Indian Religion
India has a very complex religious history. Very rich in its spirituality, it is the home of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, and has adopted the religions of Islam and Christianity to different degrees. The life of India is essentially its religion, Hinduism being the religion of the majority. Because of its centrality to Indian culture, "religious considerations continue to play a major role in Indian politics, as well as in attitudes toward economic change and social reform" (Lamb, 97). Therefore it is impossible to consider the unity of India under Britain without considering changes in Indian religious life of the time. "Underneath the surface events, the most significant single factor has been and continues to be the tug of war between the traditional and the modern elements of Indian culture" (Lamb, 97). Hinduism had to deal with the inflow of Western secular and religious thought, and grapple with the issue of how much could be incorporated as Indian, and how much should be rejected in light of Hindu tradition.
Hindu Adaptability
The incomprehensible fact for westerners about Hinduism is its ability to adapt to diverse circumstances. It is a religion in which opposites can and do coexist even if completely contradictory. This is becuse all things are united in Brahman: "In believing that all beings and all phenomena are somehow one in Brahman, Hindus have become accustomed to the idea that reconciliation, even on a stupendous scale, is not only possible but indeed the natural order of reality" (Lamb, 114). One Hindu leader, Keshub Chunder Sen, saw Christianity as an ideal for assimilation into the religious lives of all peoples. His vision was to achieve a unity of the religions of the world: "The religious life of mankind must come to an ultimate reconciliation in which all the religions of the world ... contribute mutually to the development of each other and to the higher religious life of mankind on a higher universal scale" (Berry, 67).
Indians were by no means inexperienced with the task of dealing with new religions. Hinduism simply took the best of other religions which it encountered and expanded its own belief system. Hinduism had survived Buddhism by accepting its idea of possible salvation from the endless cycle of life. Sikhism, the third largest religious minority in India, resulted as a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam (Lamb, 129). In the same way, Hindus had no problem taking Christianity in stride and accepting it as truth also. In the words of Gandhi, "All religions are more or less true" (Lamb, 120).
Christianity in India
Christianity is the second largest religious minority in India next to Islam. Today there are 12 million Christians in India, only 2 percent of the entire population. The largest concentration of Christians is in the state of Kerala, which is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. According to tradition, the Apostle Thomas went west to India and started the church there. Historically, it is certain that the church in Kerala originated in at least the sixth century A.D.
In the sixteenth century, Portuguese and French Catholic missionaries began to arrive. British Anglican missionaries followed after 1813, and Protestant missionaries came later in the nineteenth century (Lamb, 127).
Despite Hindu willingness to adapt Christianity into their system, Christians encountered difficulties because they were unwilling to compromise their own beliefs. Indians were not prepared to accept the Christianity which proclaimed itself the only true religion, viewing it as a manifestation of the hated colonialism (Lamb, 128). Indians wished to remain Indian. From the start of Indian civilization, they were unwilling to be taken over by outside cultures, although they have always been eager to incorporate useful ideas (Esler, 87). For this same reason, "Indian Christians have Indianized their churches and tried to end their dependence on foreign missions" (Lamb, 128).
Western Influence on Hinduism
Aside from making actual converts to Christianity in India, Christians had some influence on Hindu thought. Some Indians accepted certain aspects of Christian or Western thought, still retaining their Indian identity by this ability of Hinduism to adapt. Others reacted strongly against Western thought, going back to the ancient Hindu emphasis on mysticism, and especially meditation. Such forms as Yoga are still prominent in India today.
Hinduism was associated with several social abuses, such as infanticide, child marriage, prohibition of the remarriage of widows, and extreme rigidity in the caste system. The most shocking to Westerners was the custom of suttee, a meritous practice from the religious point of view, in which widows threw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands (Berry, 66). Christians had the most impact in this social area as a moral influence rather than as a religious force, and even gained the support of Hindu leaders.
One Indian leader inspired by the Christian reform efforts was Ram Mohan Roy, who is considered the "father of modern India." He "did not accept the divinity of Christ, but was strongly attracted to the personality of Christ and to his moral and spiritual teaching" (Berry, 66). Being attracted to the morality of Christianity, Ram Mohan Roy continued to fight against these social abuses which the Christians had shown to be far too extreme. It was largely as a result of his efforts that the East India Company finally passed a law in 1829 declaring suttee illegal (Lamb, 116). Also in 1829, Ram Mohan Roy began holding weekly meetings out of which came the Brahmo Samaj (City of God), a group which sought to combine the best of Hinduism with the best of Christianity. What they saw as the best parts of Christianity were worshipping God by love and good deeds, and abstinence from idolatry (Lamb, 117).
Mahatma Gandhi was also greatly influenced by Western thought: "Much of Gandhi’s inspiration was derived from his contact with the West, from Christ and the Gospels, from the social and humanitarian movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and from the Western sense of the human person and the administration of justice." He was impressed by the example of Henry David Thoreau, gaining from him some methods for resistance to political authority (Berry, 72). At the same time, however, Gandhi’s work was the fulfillment of Indian spiritual traditions. He never lost his Indian outlook, or converted from Hinduism to Christianity.
Hindu reaction against Westernization
"The impact of the West on Hindu thought produced not only the reform movement but also a quite opposite result" (Lamb, 117). One of these adversaries to Western thought was Ramakrishna Paramahansa. He was rooted in the ancient past of Hinduism, and argued that the teachings of the Brahmo Samaj and of Western-minded rationalism were cold and lifeless, and that the ancient truths of religious feelings must be roused among Hindus: "He urged on his disciples the supreme value of intuitive emotional contact with God, holding that such experience is the aim of human existence and should take precedence over good works or social reform" (Lamb, 119). Before Western moral influence, Hindus had only been concerned with the salvation of their own souls, and were not at all concerned with the welfare of the society around them (Lamb, 115). Ramakrishna went to England and the States as a Hindu missionary, lecturing on Hinduism for three years. "The fact that he had so successfully preached Hinduism in the very lands from which the Christian missionaries came seemed to prove that political subjection need not involve religious subjection. Hindus could be proud at least of the essential truths of their religion. The reaffirmation of Hinduism served as an emotional counterbalance to the damage to Hindu self-respect caused by British political domination" (Lamb, 119).
Ramakrishna, ironically, was still influenced both by Christianity and secular Western thought. He recognized Jesus as a divine being, and still sought to combine the Western concept of social service with the Hindu ideal of renunciation and spiritual salvation (Lamb, 118-19). Again this shows the flexibility and adaptability of Hinduism which allowed it to survive for so many thousands of centuries.
Did Britain Unite India Religiously?
Is it safe to say that Britain united India in any way if they were unable to unify the country in a religious sense? "Since to them religion is the very essence of life, they feel that no attempt should be made to disassociate government from it" (Lamb, 125). The key to Britain’s control in India was, in fact, not to try to impose any religion on the people. Indeed, "they made no effort to alter existing practices in the customary religious life of the country" (Berry, 65). Being allowed this religious freedom, the Indians were then able to adapt to their new political situation and to deal it with within their religious context, even incorporating Western ideas into their Eastern traditions: "Hinduism encompasses all, finds a place for all, and establishes the functional relations between diverse traditions" (Berry, 3). Had they not been able to do that, it is likely that the British would have had an uprising on their hands, but as it was, a paradoxical unity was established in India.
© 1997 Southern Nazarene University.
Authors: Medina Bogard, Leslie Gilbert, Mike Jones, Brooke Nida, Allison Swanson, Scott Young
Last Modified: May 1, 1997.
Location: http://www.snu.edu/syllabi/history/s97projects/india/religion.htm
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