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Hindu ( pronunciation (help·info); Devanagari:हिंदू) refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion (i.e. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism).^[1] In common use today, it refers to an adherent of Hinduism.

With more than a billion adherents, Hinduism is the world's third largest religion. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 940 million, live in India.^[2] Other countries with large Hindu populations include Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji and the island of Bali.

Etymology[link]

The swastika in the Hindu decorative form.

The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, first mentioned in the Rig Veda,^[3] was the historic local appellation for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.^[4]

The Brihaspati Agama says:

The usage of the word Hindu was further popularized for Arabs and further west by the Arabic term al-Hind referring to the land of the people who live across river Indus^[7] and the Persian term Hindū referring to all Indians. By the 13th century, Hindustān emerged as a popular alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindus".^[8]

Originally, Hindu was a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent (or Hindustan) irrespective of their religious affiliation. It occurs sporadically in some 16th-18th century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata, usually to contrast Hindus with Yavanas or Mlecchas.^[9] It appears in South Indian and Kashmiri texts from at least 1323 CE,^[10] and increasingly so during British rule. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of Indian religions as Hindus. Eventually, it came to define a precisely religious identity that includes any person of Indian origin who neither practiced Abrahamic religions nor non-Vedic Indian religions, such as Jainism, Sikhism or Buddhism, thereby encompassing a wide range of religious beliefs and practices related to Sanātana Dharma.^[11]

The term Hinduism was formed around 1830 to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions. It was soon appropriated by the Hindus in India themselves as they tried to establish a national, social and cultural identity opposed to European colonialism in India.^[11]

History[link]

The notion of grouping the indigenous religions of India under a single umbrella term Hindu emerges as a result of various invasions in India bringing forth non-indigenous religions such as Islam to the Indian Subcontinent^[12] Numerous Muslim invaders, such as Babur and Aurangzeb, destroyed Hindu temples and persecuted non-Muslims; some, such as Akbar, were more tolerant. Hinduism underwent profound changes, in large part due to the influence of the prominent teachers Ramanuja, Madhva and Chaitanya.^[12] Followers of the Bhakti movement moved away from the abstract concept of Brahman, which the philosopher Adi Shankara consolidated a few centuries before, with emotional, passionate devotion towards what they believed as the more accessible Avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.^[13]

The Swaminarayan sect's Akshardham Temple in Delhi, according the Guinness World Records is the World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple

Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 18th century by Sir William Jones and 19th century, by scholars such as Max Müller and John Woodroffe. They brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. At the same time, societies such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Theosophical Society attempted to reconcile and fuse Abrahamic and Dharmic philosophies, endeavouring to institute societal reform. This period saw the emergence of movements which, while highly innovative, were rooted in indigenous tradition. They were based on the personalities and teachings of individuals, as with Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi. Prominent Hindu philosophers, including Aurobindo and Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), translated, reformulated and presented Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations, attracting followers and attention in India and abroad.

Others, such as Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, B.K.S. Iyengar and Swami Rama, have also been instrumental in raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West. Today modern movements, such as ISKCON and the Swaminarayan Faith, attract a large amount of followers across the world.^[14]

Definition[link]

The Bhagavad Gītā, a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna before the start of the Kurukshetra war, is one of the foremost Hindu scriptures^[15] and is described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy and beliefs.^[16]

The diverse set of religious beliefs, traditions and philosophies of the Hindus are the product of an amalgamation process that began with the decline of Buddhism in India (5th-8th Century), where traditions of Vedic Brahmanism and the mystical schools of Vedanta were combined with Shramana traditions and regional cults to give rise to the socio-religious and cultural sphere later described as "Hinduism".

Adi Shankara's commentaries on the Upanishads led to the rise of Advaita Vedanta, the most influential sub-school of Vedanta. Hinduism continues to be divided in numerous several sects and denominations, of which Vaishnavism and Shaivism are by far the most popular.^[17] Other aspects include folk and conservative Vedic Hinduism. Since the 18th century, Hinduism has accommodated a host of new religious and reform movements, with Arya Samaj being one of the most notable Hindu revivalist organizations.

