Ghats in Varanasi · Ken Wieland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Understanding a Hindu in 5 minutes
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A family of traditions, not a single church
Hinduism has no founder, no single holy book, no pope and no creed everyone must recite. It grew over more than three thousand years from Vedic ritual, philosophy, temple worship, devotion and countless local customs. Many Hindus prefer the name *Sanatana Dharma*, "the eternal way". The word "Hindu" itself began as an outsiders' geographical term for people beyond the Indus. About 1.2 billion people are Hindu, some 95% of them in India.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- Hindu population change, 2010–2020 — Pew Research Center (2025)
- Hinduism — Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Dharma, karma, rebirth and liberation
Most Hindus share a few big ideas. *Dharma* is right order and duty, varying with one's stage of life and place in society. *Karma* is the law that actions bear fruit, in this life or the next. The soul (*atman*) passes through many births (*samsara*), and the highest goal is *moksha*, liberation from that cycle. In Pew's 2019–20 survey, 77% of Indian Hindus said they believed in karma. These ideas give life a long, patient, moral horizon.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Upaniṣads (Oxford World's Classics) — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Oxford University Press (1996)
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
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Many gods, one reality
Hindus worship many deities: Vishnu and his incarnations Rama and Krishna, Shiva, the great Goddess as Durga, Kali or Lakshmi, the elephant-headed Ganesha, and many more. Yet most Hindus will also tell you that God is ultimately one, approached in many forms, an idea rooted in the Vedas and Upanishads. Families usually have a favourite deity, and the main traditions, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta and Smarta, focus devotion in different ways without denying the others.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
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Stories everyone knows
The two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, with the Bhagavad Gita at its heart, are the shared imagination of Hindus everywhere. Children hear them from grandparents, comics and cartoons; in 1987–88 a TV serial of the Ramayana emptied India's streets every Sunday morning. Rama the righteous king, Sita the faithful wife, Hanuman the devoted monkey and Krishna the divine charioteer are as familiar as family members, and are argued over just as much.
- The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India — Robert P. Goldman (general editor), Princeton University Press (1984)
- Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia — Paula Richman (ed.), University of California Press (1991)
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography — Richard H. Davis, Princeton University Press (2015)
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A religion of the home and the calendar
For most Hindus faith is lived through practice rather than doctrine: a small shrine at home with a daily lamp and offerings (*puja*), visits to the temple to "see" the deity (*darshan*), vegetarian days, fasts, pilgrimages and a year full of festivals, above all Diwali and Holi. Rituals mark birth, the first haircut, the sacred thread for some boys, marriage around the sacred fire and cremation at death. Doing, eating and celebrating together matter more than any statement of belief.
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press (2004)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
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Caste, the hardest subject
Ancient texts describe four *varnas* (priests, warriors, merchants and labourers), and social life was organised into thousands of birth-groups (*jatis*), with "untouchables", today's Dalits, at the bottom. Many Hindus see caste as a social distortion, not the heart of their faith; reformers from the bhakti poets to Gandhi attacked untouchability, and B. R. Ambedkar left Hinduism over it. Caste still shapes marriage and politics, and talking about it honestly is uncomfortable but necessary.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press (2001)
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
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Who speaks for Hinduism?
Today Hindus argue about what their faith means in public life. Hindutva, the Hindu nationalist ideology dating from the 1920s, sees India as a Hindu nation and has become politically dominant. Many other Hindus, from Gandhians and liberals to traditional scholars and monks, see Hinduism as plural and tolerant by nature and fear its reduction to a political identity. Both sides claim to defend the faith, and the argument runs through families and temples worldwide.
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
The story
The Vedic age
1500 BCE – 501 BCE The Vedas and the Vedic age
Poet-priests compose the hymns of the Rigveda and the other Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, passed down orally for millennia.
- The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India — Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (trans.), Oxford University Press (2014)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate — Edwin Bryant, Oxford University Press (2001)
- Tradition of Vedic chanting (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO (2008)
Read more
- The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India — Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (trans.), Oxford University Press (2014)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate — Edwin Bryant, Oxford University Press (2001)
- Tradition of Vedic chanting (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO (2008)
The Vedas are Hinduism's highest scriptural authority, still chanted at weddings, funerals and temple rites, and the fire ritual at the heart of a Hindu wedding goes back to them. Where the Vedic people came from is one of the most politically charged questions in Indian history.
