The great variety of people labelled ‘Hindu’
1. Don’t have an overbearingly singular figure of reverence in the manner of a jealous God or Allah
2. Don't have a singular Christ or Prophet
3. Have no overbearing claim (vis-à-vis others) to be in possession of a 'Book' containing the ultimately divine word or the ultimate truth
4. Have no concept of ‘professing’ a ‘belief’ (or ‘doctrine’) that can be neatly capsulated in a sentence (like Kalma/Shahada) or longer
5. Have no concept of labelling of people according to their ‘professed beliefs,' thus practicing no ‘belief’ or thought policing -- and allowing full freedom in what someone likes to think or ‘believe’
6. Have no clerical institution like the Church or Ulema/Mufti-hood controlling peoples' lives
7. Have no concept of a supreme leader like the Pope or Khalifa
8. Never allowed any Chruch-like institution to decide or substantially influence the ‘faith and morals’ of the society
9. Never laid down or imposed any obligatory pilgrimage like Haj; have no singular place of pilgrimage like Harmain Sharif (Mecca & Medina)
10. Never made it incumbent on people to emulate the ways of dead (or alive) men in the manner of obligatory aping of Muhammad’s Sunnat
11. Have no concept of a singular, worldwide community or Ummah
12. Have no tendency to set up an expansive State/empire like Khilafat, or Islamic state, or even the Vatican City
14. Have never had any concept of ‘conversion’ or ‘proselytization’
15. Don’t engage in the ethnocidal racket of setting up missionary/evangelical/Tablighi organizations
16. Have never shown any tendency to set up institutions like churches and mosques across the world in order to control the lives of ever larger chunks of humanity
17. Have never shown any inclination to impose anything in the nature of a canonical law or Shariat on themselves or others
18. Have no concept of 'Dhimmi'-hood to impose second class citizen status upon other people
19. Do not have any ecumenical or Vatican council authorized to amend the ‘doctrine’
19. Do not have any ecumenical or Vatican council authorized to amend the ‘doctrine’
20. Have no concept of ‘heresy’ or ‘bid’at’; so, no imposed fear of any punishment arising from such ‘heresy’ or ‘bid’at’.
21. Never say or support the view that their ‘belief’ or perspective should be implemented or imposed on the entire humanity
22. Never claim that theirs is the only way to ultimate deliverance or salvation
23. Have never had any concept of ‘apostasy’ or ‘Irtidad’ (or renouncing one’s ‘beliefs’); so, no imposed fear of any punishment for ‘apostasy’ or ‘Irtidad’.
---------
So, how did people labelleld ‘Hindu’ come to be regarded as belonging to something called ‘religion’ (like the 'religion' of Christianity)?
How did so called ‘Hinduism’ come to be deemed a ‘religion’?
How did the great variety of people labelleld ‘Hindu’ come to be associated with the ethnocidal concept of ‘religion’ that rejects ‘syncretism’ which is the oxygen of all human cultures found on Earth?
How did people representing Bharatiyata come to be associated with a pernicious concept called 'religion' which is the very antithesis of Bharatiyata?
How did we come to be saddled with an alien and un-Bharatiya concept of 'religion'?
Why did we ever accept the imposition of the colonial-imperial construct of 'religion' on our amazingly diverse cultural matrix?
How did we come to acquiesce in mislabeling of our cultures as ‘religion’?
Why do we continue with this state of affairs?
----------