Due to the wide diversity in the beliefs, practices and traditions encompassed by Hinduism, there is no universally accepted definition on who a Hindu is, or even agreement on whether the term Hinduism represents a religious, cultural or socio-political entity. In 1995, Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling:^[18]

When we think of the Hindu religion, unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one god; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.

Thus some scholars argue that the Hinduism is not a religion per se but rather a reification of a diverse set of traditions and practices by scholars who constituted a unified system and arbitrarily labeled it Hinduism.^[19] The usage may also have been necessitated by the desire to distinguish between "Hindus" and followers of other religions during the periodic census undertaken by the colonial British government in India. Other scholars, while seeing Hinduism as a 19th century construct, view Hinduism as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists who forged a unified tradition centered on oral and written Sanskrit texts adopted as scriptures.^[20]

While Hinduism contains both "uniting and dispersing tendencies", it also has a common central thread of philosophical concepts (including dharma, moksha and samsara), practices (puja, bhakti etc.) and cultural traditions.^[21] These common elements originating (or being codified within) the Vedic, Upanishad and Puranic scriptures and epics. Thus a Hindu could :

• follow any of the Hindu schools of philosophy, such as Advaita (non-dualism), Vishishtadvaita (non-dualism of the qualified whole), Dvaita (dualism), Dvaitadvaita (dualism with non-dualism), etc.^[22][23]
• follow a tradition centered on any particular form of the Divine, such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, etc.^[24]
• practice any one of the various forms of yoga systems; including bhakti (Hindu devotional movements) in order to achieve moksha.

A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

The Republic of India is in the peculiar situation that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been called upon to define "Hinduism" because the Constitution of India, while it prohibits "discrimination of any citizen" on grounds of religion in article 15, article 30 foresees special rights for "All minorities, whether based on religion or language". As a consequence, religious groups have an interest in being recognized as distinct from the Hindu majority in order to qualify as a "religious minority". Thus, the Supreme Court was forced to consider the question whether Jainism is part of Hinduism in 2005 and 2006. In the 2006 verdict, the Supreme Court found that the "Jain Religion is indisputably not a part of the Hindu Religion".^[25] In 1995, while considering the question "who are Hindus and what are the broad features of Hindu religion", the Supreme Court of India highlighted Bal Gangadhar Tilak's formulation of Hinduism's defining features:^[18]

Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and the realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion.

Some thinkers have attempted to distinguish between the concept of Hinduism as a religion, and a Hindu as a member of a nationalist or socio-political class. In Hindu nationalism, the term "Hindu" combines notions of geographical unity, common culture and common race. Thus, Veer Savarkar in his influential pamphlet "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?" defined a Hindu as a person who sees India "as his Fatherland as well as his Holy land, that is, the cradle land of his religion".^[26] This conceptualization of Hinduism, has led to establishment of Hindutva as the dominant force in Hindu nationalism over the last century.^[27]

Ethnic and cultural fabric[link]

See also: Demographics of India, History of India, and Hindutva

The Mother Temple of Besakih in Bali, Indonesia.

Hinduism, its religious doctrines, traditions and observances are very typical and inextricably linked to the culture and demographics of India. Hinduism has one of the most ethnically diverse bodies of adherents in the world. It is hard to classify Hinduism as a religion because the framework, symbols, leaders and books of reference that make up a typical religion are not uniquely identified in the case of Hinduism. Hinduism is almost 4,000 years old. Most commonly it can be seen as a "way of life" which gives rise to many other forms of religions.

Large tribes and communities indigenous to India are closely linked to the synthesis and formation of Hindu civilization. People of East Asian roots living in the states of north eastern India and Nepal were also a part of the earliest Hindu civilization. Immigration and settlement of people from Central Asia and people of Indo-Greek heritage have brought their own influence on Hindu society.

Diwali celebrations in Little India, Singapore.

The roots of Hinduism in southern India, and among tribal and indigenous communities is just as ancient and fundamentally contributive to the foundations of the religious and philosophical system.

Ancient Hindu kingdoms arose and spread the religion and traditions across Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and what is now central Vietnam. A form of Hinduism particularly different from Indian roots and traditions is practiced in Bali, Indonesia, where Hindus form 90% of the population. Indian migrants have taken Hinduism and Hindu culture to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius and other countries in and around the Indian Ocean, and in the nations of the West Indies and the Caribbean.

