The Invention of Hinduism ?

[Guest guest]

With the advent of missionary activity in the 19th century, the claim

that

`Christians were already Hindu' managed to diminish the threat of

conversion to Christianity.

 

Diminution of the Threat from Buddhism - Ambedkar led a mass Black

Untouchable movement of conversion Buddhism in order to escape the

astika Brahmanist (Vedic, Vaishnava) caste system. The claim that

Buddhists were in any case Hindu served to diminish any threat from

Buddhism.

 

>>>This reactionary movement to the oppression of the dark-

skinned 'dalits' by the 'aryan'

birth-caste adwaiti 'Vedic' and often Ram-associated Vaishnava

Brahmins in South India

continues to gather steam at the present. Often this reactionary

movement is fueled by

blatant disinformation campaigns and lies against Vaishnavism such as

the "protocols of Zion"-like

disinformation campaign promoting the now tragically pervasive idea

that the vanaras forest-dwellers

in the Ramayana were actually dark-skinned Dravidians enslaved as sub-

human 'monkeys' by the white

Aryan race hero RAMA. Along with this completely baseless idea is

the allied one that the demons

or asuras of the Ramayana were also dark skinned Dravidians. This

racist reading of the Ramayana is

a purely modern phenomenon, which WAS Promoted by the British and

their Euro-aryanist allies

to drive a wedge between the lighter-skinned caste brahmins and

Theravadin Buddhists of India

and Sri Lanka and the darker skinned, often Shaivite Tamils of South

India and Sri Lanka.

The Europeans projected their 'white' aryanist racism onto the

ancient Sanskrit Vedic and Vaishnava

scriptures, inventing the 'aryan invasion' myth to support their

global campaign for white-racist

imperial domination of the world. Thus they re-imagined the high

civilizations of India and Egypt as

the product of THEIR OWN REMOTE ANCESTORS, THE 'WHITE ARYAN'

INVADERS. To promote

this idea, they reinterpreted and in some cases redacted Sanskrit

Shastras / scriptures. They re-interpreted

the vedic-Vaishnava Purusha Sukta Hymn as promoting birth-caste-ism

by insisting that the varnas of the

mystical sacramental social body of the cosmic Purusha referred to

racial colors, and not to a symbolism

connected to the gunas and occupational 'modes' of being and work.

They also re-interpreted, redacted and

aggressively promoted, with their printing presses and educational

systems, other ancient Sanskrit 'aryan' Vedic

Literatures from the perspective of their own 'white' racism. In

doing-so, they laid the ground-work for

the Aryan versus Dravidian defined wars of Sri Lanka and South and

other innumerable atrocities ever since.

The Theosophical thought-leaders were involved in this aryanist myth-

making . Olcott spent a great deal of effort

in Sri Lanka promoting aryanism among the Sinhalese Theravadin

Buddhists. With an alliance with the Buddhists,

Olcott used his influence to diffuse Aryanism globally via a movement

for Theravadin Buddhist unity. Thus racist

aryanism was spread exoterically by the colonialist governments of

Europe and Russia, esoterically by the

occult and secret societies of Theosophy-related groups (including

forms of Indian, Persian and Arab racist Sufism),

and exoterically by the racist elite (often mayavadi and smarta)

brahmins of India and the Elite priests and monastics of Theravadin

Buddhism, where ever it was connected to the Sri Lankan led movement

for Buddhist Unity. In the next century

this Buddhist aryanism would significantly unite some Theravadin Zen

Japanese, Sri Lankan Theravadin and Nepalese-Tibetan Theravadin

Buddhists in their aryanist support of the Third Reich.

 

>>>>I would like to suggest to anyone who thinks that the claimed

racist reading of the Ramayana is

authentic, that they should look at the illustrations of the Ramayana

commissioned by Akbar in 1582.

These full-color miniatures can be viewed from the Freer Gallery of

Art at the Smithsonian Institution,

Washington , D. C., U.S. A.. They are also available in publications

such as the Palace Publishing Edition

of "The Illustrated Ramayana". In these illustrations Rama, the

Epic's Hero, an Incarnation of Vishnu, is

depicted as black, gray, blue or greenish, but NEVER as a 'white'

human racial 'aryan'. Furthermore,

Hanumat (Hanuman) and the other VANARA FOREST DWELLERS are

real

monkeys with tails, and the

ASURA demons are giant multi-colored shape-shifting monsters. Ravana

their demon leader (a 'white' skinned

brahmin by the way) has ten heads and twenty arms. The other demons

and demonesses are also clearly

giant shape-shifting non human monsters with bizarre forms and

colors. So the reading that the Ramayana

is a story about a white 'aryan' race-hero's subjugation of the dark-

skinned natives of South India and

Sri Lanka is ridiculous.