The Rigveda, a collection of 1,028 hymns in ten books, is the oldest Hindu text and one of the oldest religious texts still in use anywhere. Most scholars date its composition to roughly 1500–1200 BCE, in the land of the "seven rivers", the Punjab.
The Vedas are eternal and not composed by any human (apaurusheya). Ancient seers (rishis) "heard" them in meditation and handed them down unchanged.
Vedic Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family, close to old Iranian.
Some Indian writers, often linked to Hindu nationalism, argue that the Vedic people were indigenous, that the Vedas are much older, and that Indo-European languages spread out of India.
The Upanishads: the search for the self
Teachers in the forests and courts of north India turn from ritual to the question of the self, giving Hinduism its ideas of brahman, atman, karma and liberation.
- Upaniṣads (Oxford World's Classics) — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Oxford University Press (1996)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Read more
- Upaniṣads (Oxford World's Classics) — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Oxford University Press (1996)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
The Upanishads are the foundation of Vedanta, the philosophy most Hindus and most Westerners think of as "Hindu thought". Their teaching that the self is one with ultimate reality lies behind modern Hindu claims that all religions point to one truth.
From around the seventh century BCE, as cities and kingdoms grew in the Ganges plain, some thinkers began to ask what lay behind the Vedic rituals. Their dialogues, the Upanishads, were attached to the end of the Vedas, which is why their philosophy is called Vedanta, "the end of the Veda".
Renunciation, epics & law books
500 BCE – 299 The Ramayana: the story of Rama
The epic of Prince Rama, his exile, the abduction of his wife Sita by the demon king Ravana, and his return to rule Ayodhya in justice.
- The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India — Robert P. Goldman (general editor), Princeton University Press (1984)
- Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia — Paula Richman (ed.), University of California Press (1991)
- Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO (2008)
Read more
- The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India — Robert P. Goldman (general editor), Princeton University Press (1984)
- Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia — Paula Richman (ed.), University of California Press (1991)
- Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO (2008)
Rama is the model of the dutiful son, husband and king, and "Ram Rajya", the rule of Rama, means an ideal state. Diwali celebrates his homecoming, the Ramlila is staged in thousands of towns each autumn, and the cry "Jai Shri Ram" is both a devotional greeting and, since the Ayodhya campaign, a political slogan.
Valmiki's Ramayana, about 24,000 verses in seven books, tells how Rama, eldest son of King Dasharatha of Ayodhya, is sent into forest exile for fourteen years on the eve of his coronation, because of a promise his father made to a younger queen. His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana go with him.
Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu who really lived in Ayodhya in a much earlier age of the world, the Treta Yuga, and the sage Valmiki recorded his life.
Valmiki's Sanskrit poem grew over several centuries, with later layers that stress Rama's divinity.
The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita
The world's longest epic tells of a catastrophic war between cousins, and at its heart Krishna teaches the warrior Arjuna the Bhagavad Gita.
- Mahābhārata — James L. Fitzgerald, in The Hindu World, ed. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Routledge (2004)
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography — Richard H. Davis, Princeton University Press (2015)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Read more
- Mahābhārata — James L. Fitzgerald, in The Hindu World, ed. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Routledge (2004)
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography — Richard H. Davis, Princeton University Press (2015)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
The Gita is the closest thing Hinduism has to a single handbook, read by Gandhi and Tilak, quoted by Oppenheimer and sworn on by Hindu politicians abroad. The Mahabharata says of itself, roughly, that whatever is in it may be found elsewhere, but what is not in it is found nowhere, and many Hindus see it that way: a mirror of every human dilemma.
The Mahabharata, roughly 100,000 couplets long, tells of two branches of a royal family, the five Pandava brothers and their hundred Kaurava cousins, who fight over the kingdom of Hastinapura.
The sage Vyasa composed the epic about a real war fought at Kurukshetra, which tradition places at the start of the present age, the Kali Yuga, in 3102 BCE.
The epic grew over many centuries from bardic tales of a war among north Indian clans, with philosophical and devotional material, including the Gita, added along the way.