See also[link]

• Hindu festivals
• Initiation in Hinduism
• Samskaram

Notes[link]

1. ^ India-Constitution:Religious rights Article 25:"Explanation II: In sub-Clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion"
2. ^ CIA World Factbook - India Demographics 80.5% of 1.166 billion Indians are Hindus
3. ^ "Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN LXXV. The Rivers". Sacred-texts.com. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10075.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-21. 
4. ^ "India", Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 2100a.d. Oxford University Press.
5. ^ "Download Attachment". Sites.google.com. http://sites.google.com/site/sarasvati95/antiquityhindu.pdf?attredirects=0. Retrieved 2012-01-21. 
6. ^ Sharma, Jai Narain (2008-01-01). Encyclopaedia of eminent thinkers. ISBN 978-81-8069-500-1. http://books.google.com/?id=Dz-5B8_jMpEC&pg=PA59&dq=%22Brihaspati+Agama%22#v=onepage&q=%22Brihaspati%20Agama%22&f=false. 
7. ^ Thapar, R. 1993. Interpreting Early India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 77
8. ^ Thompson Platts, John. A dictionary of Urdu , classical Hindī, and English. W.H. Allen & Co., Oxford University 1884 
9. ^ O'Conell, Joseph T. (1973). "The Word 'Hindu' in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Texts". Journal of the American Oriental Society 93 (3): pp. 340–344. 
10. ^ David Lorenzen, Who Invented Hinduism? New Delhi 2006, pp. 24-33; Rajatarangini of Yonaraja : "Hinduka"
11. ^ ^{a b} Gavin, Flood. "Hare Krishna: Hinduism, Vaisnavism, and ISKCON: Authentic Traditions or Scholarly Constructions?". Cults and Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2001. http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/flood_gavin_hinduismvaisismandiskcon.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Basham 1999
13. ^ J.T.F. Jordens, "Medieval Hindu Devotionalism" in & Basham 1999
14. ^ Raymond Brady Williams (2004). Williams on South Asian Religions and Immigration: Collected Works. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 0-7546-3856-1. http://books.google.com/?id=nkVBOfE1KkAC&dq=swaminarayan+hare+krishna p.217
15. ^ Pandit, Bansi. Explore Hinduism. p. 27
16. ^ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; On The Bhagavad Gita; A New Translation and Commentary With Sanskrit Text Chapters 1 to 6, Preface p. 9
17. ^ "Hinduism". Adherents.com. http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Hinduism. Retrieved 2010-09-01. 
18. ^ ^{a b} Supreme Court of India, "Bramchari Sidheswar Shai and others Versus State of West Bengal", 1995.
19. ^ Frykenberg, Robert. "The emergence of modern 'Hinduism' as a concept and as an Institution: A reappraisal with special reference to South India" in Hinduism reconsidered, Manohar, Delhi, 1989. ISBN 81-7304-385-X
20. ^ Hardy, F. "A radical assessment of the Vedic heritage" in Representing Hinduism: The Construction of Religious and National Identity, Sage Publ., Delhi, 1995.
21. ^ Flood, Gavin, "Establishing the boundaries" in Flood (2003), pp. 1-17.
22. ^ Muller, F. Max. Six Systems of Indian Philosophy; Samkhya and Yoga; Naya and Vaiseshika. 1899. This classic work helped to establish the major classification systems as we know them today. Reprint edition: (Kessinger Publishing: February 2003) ISBN 978-0-7661-4296-1.
23. ^ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. (Princeton University Press; 1957) Princeton paperback 12th edition, 1989. ISBN 0-691-01958-4.
24. ^ Swami Tattwananda. Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship. (Firma KLM Private Ltd.: Calcutta, 1984). This work gives an overview of many different subsets of the three main religious groups in India.
25. ^ para 25, Committee of Management Kanya Junior High School Bal Vidya Mandir, Etah, Uttar Pradesh v. Sachiv, U.P. Basic Shiksha Parishad, Allahabad, U.P. and Ors., Per Dalveer Bhandari J., Civil Appeal No. 9595 of 2003, decided On: 21.08.2006, Supreme Court of India
26. ^ Savarkar, V. K. Hindutva, Hindi Sahitya Sadan, 2003. ISBN 81-88388-25-4
27. ^ Ram-Prasad, C. "Contemporary political Hinduism" in Blackwell companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-631-21535-2