 

 

The English census-compilers created Hinduism in the 1830s as a

blanket term for several communities, but arbitrarily excluded

Buddhism

(since it was found in East Asia) and Jainism. It is thus not

surprising

that many `native' scholars have classed Jainism and Buddhism as

`Hindu'. In favor of Jainism and Buddhism being merely `Hindu'

religions, the following points have been put forward:

 

>>>>Jainism and Mahayana Buddhism share a common language of

belief

with Vaishnavism, thus when

the World Hindu Organization formed under the Patronage of the late

lamented King of Nepal,

H. M. King Birendra, the entire "family of Hindu ' Indic Sanskrity"

INCLUDING JAINIS AND MAHAYANA

BUDDHISM was included in its membership. I sat on the Executive

Committee of this Organization in Kathmandu,

and saw Jain and Buddhist leaders enthusiastically participating

there. Sanskrit, the 'aryan' (but NOT RACIST) language of the Vedas

unites all the later Vedic-Related (thus Indus or 'Hindu') traditions

INCLUDING THE JAIN, MAHAYANA

BUDDHIST, SHAIVITE, SHAKTA, VAISHNAVA, ADVAITI etc. traditions.

 

Buddha and the Jain Tirthankaras are classed as incarnations of

Vishnu

in Aryan Vaishnavite literature.

 

>>>>>>>This is a fact. Black Krishnas and white Balas and the

Krishna of the Gita are also mentioned in Jain lore. The Mahayana

Buddhist Forms of Amitabha and Lokeshvara are Forms of Krishna-

Vishnu, and the M. Buddhist Names of Amitabha-Lokesvara are Names

of

Krishna-Vishnu.

 

The Tamil epic poem Manimekalai mentions the 6 systems of philosophy

current in India in the early centuries AD as the Lokayata, Bauddha,

Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaiseshika and Mimamsa, and thus a Brahmanist

author claims that " the Bauddha and Lokayata far from being non-

Hindu, formed 2 of the 6 Hindu systems" [ Man.Mek. canto xxvii ][

1800,

p.225 ]. The auther then concludes that the Europeans have made a

mistake in classifying Buddhists and Jains as separate religions, and

that

these persons are Hindus !

 

>>>>>>It all depends on how 'Hindu' is being defined. The Nepalese-

based World Hindu Organization (this is NOT the Vishva Hindu

Parishad of India) defined 'Hindu' as inclusive of all those Indic

Traditions belonging to the family of Vedic-related Sanskrity.

 

To further strengthen his point, he claims

that the mistake was due to the Europeans following Madhvacharya's

`Sarva-darsana-sangraha' of the 14th century, which mentions 6

systems : 1. purva Mimamsa, 2. Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta, 3.

Sankhya, 4. Yoga, 5. Nyaya, 6. Vaiseshika. Since this list did not

include

Jains, Buddhists and Atheist Carvaks, these were not included by the

Europeans as Hindus [ 1800,p.225 ].

 

>>>>>>>Madhvacarya was describing the traditional orthodox systems

of

Vedic Thought. Furthermore the modern classification

of "Hindu" would not have been known to Sri Madhvacharya.

 

In late 1998, the Hindu (ie. astika Brahminist, or Orthodox

Vaishnavite)

Fundamentalist party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), then the

ruling

party of the Government of India, issued several statements that the

Buddhists were Hindus. Other statements also claimed that the Muslims

were mostly converted from `Hindus' (a fact long controverted by the

English census, which showed that even in Bengal half of the Muslims

were of `Foreign' origin). This coincided with widespread violence

against Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, with attempts to

`reconvert'

the `lost' Hindus.

