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Namaste to all readers,
American hegemony is a topic of contention, especially when you have someone capable of standing up to this process like Rajiv Malhotra and other collaborators, and revealing to the rest of the world just what is really going on. For me, this shines a light on the “on the ground” reality of American hegemony and brings to my attention a topic that most of us Americans/Europeans are unaware of, especially when it comes to Sanātana Dharma (Hinduism). Rajiv has examined this issue in light of current events in India and surrounding countries where Sanātanis (Hindus) are being impacted by hostile, discriminating actions taking place.
This is a sensitive topic for me, as it creates guilt and anger over my ancestors’ actions and the short-sightedness of their actions. I have had to consider this knowledge of my history as a white Sanātani (Hindu) woman in order to understand where I am coming from when I want to learn more about Dharma in general as a part of my Indic studies.
We must consider how prominence of non-biblical faiths (be it Dharmic family, Paganism, Atenism, etc.) has diminished in several different ways on the world stage due to Western/American hegemony; this includes military, political, educational, and legal means of hegemony.
Abrahamic religions include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the primary ones, and it is the latter two in particular that will be addressed in this article. First must be laid out the relative positions of the lands of Christianity, Islam, and Sanātana Dharma (Hinduism), in terms of civilization development.
Indic civilization of India came up with a very large body of knowledge thousands of years ago, in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, navigation, ship-building, metallurgy, forestry, water conservation, medical and surgical sciences, etc. Much of this knowledge was picked up by the invaders, explored and used, and then carried out west, until it finally arrived centuries later in Western Europe. The question then becomes, “If this is the case, then how did India (plus several countries that were once under the control of India) decline to become less powerful in the face of Islamic and Christian invaders?”
First, we must take a brief look at the history of Bhārata (India) as it happened over the centuries prior to the rise of these two Abrahamic religions. It is known that India had a highly developed language (Saṃskṛtam, or Sanskrit) plus the aforementioned knowledge over a very long period of development, long before Christianity and Islam arrived. Long before Europe and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) started to civilize themselves and develop some knowledge to any great extent, Dharmic society had already developed to a point of having a language like Saṃskṛtam, which reflects a number of characteristics; it has a wide range of sounds in the alphasyllabary, sounds are organized systematically (vowels, consonants, conjuncts, where the consonants occur in the mouth, etc.), pronunciation rules are relatively uniform compared to languages like English, spelling is consistent, and the language is very dense, packed with information compared to present-day European languages. This level of organization is present ONLY when there is a need for it. In terms of human endeavor, time, and talent spent to develop this level of organization, it is very expensive. Culture, knowledge, and daily living has to develop to the point where such refined language skills are necessary to understand and in turn explain to students the knowledge needed to maintain a level of civilization; a civilization does not sustain itself – it requires the active participation of members of society in keeping it alive. We really did not see this occur in Europe until many centuries later.
The development of language to this level shows a major factor; the lowering of its guard through the level of refinement of civil behavior through Dharma to the point that military weaponry was not updated as often for lack of a feverish drive to beat one another as was the case with wars between Christians and Muslims, and tactics were not updated as often, either. Battles within India were typically carried out in fields away from cities and towns, unlike the wars with invaders coming into India, where anything went; wars happened anywhere where people and treasures could be found. It wasn’t until some time later that the Indians began to fight back the Muslims and reclaim territory.
Christianity and Islam has characteristics of extrovertedness (looking outward for answers as opposed to looking inward), exclusiveness, history-centrism, and geo-centrism. These two religions do not allow anything that does not subscribe to their ideologies to be considered valid. They are very much based on a particular version of history; how and where something happened, the people involved, and the roles they played.
Sanātana Dharma, on the other hand, has a form of Inner Science where an individual looks within to find Brahman, or God, and find the connection to it. The difference between Sanatana Dharma and Christianity or Islam is that in the latter two it is God’s son (Christ) or the Prophet (Muhammad) who play a permanent mediating role between man and God; where man can reach God only through the medium of Christ or the Prophet. In Sanatana Dharma, the Guru can be temporary in that the spiritual aspirant is taught how to reach the point of Self-Realization, or contacting and becoming one with God (Dualists have different goals). Then once this has happened, the person is a liberated soul (jīvanmukta) with no further need for a Guru (and perhaps becomes a Guru). History-centrism is not so much relied upon nearly to the extent found in Abrahamic religions.1
Because of the characteristics of Christianity, pagan societies in Europe were the first to be taken over, followed by the holocaust of the Native Americans up and down the Americas and the invasion of Asia before continuing onto Africa today. Because of the warlike characteristics of Christian culture and development of warfare technology along with military strategy, it became easier to defeat their non-biblical enemies, since they had not developed such knowledge and technology. This was also because of a very fundamental difference in how such civilizations functioned. War thus was the first means of overcoming such enemies. The next tool after successful invasion and subjugation of the people was education; to teach Christianity, Western doctrine, and how to relate to the world with this civilizational mindset. The third tool was the installation of institutions in these foreign lands that the subjects could connect with to reinforce the educational basis. This would then ensure that they would be less likely to revert back to their original ways. A part of this included tool number four, the installation of a legal system that encroached upon the religious or customary laws of the people. While this was going on, the disruption of the fabric of society through these means was underway.2
American hegemony is a topic of contention, especially when you have someone capable of standing up to this process like Rajiv Malhotra and other collaborators, and revealing to the rest of the world just what is really going on. For me, this shines a light on the “on the ground” reality of American hegemony and brings to my attention a topic that most of us Americans/Europeans are unaware of, especially when it comes to Sanātana Dharma (Hinduism). Rajiv has examined this issue in light of current events in India and surrounding countries where Sanātanis (Hindus) are being impacted by hostile, discriminating actions taking place.