References[link]

• Flood, Gavin (Editor) (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 1-4051-3251-5. 
• Radhakrishnan, S.; Moore, CA (1967). A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy. Princeton. ISBN 0-691-01958-4. 
• Tattwananda, Swami (1984). Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship. Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Ltd..  First revised edition.

Further reading[link]

• Dass, Baboo Ishuree (1860). Domestic manners and customs of the Hindoos of northern India, or, more strictly speaking, of the north west provinces of India.. Medical Hall Press, Benares. http://www.archive.org/stream/domesticmanners00dassgoog#page/n5/mode/2up. 

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Senator A. Rehman Malik (Urdu: رحمان ملک ) (born 12 December 1951^{[citation needed]}) is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. He was upgraded to latter position from Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs and Narcotics Control after he was elected in the Senate of Pakistan.^[1] He took the oath as the federal minister on 27 April 2009.^[2][3]

Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pakistan Peoples Party and was the trusted lieutenant and chief security officer (CSO) of Benazir Bhutto.

On 30th May 2012,Pakistan's Supreme Court gave Rehman Malik a one-day deadline to prove that he has given up his British citizenship, in absence of which he would lose his membership of the senate.^[4]

On 30th May 2012,A three member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chaudhry, was hearing the dual nationality case, and observed that the documents presented by Malik’s counsel did not have the declaration of the interior minister renouncing his British citizenship.^[5]

Federal Investigation Agency career[link]

Benazir Bhutto appointed Malik as the additional director-general of the FIA which then launched a secret war against the Islamist elements in Pakistan, which amounted to a direct attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).^[6] The Pakistani military was equally dismayed by reports of FIA contacts with the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, to investigate Islamist terrorists. The FIA leadership under Bhutto also angered Taliban supporters within the establishment, because they allowed the extradition of Ramzi Yousef to the US for trial on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.^[6]

One of the first acts of President Leghari after dismissing Benazir Bhutto on 5 November 1996 was to imprison Ghulam Asghar, head of the FIA, on non specified corruption charges, and Malik, Additional Director General of FIA, was also arrested.^[6]

In 2011 Karachi University awarded him an honorary PhD.^{[citation needed]} During his nine-year long exile in England, Malik obtained British citizenship. However, Malik stated that he have up his British nationality in 2008 before holding public office.^[7]

Removal from FIA and exile[link]

In November 1998, Malik termed the termination of his service by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif an "act of retaliation" because of the 200-page report, which he had sent to then President Rafiq Tarar, disclosing large-scale corruption of Sharif family.U Malik then fled to London and made corruption accusation against the Sharif brothers.^[8]

With the dismissal of the government of the PPP, Malik left the country and settled in the United Kingdom where he started his business and became a business tycoon. He assisted Benazir Bhutto during her exile, and he was the chief of the security of Bhutto when she returned home in 2007.^[2]

Malik emerged as the deal broker in Benazir-Musharraf reconciliation talks in Abu Dhabi in July 2007, and replaced Makhdoom Amin Fahim as the most trusted political lieutenant of Benazir Bhutto. Fahim was Benazir's aide since 2002, when he formed the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and acted as the leader of PPP in the absence of Benazir and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. It was also reported in The News that after Malik took over the role of top "adviser and broker" of Benazir on important matters ranging from politics to business, Fahim seemed to have become an "obsolete political commodity."^[9]

Appointment as Interior Minister[link]

He was made an adviser on interior affairs and narcotics control to the PPP Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, with the status of Federal Minister. He was later upgraded as Interior Minister of Pakistan.^{[citation needed]}

National Reconciliation Ordinance[link]

In 2007 threekuta ha s alleged case of corruption against Malik were dropped under the amnesty of the National Reconciliation Ordinance.^[10]

References[link]