain relevant for future generations of Hindus? Will Hinduism continue adopting aspects of other religions or man-made ideologies, such as liberalism? Or will they finally come to their senses and accept Islam as the absolute and unchanging truth?
A little while ago, we had brought people’s attention to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist movement that has indirectly influenced tens of millions of Hindus through the Arya Samaji presence within Bollywood, particularly its most influential directors, producers, and actors.
However, Arya Samaj isn’t the only Hindu reformist movement. For example, in the Bengal region, which was noted for having soaked up British colonial influences, the Brahmo Samaj was very influential. It predates the Arya Samaj movement by a few decades, and they both share some important features, such as an emphasis on some sort of monotheism and an aversion to idolatry. As it turn out, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, had studied Islam to some extent, both in Arabic and Persian, at a couple of local madrasahs.
We read in a 2019 article:
The intellectuals of the Bengal region were known as being the elites of colonial India, and most of these Bengali intellectuals were influenced by the reformist Brahmo Samaj movement. Among these individuals, you find the Tagore family, including Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European Nobel Laureate (for Literature in 1913) and often considered to be the most important modern Indian writer.
As has been the case with Bollywood and its Punjabi artists, we see that, through Bengali intellectuals, Hindu reformism has shaped modern Hindus in other ways too.
One of the most pressing issues for the Hindu reformers was that of Hindu widows being able to remarry. In fact, it was so important for them that Swami Vivekananda—the most influential of the modern Hindu gurus and himself also a modernist (he was a Bengali and had joined the Brahmo Samaj early on)—said sarcastically in a 1894 letter:
But why were Hindu reformers so desperate to overturn the traditional Hindu laws prohibiting widows from remarrying?
RELATED: Burning Widows: The Basis of Sati in Hindu Religious Texts
More often than not, the answer would be appear to be Islam.
Unlike Hindu women, who found themselves trapped in the Hindu concepts of karma, dharma, and various “purity” concepts, Muslim widows are allowed to remarry. This created a sense of sexual anxiety within the Hindu men, and there were fears that Muslim men were “stealing” Hindu women—especially those from the Hindu upper-castes—and converting them to Islam.
Indian scholar Charu Gupta has written the following in her book, Sexuality, Obscenity and Community: Women, Muslims, and the Hindu Public in Colonial India (Springer, 2002, pp.309–311):
To put these numbers into perspective, one crore is equivalent to 10,000,000.
We thus see that the Hindu reformers felt particularly threatened by the fact that Islam’s teachings on marriage and divorce, as well as Muslim masculinity, were essentially winning over “their” women. This was to the extent that they felt they had no choice but to completely change and redefine Hinduism in order to deal with this supposed “menace,” which gave Hindu widows the opportunity to become Muslim, after which they were free to remarry and have children. Many other changes were also implemented to try and stop sane Hindus from leaving such an insane religion, including the integration of the Dalits.
Most modern Hindus are completely clueless about how, today, they are dedicating themselves to a completely warped shadow of what true Hinduism actually is. They have abandoned many aspects and teachings of their religion, particularly when it comes to social issues (including caste dynamics).
If Hinduism was true, as they believe, then why would it have to constantly be chopped and changed in order for it to survive? And what would they think about the fact that the reformers who transformed (and essentially “saved”) their faith—Arya Samaj in Punjab and Bollywood or Brahmo Samaj among the elite intellectuals of Bengal—have been directly or indirectly influenced by Islam? What does it say that, in order for Hinduism to even stand a chance at survival, it had to change and become more like Islam, which remains unchanged and continues to spread and grow in every part of the world?
Will today’s Hindus call for a return to the unadulterated Hinduism of the past? Are they happy with holding onto selected parts of Hinduism and the regular updates that’ll be required for it to remain relevant for future generations of Hindus? Will Hinduism continue adopting aspects of other religions or man-made ideologies, such as liberalism? Or will they finally come to their senses and accept Islam as the absolute and unchanging truth?
