Hinduism
-
Afghanistan was never “Hindu”
Razib Khan argues Afghanistan was never ‘Hindu’ in any comprehensible sense: its highlands were heavily Buddhist until about 900 AD, and he sees the area as a crossroads of Persian,…
-
Hindutva, Asabiya and Apostacy
The author questions comparisons between Hindutva anger over beef-eating and Islamic takfir, arguing that Brahmanical orthodoxy mostly policed ritual purity rather than politics, but that apostasy-style memes could arise within…
-
Hindutvavadis are not Bhakts
Using the Marathi devotional tale of Gora Kumbhar, an atheist author criticises the core idea of Bhakti, comparing the trance of devotion to drug intoxication, with a title that distinguishes…
-
Musings of a Shinto Rishi
Struck by an interview with Florian Wiltschko, an Austrian Shinto priest in Japan, the author sees parallels between Shinto’s nature-centred outlook and a Dharmic sensibility, and reflects on how both…
-
Browncast: Koenrad Elst, Indologist and Hindu Nationalist
In a BP podcast, two hosts talk to Indologist Koenraad Elst, described as a supporter of right-wing Hindutva politics, about his understanding of Hinduism and Hindu identity, touching on the…
-
The Confluence of Two Seas: India and Arabia
The author opens with Dara Shikoh’s treatise on the similarities of Hinduism and Islam and his execution under Aurangzeb, then sets out to tell the story of Arabia before and…
-
Hinduism is not false consciousness , it is “Planet X”
Responding to a Caravan piece claiming upper castes invented a Hindu majority, the author argues Hindu identity is not a recent invention or false consciousness: like an unseen ‘Planet X’,…
-
What’s in a name? That which we call a Swastika, isn’t exactly a symbol of hate
Recalling drawing auspicious symbols on exam papers in India and learning of Germany’s ban on the swastika, the author argues it is not simply a symbol of hate and traces…
-
On caste and a new Hinduism
The author argues that caste is closely tied to Hinduism and the subcontinent, and that although Nicholas Dirks’s Castes of Mind stresses British rationalisation of caste, the striking genetic structure…
