ON THE HISTORICAL
MYTH OF ‘HINDUISM’
From
‘Myth of One Hindu Religion Exploded’
by
Hadwa Dom
Hinduism
did not exist before 1830. It was created by the English colonialists in
the 1830s … This is amply borne out by the Encyclopedia Britannica,
which states : “The term Hinduism ... [ was ] introduced in about 1830
by British writers.” [ EB 20 ‘Hinduism’ 519 ] In other words, the
founding father of ‘Hinduism’ is an Englishman! … "The term ‘Hindusthan’
was first used by a 12th century AD Afghan dynasty of Muhammad Ghori who
dubbed his new subjects “Hindus”. Prior to this era, no one in any
region of South Asia had ever used these terms to define themselves. ….
To summarize, in the words of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,
“The word [ Hindu ] was never used in Indian literature or scriptures
before the advent of Muslims to India.” If at all it was used in a
racial sense, “the Muslim rulers used the term ‘Hindu’ [correctly `Hindooi'] to mean Indian non-Muslims only.” The Aryans referred to the region
now known as ‘Punjab’ (Persian ‘Land of 5 Rivers’), as ‘Sapta Sindhu’.
In Old Achaemenid Persian this became ‘Hapta Hindwa’, and ‘Hindwa’ then
meant ‘Inhabitant of the Indus’, completely without religious
significance. In Greek ‘Hindwa’ became ‘Indoi’ (Indian), whence the
Latin ‘Indus’ river and ‘India’. The Greeks expanded the meaning of
India to include the entire subcontinent. It was never used to denote
any religion in Greek or Latin. In Old Persian ‘Hindwa’ denoted only the
‘Region around the Indus River’ and not the whole of India. In Pahlavi
or Middle Persian this developed into ‘Hindustan’ (The Land of the
Indus) but still denoted only the region around the Indus river. It was
later Sanskritized to ‘Hindusthan’. This meaning was later distorted to
denote ‘Land of Hindus’. The term ‘Mughalstan’ by contrast refers to the
Indus-Ganges basin which contains a Muslim majority.
In recent years the terms ‘Dravida Nadu’ or ‘Dravidistan’ and `Dalitstan'
have been coined to denote the regions where Dravidoids’ and Dalits
respectively are a majority. ‘Sudra Nadu' or ‘Sudrastan’ has developed
as an umbrella term for Dravidistan and Dalitstan.
A full one-third of all Negros in the world inhabit this Sudrastan, and
Pan-Negroism has played a considerable role in the spread of this
movement. The Arabs adopted the Old Persian ‘Hindwa’ as ‘Hind’ (India)
and ‘Hindwi’ (Indian). Neither of these words were used as applying to
any religion; they were purely geographical and national terms. None of
the medieval Arab travellers was aware of one single monolithic faith
being practiced. In fact, all the Arab travellers referred to the
Indians as practicing 42 different religions.
The Portuguese never even used the word ‘Hindu’ … to denote any Indian
religion, proving that Hinduism, did not exist as a concept at the time
of the Portuguese. Instead, they referred to the ‘Hindus’ as ‘Gentoos’.
Portuguese dictionaries give the following definition of ‘Gentoo’ :
Gentio
(Hindu, gentile, a
heathen, pagan) + applied by the Portuguese to the Hindus in
contradistinction to the Mouros, or Moors ie. Mohammedans.
… the concept of Hinduism was invented by the English with the ulterior motive of making their loyal servents, the Aryan Brahmins, the rulers of India. All the invasions of India by foreigners were engineered by the Brahmins. They actively collaborated with the Portuguese, helping them to conquer large parts of India. The offices of the Mughal empire were full of Brahmin conspirators. A full one-third of the British Bengal army was Brahmin. Indeed, the answer to the much-asked question, ‘Why has Indian history been a series of invasions ?' is ‘The Brahmins engineered them!’. The creation of Hinduism … and the propagation of these concepts is mainly due to vested interests with the following ulterior motives.
· Reward of Brahmin Collaborators - As shown above, the main motive in the English invention of Hinduism was to reward their Aryan Brahmin collaborators with an imagined leadership of all of Hinduism and by extension, all of India. Such were the services rendered to the British crown that not only were the Brahmins made leaders of India at that time, but the whole of Indian history was completely falsified to portray them as the ‘eternal rulers of all Hindus’.
· Dravidianism Suppressed - India obtained Independance from Anglo-Brahmin and Brahmin-Portuguese rule in 1947. However, the new state that arose was merely a neo-Brahminist casteocracy. One of the main ‘threats’ to the integrity of the new Aryan Brahmin-ruled republic was the spectre of Dravidian Nationalism. The Sudroids (Dravidoids and Kolarians) represent the original inhabitants of India, who were later subjugated by the Aryan invaders. They form the overwhelming majority in Southern India, and strong demands existed for a separate Dravidian nation. Ambedkar and many others fought for recognition of the Dravidian Religion as separate from the Hindu religion, but M.K. Gandhi foiled these attempts, and succeeded in temporarily subverting the Dravidians in Hinduism. The British were reluctant to recognise the Dravidian religion, since it would have antagonised their Brahmin collaborators. This is one of the prime motives behind the invention of Hinduism.
·
Vaishnavite
Ambitions - Since the majority of ‘Hindus’ were Brahminist Vaishnavites
in any case, it was hoped that Vaishnavism would thus become a synonym
for Hinduism, thereby subverting Shaivism (Dravidian Religion), Smartism,
etc. in one go
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