Does Hinduism sanction killing in its name? Do the shruti and the smriti — the heard texts and the remembered texts — anywhere speak of Holy war? Has Hinduism in its long evolution ever spawned violent cults like the Islamic State? Instead, the Bhagavad Gita, hailed by ministers of this government as the soul of India, is an intensely argued contest between two intellectual positions on the need for killing. Arjuna went into battle but remained agonized about bringing death.
Yet those apparently Hindu organisations accused of killing in the name of “injury to Hindu sentiments” seem deeply enamoured of the violent strains of Islamist extremism. So enamoured are they that they are desperately trying to become wannabe Islamists, deriving perhaps Read More
