The-Hindus-An-Alternative-History---Wendy-Doniger

The proliferation of polythetic polytheisms may pose problems for the definition ofHinduism, but they are its glory as a cultural phenomenon. Pluralism and diversity are deeplyingrained in polylithic Hinduism, the Ellis Island of religions; the lines between different beliefsand practices are permeable membranes. Not only can we see the Hindu traditions as dividedamong themselves on many central issues throughout history, but we can see what the argumentswere on each point, often far more than two views on major questions. The texts wrestle withcompeting truths, rather than offer pat answers.One sort of pluralism that has always prevailed in India is what I would call eclecticpluralism, or internal or individual pluralism, a kind of cognitive dissonance, 51 in which oneperson holds a toolbox of different beliefs more or less simultaneously, drawing upon one on oneoccasion, another on another. 52 Multiple narratives coexist peacefully, sometimes in one openmind and sometimes in a group of people whose minds may be, individually, relatively closed. acA pivotal example of such individual pluralism can be found in the law text of Manu, whichargues, within a single chapter, passionately against and then firmly for the eating of meat(5.26-56). Or as E. M. Forster once put it, “Every Indian hole has at least two exits.” 53 When itcomes to ritual too, an individual Hindu may worship several different gods on differentoccasions, to satisfy different needs, on different festival days, in fellowship with differentmembers of the family (a bride will often bring into the home a religion different from that of herhusband’s), or as a matter of choice as new gods are encountered.The compound structure of Sanskrit and the fact that most words have several meanings(it used to be said that every Sanskrit word means itself, its opposite, a name of god, and aposition in sexual intercourse ad ) enabled poets to construct long poems that told two entirelydifferent stories at the same time and shorter poems that had multiple meanings, depending onhow you divided up the compounds and chose among the various connotations of each word.This poetry, rich in metaphors, could itself stand as a metaphor for the Hindu approach tomultivalence.Eclectic pluralism between religions is more cautious, but it has allowed many anindividual, such as a Hindu who worships at a Sufi shrine, to embrace one tradition in such a wayas to make possible, if not full engagement with other faiths, at least full appreciation and evenadmiration of their wisdom and power. 54 The sorts of permeable membranes that marked onesort of Hinduism from another also marked Hinduism from other religions; the dialogues wereboth intrareligious and interreligious. Hinduism interacted creatively with, first, Buddhism andJainism, then Judaism and Christianity, then Islam and Sikhism, as well as with tribal religionsand other imports (such as Zoroastrianism). The interactions were sometimes conscious andsometimes unconscious, sometimes appreciative borrowings and sometimes violent butproductive antagonisms (as we will see, for instance, in the sometimes positive and sometimesnegative attitudes toward the story of Vishnu’s incarnation as the Buddha). In Rohinton Mistry’snovel Such a Long Journey, there is a wall in Bombay/Mumbai that the neighborhood menpersist in peeing and defecating against, creating a stench and a nuisance of flies. The protagonistof the novel hires an artist to paint images of all the religions of the world on the wall, amultireligious polytheistic dialogue of gods and mosques (respecting the Muslim rule againstrepresenting figures), so that no one, of any religion, will foul the wall. 55 (It works, for a while,until the city knocks down the wall to widen the road.) This seems to me to be a fine metaphorfor both the hopes and the frailty of interreligious dialogue in India.Hindus, Jainas, and Buddhists all told their own versions of some of the same stories.Hindus and Buddhists (and others) in the early period shared ideas so freely that it is impossible