Travails of traditional culture |
Indian culture has a long tradition and heritage, and its waves are still visible. The Indian knowledge system is widely acclaimed across the world. Hinduism and Buddhism spread in Southeast Asia and the Far East. Indian culture reached Southeast Asia in many waves over the centuries as it was spontaneously welcomed and accepted by the region’s people. The syncretic character of Indian culture is said to have been successful in striking roots in Southeast Asia. Hinduism deeply influenced kingdoms like Champa, Srivijaya, Sailendra, and Mataram. Hinduism is the essence of Indian traditional culture.
It is not a religion, but is identified with the culture of a particular geographical area. It is the Sanatani cultural tradition of Bharatvarsha. The word ‘Hindu’ was first used by the ancient Persians to refer to the people living beyond the Indus River, and later used by Arab and Greek travelers. The sixth-century BCE inscriptions from Darius I refer to ‘Hindu’ as a Persian variation of the Sanskrit word ‘Sindhu’, used as a geographical term, not a religious one. It does not appear in ancient Indian texts. It evolved into a religious identifier much later, particularly during the medieval and colonial periods, to distinguish local traditions from Islam. Hinduism contains the spirit of humanism, liberalism and religious tolerance.
Besides the theology enshrined in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the great Hindu philosophies ~ the Vedanta, the Samkhya and the Yoga ~ have a strong influence on Hindu culture and civilisation. Hinduism continued to play a significant cultural role in the lives of diverse sections of Indian society. Pluralism is a unique feature of Indian society and culture. India became the meeting place of various cultures, such as the Saka, Huna, Greek, Muslim, and British, which were incorporated into the expanding civilisation of India. Each culture contains its own tradition of dissent and protest, and each challenges the conventional order in its own way.
The Hindus protested and raised their voice time and again when others were eating into the vitality of Hinduism. The spirit of Hinduism is the disinterested pursuit of truth, which was lost by some evil excrescences. Unarguably, conservative ideas and evil practices were ingrained in Hinduism, but the reformers attempted to purify and protect it time and again. Ramananda, Chaitanya, Rammohan, Dayananda, Ramakrishna, and Vivekananda sought to preserve the heritage of Hinduism through their reformative ideas. In Bengal, the intellectual........