 

>>>>>>>This author's perception of the BJP is rather strange. Has he

ever heard of SHAIVISM ? Doesn't he know about the long oppression

of hundreds of millions of Vaishnavas by the non-Vaishnava caste

brahmanas ? Why is it traditionally joked all over India that the

Brahmin devotees of Shiva are rich and powerful while the devotees of

Vishnu are poor and powerless ? Why did Gandhiji call the

Untouchables the HARI-JANAS or CHILDREN OF HARI (KRISHNA), and

why

did hundreds of millions of poor Vaishnavas follow the Pranami and

RAMA VAISHNAVA Gandhi in his stand against BOTH THE BRITISH and

all

forms of undemocratic, racist and class oppression?

 

 

Thus, the noble faith of Buddhism has been insulted and denigrated by

being included in the Hindu monolith of Vedic apartheid, sati and

dowry-

burning -

 

 

>>>>>Using these anti-Hindu buzz-words of the Dalit Movement, this

author clearly suffers from extreme, blinding anti-Vaishnava

prejudice, of the kind exhibited by the long-oppressed South India

Dalits who have bought-into the anti-Ramayan "we are not your

monkeys' movement. While I am sympathetic to his cause to free the

Dalits and others oppressed by racism and caste-ism, it saddens me

that he is unable to realize that his thinking has been corrupted by

Euro-aryanism, so that he cannot understand who the real enemy of

Indian brotherhood and solidarity is.

 

" Advani delivered himself of some newfangled wisdom on November 6

at Sarnath, while addressing an "international" seminar on "World

Unity

in the Buddha's Trinity" as part of the Buddha Mahotsav organised by

Union Tourism Minister Madan Lal Khurana, and much publicised in the

media in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The Buddha, he declared, "did not

announce any new religion. He was only restating with a new emphasis

the ancient ideals of the Indo-Aryan civilisation." According to The

Telegraph (November 7), "Advani said (the) Buddha derived his

teachings from the Bhagvad Gita and was an avatar of Vishnu."

-- [ Bidwai ]

 

The bigoted Vaishnavas have also made many attempts to subvert the

separate religion of Jainism to the `Hindu' yoke. Naturally, the

Jains

have valiantly resisted these sinister attempts to destroy their

religion

and heritage, as is evident from the following recent press release :

 

" Jains demand minority status

Sunday, February 14, 1999 The Indian Express

PUNE: The national conference of Jains Saturday passed a resolution

to

recommend to central government to include Jains in the list of

minority

communities . The conference, 'Jain Action 99', organised by 'Jain

Sahyog' also passed a resolution that out of the expenses which the

Jain

community spends on religious functions, some part should be kept

aside to promote education, social and cultural activities of the

Jain

community in the local areas, reports PTI.

 

Another resolution urged for creating unity among Jain groups of

different castes and sects and to bring all the national as well as

local

level organisations together to form a pressure group at the national

level. The conference also mooted health projects by providing

homeopathic medical service to the community. Among other states,

delegates from Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,

Delhi and Maharashtra were participating in the two-day conference.

Dalchand Jain, treasurer of All India Congress Committee, in his

inaugural speech called for preserving ancient Jain temples in a

better

way. He also called for setting up of hostels for Jain students.

Milind

Phade, chairman of Jain Sahyog, outlined the purpose of the

conference.

Assistant editor of 'Maharashtra Times' Ashok Jain released a special

issue of 'Divya Shakti', a booklet on Jain community. "

-- [ Min_J ]

 

>>>>>>This is an extremely important point. When I was meeting with

religious and governmental leaders in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal in

1982, I was repeatedly told by all the Vaishnava, Shaivite, Jain,

Sikh and other leaders about the problems caused to ALL religious

communities by the secular and communist-influenced government's

insistence on lumping all the groups politically into the single

category of "Hindu" as opposed to "Muslim'. Funds to support

communities, for education, social services, infrastructure, to

restore temples, preserve heritage and archeological sites...funds

for everything were tied-to obliterating "sectarian differences" and

accepting the government's one-category-fits-all "Hindu" political

label. The effect was that if a group insisted on preserving its

unique identity and heritage by not identifying itself on the census

as part of the generic 'Hindu' category, it would become a

governmental non-entity, and be deprived of all future tax-dollar

paid services. Thus the secular government was using the tax dollar

developmental monies purse-strings for anti-"communal' social

engineering.

The above example of the Jains' efforts to fight this is a good one,

but it gives the erroneous impression that the Vaishnavas and

other "sectarian' and 'communal' groups are not ALSO subjected to the

same anti-religious and ultimately genocidal forces to conform-or die-

of-neglect.