Puranas & temple Hinduism
300 – 699 The Puranas and the age of temples
Hinduism takes its classical form as worship of Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess in temples replaces the Vedic sacrifice, and the Puranas tell their stories.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
Read more
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
Most of what Hindus do today, worshipping images of deities, visiting temples, telling the myths of Vishnu's avatars or Shiva and Parvati, celebrating the Goddess at Navaratri, took shape in this era. Its great temples, from Thanjavur to Angkor, are sources of enormous pride.
From about the Gupta period, a new kind of Hinduism spread across India. Instead of priests offering fire sacrifices to Vedic gods, devotees worshipped a supreme deity, Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess, through offerings (puja) to an image housed in a temple.
The bhakti poets: devotion for everyone
Poet-saints across India, from Tamil singers to Kabir and Mirabai, preach passionate love of God in the people's languages, open to women and low castes.
- A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement — John Stratton Hawley, Harvard University Press (2015)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Speaking of Śiva — A. K. Ramanujan (trans.), Penguin Classics (1973)
- Mira Bai — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read more
- A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement — John Stratton Hawley, Harvard University Press (2015)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Speaking of Śiva — A. K. Ramanujan (trans.), Penguin Classics (1973)
- Mira Bai — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Bhakti is how most Hindus actually practise their faith: singing hymns, loving a personal God, visiting temples and going on pilgrimage. The songs of Mirabai, Kabir, Tukaram and Tulsidas are still sung daily, and their challenge to caste and priestly authority is a resource for reformers today.
Bhakti means devotion, or loving participation in God. The Bhagavad Gita had already praised it as a path to liberation, but from around the sixth century it became a mass, emotional, singing religion.
A single great "bhakti movement" swept India from south to north, renewing Hinduism with love and equality before God and holding it together in hard times.
John Stratton Hawley shows that the idea of one bhakti "movement" was largely built by twentieth- century scholars and nationalists.
Philosophers & the bhakti poets
700 – 1799 Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
A young philosopher from Kerala teaches that the self and ultimate reality are one, and founds monasteries that still shape Hindu orthodoxy.
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Read more
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Advaita, through Shankara and later through Vivekananda, became the most famous Hindu philosophy at home and abroad. The Shankaracharyas who head his monasteries are still respected voices of orthodox Hinduism.
Tradition says that Shankara was born at Kaladi in Kerala, became a renunciant as a boy, wrote great commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras, walked the length of India debating Buddhists and ritualists, founded monasteries at Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri and Jyotirmath, and died at just 32 in the Himalaya.
The raid on Somnath and its memory
The Turkish ruler Mahmud of Ghazni sacks the rich Shiva temple of Somnath in Gujarat, an event that later becomes a symbol of Hindu suffering under Muslim rule.
- Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History — Romila Thapar, Verso (2005)
- India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane (2019)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Read more
- Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History — Romila Thapar, Verso (2005)
- India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane (2019)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
For many Hindus Somnath stands for centuries of attacks on their sacred places, and its rebuilding in 1951 for revival. L. K. Advani began the 1990 procession that launched the Ayodhya campaign at Somnath.
Mahmud, sultan of Ghazni in today's Afghanistan, raided northern India about seventeen times between 1000 and 1027, carrying off treasure from temple cities. In January 1026 he attacked Somnath on the Gujarat coast, a wealthy temple of Shiva, killed many defenders and broke its linga. Court poets in the Persian world celebrated him as a destroyer of idols.
A deep and remembered wound: one of India's holiest temples looted, its image smashed and its worshippers killed by a foreign invader, then attacked again in later centuries.
Persian chronicles glorified the raid, but Sanskrit and Jain sources of the following centuries say little about it, and the temple was soon rebuilt and thriving.
Many Hindus and some historians answer that the absence of lament in surviving inscriptions does not mean the destruction was forgotten or unimportant, and that downplaying it denies Hindu experience.
Reform, revival & nationalism
1800 – 1946 Reform movements: Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and the anti-caste reformers
Under colonial rule, Hindu reformers campaign against widow-burning, child marriage and caste, and argue over how to renew their religion.