This is a sensitive topic for me, as it creates guilt and anger over my ancestors’ actions and the short-sightedness of their actions. I have had to consider this knowledge of my history as a white Sanātani (Hindu) woman in order to understand where I am coming from when I want to learn more about Dharma in general as a part of my Indic studies.
We must consider how prominence of non-biblical faiths (be it Dharmic family, Paganism, Atenism, etc.) has diminished in several different ways on the world stage due to Western/American hegemony; this includes military, political, educational, and legal means of hegemony.
Abrahamic religions include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the primary ones, and it is the latter two in particular that will be addressed in this article. First must be laid out the relative positions of the lands of Christianity, Islam, and Sanātana Dharma (Hinduism), in terms of civilization development.
Indic civilization of India came up with a very large body of knowledge thousands of years ago, in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, navigation, ship-building, metallurgy, forestry, water conservation, medical and surgical sciences, etc. Much of this knowledge was picked up by the invaders, explored and used, and then carried out west, until it finally arrived centuries later in Western Europe. The question then becomes, “If this is the case, then how did India (plus several countries that were once under the control of India) decline to become less powerful in the face of Islamic and Christian invaders?”
First, we must take a brief look at the history of Bhārata (India) as it happened over the centuries prior to the rise of these two Abrahamic religions. It is known that India had a highly developed language (Saṃskṛtam, or Sanskrit) plus the aforementioned knowledge over a very long period of development, long before Christianity and Islam arrived. Long before Europe and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) started to civilize themselves and develop some knowledge to any great extent, Dharmic society had already developed to a point of having a language like Saṃskṛtam, which reflects a number of characteristics; it has a wide range of sounds in the alphasyllabary, sounds are organized systematically (vowels, consonants, conjuncts, where the consonants occur in the mouth, etc.), pronunciation rules are relatively uniform compared to languages like English, spelling is consistent, and the language is very dense, packed with information compared to present-day European languages. This level of organization is present ONLY when there is a need for it. In terms of human endeavor, time, and talent spent to develop this level of organization, it is very expensive. Culture, knowledge, and daily living has to develop to the point where such refined language skills are necessary to understand and in turn explain to students the knowledge needed to maintain a level of civilization; a civilization does not sustain itself – it requires the active participation of members of society in keeping it alive. We really did not see this occur in Europe until many centuries later.
The development of language to this level shows a major factor; the lowering of its guard through the level of refinement of civil behavior through Dharma to the point that military weaponry was not updated as often for lack of a feverish drive to beat one another as was the case with wars between Christians and Muslims, and tactics were not updated as often, either. Battles within India were typically carried out in fields away from cities and towns, unlike the wars with invaders coming into India, where anything went; wars happened anywhere where people and treasures could be found. It wasn’t until some time later that the Indians began to fight back the Muslims and reclaim territory.
Christianity and Islam has characteristics of extrovertedness (looking outward for answers as opposed to looking inward), exclusiveness, history-centrism, and geo-centrism. These two religions do not allow anything that does not subscribe to their ideologies to be considered valid. They are very much based on a particular version of history; how and where something happened, the people involved, and the roles they played.
Sanātana Dharma, on the other hand, has a form of Inner Science where an individual looks within to find Brahman, or God, and find the connection to it. The difference between Sanatana Dharma and Christianity or Islam is that in the latter two it is God’s son (Christ) or the Prophet (Muhammad) who play a permanent mediating role between man and God; where man can reach God only through the medium of Christ or the Prophet. In Sanatana Dharma, the Guru can be temporary in that the spiritual aspirant is taught how to reach the point of Self-Realization, or contacting and becoming one with God (Dualists have different goals). Then once this has happened, the person is a liberated soul (jīvanmukta) with no further need for a Guru (and perhaps becomes a Guru). History-centrism is not so much relied upon nearly to the extent found in Abrahamic religions.1
Because of the characteristics of Christianity, pagan societies in Europe were the first to be taken over, followed by the holocaust of the Native Americans up and down the Americas and the invasion of Asia before continuing onto Africa today. Because of the warlike characteristics of Christian culture and development of warfare technology along with military strategy, it became easier to defeat their non-biblical enemies, since they had not developed such knowledge and technology. This was also because of a very fundamental difference in how such civilizations functioned. War thus was the first means of overcoming such enemies. The next tool after successful invasion and subjugation of the people was education; to teach Christianity, Western doctrine, and how to relate to the world with this civilizational mindset. The third tool was the installation of institutions in these foreign lands that the subjects could connect with to reinforce the educational basis. This would then ensure that they would be less likely to revert back to their original ways. A part of this included tool number four, the installation of a legal system that encroached upon the religious or customary laws of the people. While this was going on, the disruption of the fabric of society through these means was underway.2
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