 

8.2 Judeo-Christian Hindus

Indeed, so vague is the definition of `Hinduism' that one can include

Jews and Christians in it ! This has already been done by our bigoted

Brahminists and Vaishnavas.

Jews

Who has put forth the claims that Jews are Hindus ? A Pandit from

Kashi

Mandir ? Or an Acharya from Poona Vedic Institute ? No ! A European

Aryan friend of the Brahmin Aryans has put forward these claims.

Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, which

originated the Nazi version of the Aryan race theory, wrote:

 

" Megasthenes says that the Jews were an Indian sect called Kalani,

and

their theology resembled that of the Indians. Other authors also

suspect

that the colonized Jews or the Judeans were the Yadus from

Afghanistan -- the old India. "

-- [ Isis.I, p.567 ]

Madame Blavatsky notes that the old French scholar Jacolliot, who

lived

in the 19th century, had already realized that India was the cradle

of

humanity. The august Jacolliot derived the Books of Moses from India:

 

" He [ Jacolliot ] shows the sources whence proceeded the revelations

of

all the ancient creeds, including the inspired Books of Moses, and

points

to India directly as the cradle of humanity, the parent of all other

nations."

-- [ Isis.I, p.584 ]

What these citations show is that the main culprits in the spread of

the

bogus Hindu-Aryan race theories were European Aryans, who were

bolstering their race pride.

 

>>>>>>One of the tragic things about the disinformation of the

European Aryanists is that it has polluted the entire field of

Indological studies. Aryanism really pervaded the western

humanities. As a result, real unbiased inquiry into the ancient

relationships between the Eastern, Levantine, Afro-Egyptian and

European cultures has been severely inhibited. Any evidence for real

ancient interactions between the African and Semitic and Indic

civilizations has been contaminated by the nonsense racial aryanist

speculations of the Euro-Aryanists. At present, one good thing to

come out of the Dravidian pride movement, is a new look at the

possible connections between Agamic Shaivism and other S. Indian

traditions, and those of very ancient Sumer, Akkad, the traditions of

the Biblical Western Semites in general, and traditions of Africa.

 

>>>>>All the above and below aryanist 'historical' nonsense is

typical of the bizarre mixture of truth, fantasy and out-rite racist

lies being promulgated by various fanatical aryanist 'Hindu' groups

today. Over the years I have written letters to the authors of some

of the outrageous claims made in this post, refuting them and

demanding the lies be retracted. This has not made me very popular

with the Hindu aryanist fanatics whether Advaiti, Vaishnava or

Shaivite. Fanatical Hindu Aryanism does unite the elite powerful

brahmins of India as a pro-Brahmin, anti-everyone else POLITICAL, not

religious entity.

 

>>>>>>The authors and promulgators of some of the below ideas are

also HEAVILY INFLUENCED by the Western Occult traditions, and have

wholly adopted some of their racist Aryanist, anti-Semitic and anti-

Catholic lies and doctrines from these sources. In reviewing a

recent book by ISKCON's popular historical-fiction-as-fact writer

Stephen Knapp (2000 World Relief Network) it is noteworthy that not

only is his work pervaded by Rosicrucian, Masonic and Theosophical

ideas, but he actually sites western esotericists like Spencer Lewis,

and New Age occult 'wisdom' pseudo-historians like Kersten as

quotable authorities alongside bona fide scholars, as if there is no

difference ! In the above and below statements, some of which come

from Knapp's book and the very popular bizarre writings of P.N. Oak,

Western esoteric sources have been used. Above Louis Jaccoliot, and

his avid Theosophical Society promoter H.P. Blavatsky are both

mentioned. Theosophy-related and New Age influenced Eastern and

Western Vaishnava sites on the internet often refer to the

imaginative esoteric and aryanist teachings of persons like

Blavatsky, Jaccoliot, Nicholas Notovitch, Eliaphas Levi, Spencer

Lewis, Manly P. Hall, Kersten, Gruber and the spurious 'Tomb of

Jesus' esoteric Sufism related Amahdiyya Muslims. P.N. Oak's

rabidly fanatic writings are very popular in some Hindu and Vaishnava

circles. None of Oak's or Knapp's fans seem to have any ability to

discriminate between authentic historical scholarship and the

imaginative fictions of the esoteric channeled 'masters; and their

earthly spokespersons.

http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9

Brian