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (New Cambridge History of India III.1) — Kenneth W. Jones, Cambridge University Press (1989)
- The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind — David Kopf, Princeton University Press (1979)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Read more
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (New Cambridge History of India III.1) — Kenneth W. Jones, Cambridge University Press (1989)
- The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind — David Kopf, Princeton University Press (1979)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Modern Hinduism, with its emphasis on one God, the Vedas and the Upanishads, social service and women's education, owes much to these reformers. Their quarrels, between reform from within and rejection of caste altogether, between universalism and Hindu revival, still shape Hindu debates.
In Calcutta, the capital of British India, Ram Mohan Roy argued from the Upanishads that Hinduism at its root worshipped one formless God. He campaigned against sati, the burning of widows on their husbands' pyres, which the British banned in 1829, and in 1828 founded the Brahmo Sabha, later the Brahmo Samaj.
Indenture, migration and a global Hindu diaspora
Indentured labourers carry Hinduism to the Caribbean, Africa, Fiji and Mauritius; later migrants and Western converts take it to Britain, North America and beyond.
- The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns — Steven Vertovec, Routledge (2000)
- Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021 — Office for National Statistics (2022)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Read more
- The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns — Steven Vertovec, Routledge (2000)
- Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021 — Office for National Statistics (2022)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Hinduism is now a global religion, with large communities in Britain, the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific. Diaspora temples, festivals and youth groups are reshaping how Hinduism is taught, and diaspora Hindus are divided over Hindutva and over caste discrimination laws.
After Britain abolished slavery in 1833–34, its plantation colonies turned to India for labour. From 1834 to 1917 more than a million Indians, most of them Hindus from Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Tamil and Telugu regions, signed contracts of indenture and sailed to Mauritius, British Guiana, Trinidad, Natal, Fiji and elsewhere.
Vivekananda at the World's Parliament of Religions
A young Bengali monk tells a Chicago audience that Hinduism teaches tolerance and the truth of all religions, and introduces Vedanta and yoga to the West.
- Vivekananda — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Response to Welcome, World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893 (Complete Works, vol. 1) — Swami Vivekananda (1893)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Read more
- Vivekananda — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Response to Welcome, World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893 (Complete Works, vol. 1) — Swami Vivekananda (1893)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Vivekananda's picture of Hinduism, tolerant, philosophical and universal, is how many Hindus describe their faith today, and the start of yoga and Vedanta in the West. Both liberal and nationalist Hindus claim him.
Narendranath Datta, a Calcutta graduate, became a disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna, who taught that all religions are paths to the same God. After Ramakrishna's death he took the name Vivekananda and wandered India as a monk, shocked by its poverty.
Gandhi and the struggle for freedom
Gandhi turns the Indian National Congress into a mass movement of non-violent resistance that, with many other forces, ends British rule in 1947.
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press (1989)
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- Mahatma Gandhi — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read more
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press (1989)
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press (2012)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- Mahatma Gandhi — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Gandhi was a deeply religious Hindu who read the Bhagavad Gita daily and called God Truth. His inclusive, non-violent Hinduism, open to all faiths and opposed to untouchability, remains one pole of the argument over what Hinduism means in public life; Hindutva is the other.
The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 as a polite forum of English-educated Indians seeking a greater say in government. By the early twentieth century more radical voices, such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak with his cry that "swaraj (self-rule) is my birthright", were pushing it further. But it was Mohandas Gandhi who turned it into a mass movement.
A uniquely Indian, non-violent revolution led by Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and the Congress, uniting Indians of every region and faith and winning freedom without a war of independence.
Gandhi opposed untouchability but defended the caste order (varna) and fought Ambedkar's demand for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes. For many Dalits, Ambedkar, not Gandhi, is the true liberator.
Gandhi's concessions to Muslim demands, and Congress's softness, made Partition possible.
Hindutva and the founding of the RSS
V. D. Savarkar defines "Hindutva", Hinduness, as the basis of Indian nationhood, and the RSS is founded in Nagpur to organise and discipline Hindu society.
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read more
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
The RSS, which marked its centenary in 2025, and its family of organisations, the Sangh Parivar, are now among the most influential forces in Hindu life, running schools, charities and the ruling BJP. Whether Hindutva expresses Hinduism or distorts it is the sharpest argument among Hindus today.
