Is Hinduism a World Religion?

This news item which was tucked away somewhere in the back page of Business Line dated 21^st March 2010 intrigues me. The researcher Joseph Henrich, an anthropologist at the university of British Colombia, Canada, from a study conducted in fifteen “small-scale societies” concludes that large industrialized societies where goods are exchanged for money and where there is “increased participation” in “world religions”, tend to be “nice to strangers.”

I don’t have any comments on the conclusion. Research on the net produced only re-writes of the BL news item. I look forward to reading more about the methodology and sample demography of this “study” before I can comment on the accuracy of its findings.

But after reading this news item, I started pondering on the word “world reliogion.” There is no information in the reports on this study as to what are the currently accepted and officially recognized “world religions.”

What is a religion?

Religion is a conceptual framework as to the supreme creator, sustainer, destroyer of the experienced universe a.k. a. God (with a capital G) and rules as to right behavior in public as well as private life.

A collection of these conceptual frameworks held together by certain tenuous links is prevalent in the Indian sub-continent and parts of Asia. This is currently called Hinduism. Though it is better understood as Dharma or the Code. Since this Code has subsisted since time immemorial, it is suggested that it may be termed “Sanatan Dharma.”

Is this bundle of belief systems and world views a “world religion” as understood by Robert Henrich. Or are we a small scale society?

It must be noted that this small scale society had trade links with Egypt even before Ancient Rome the progenitor of most western societies was even born. This society had evolved the following behavioral rules a s to strangers:

· Athtithi Deco Bhave – The stanger or guest is God!

· Vasudaiva Kudumpakam –The universe is but a single family.

Down south, the ancient Tamils of the Sangam age had clear concepts on how strangers were to be treated. These concepts that emphasize “being nice to strangers’ were being “practiced” in the sub continent around the time when in Ancient Briton being “nice to a stranger” meant killing him without torturing him!

Is Hinduism a World Religion?

If, World Religion, is understood as a conceptual construct that has the following characteristics,

1. A single infallible founder,
2. A broadly consistent dogma that is strictly enforced by social sanction or, in extreme cases, by municipal law,
3. Acceptance that it is the only correct version,

Then Hinduism does not qualify.