V. D. Savarkar wrote Essentials of Hindutva while imprisoned by the British; it was published in 1923, amid Hindu–Muslim riots after the collapse of the Khilafat movement. He defined a Hindu as someone for whom India was both fatherland and holy land.
Hindus, divided by caste and region and humbled by centuries of foreign rule, needed to unite and grow strong.
An ethnic nationalism that makes Muslims and Christians conditional citizens. Christophe Jaffrelot traces how it borrowed from European nationalism; M. S.
Many devout Hindus, such as the politician and writer Shashi Tharoor, argue that Hindutva is a political ideology, not Hinduism, and that their religion's genius lies in accepting many paths.
Ambedkar, Gandhi and the fight against untouchability
Dalits led by B. R. Ambedkar fight for access to water, temples and political power; Gandhi seeks reform within Hinduism; Ambedkar finally leaves for Buddhism.
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
- Annihilation of Caste — B. R. Ambedkar (1936)
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press (1989)
- B. R. Ambedkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Read more
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
- Annihilation of Caste — B. R. Ambedkar (1936)
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press (1989)
- B. R. Ambedkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Gandhi–Ambedkar argument, whether caste can be reformed from within Hinduism or requires leaving it, is still alive. Every 14 October and 6 December huge crowds gather in Nagpur and Mumbai to honour Ambedkar, and many Dalits identify as Buddhist or reject Hinduism, while others remain devout Hindus.
In 1927 Ambedkar led thousands of "untouchables" to drink from a public water tank at Mahad in Maharashtra, from which they had been barred, and that December publicly burned the Manusmriti, the ancient law book that sanctioned caste hierarchy. Temple-entry campaigns, such as at Vaikom in Kerala in 1924–25, pressed the same demand for dignity.
Ambedkar chose Buddhism because it was born in India, rejected caste and rested on reason and compassion.
Untouchability is a sin and a corruption of Hinduism, not its essence.
Caste is rooted in Hindu scripture itself, and upper-caste reform is paternalistic. Dalits need political power of their own, and freedom may require leaving Hinduism.
Caste divisions weaken Hindu unity, which must be restored through social harmony (samarasata). The RSS honours Ambedkar as a great Indian, while downplaying his rejection of Hinduism.
Hinduism in a modern republic & the world
1947 – today The rise of Hindu nationalism to power
The Bharatiya Janata Party grows from two seats in 1984 to dominate Indian politics under Narendra Modi, reshaping the meaning of Indian nationhood.
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- General Election to Lok Sabha 2024: statistical reports — Election Commission of India (2024)
Read more
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- General Election to Lok Sabha 2024: statistical reports — Election Commission of India (2024)
Hindutva's success has made Hindu identity central to Indian public life. Many Hindus welcome this as long-overdue respect for their faith; others feel their religion is being turned into a political weapon against minorities.
Hindu nationalism is older than the republic. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a disciplined volunteer organisation founded in 1925, and its political wings, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951) and then the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, founded 1980), argued that India was essentially a Hindu nation.
Decades of Congress rule appeased minorities, tolerated corruption and treated Hindu culture with embarrassment.
Hindu nationalism treats Muslims and Christians as second-class citizens.
Many Muslims describe feeling increasingly unsafe and unwelcome in their own country, under- represented in parliament and government, and blamed for history they had no part in.
Mandal and the politics of caste
The government extends job reservations to the "Other Backward Classes", sparking upper-caste protest and transforming Indian politics.
- India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst / Columbia University Press (2003)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Read more
- India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst / Columbia University Press (2003)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Mandal brought lower-caste Hindus into power in north India and forced the question of caste hierarchy into the open, challenging both upper-caste dominance and the Hindu nationalist hope of a united Hindu vote.
5% respectively. In 1980 the Mandal Commission recommended adding 27% for the "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs), intermediate castes that it estimated made up over half the population.
Centuries of caste exclusion cannot be undone by formal equality alone.
Quotas based on caste rather than income entrench caste identity, help the better-off within "backward" groups most, and penalise poor upper-caste students. Merit should decide.
Ayodhya: from the Babri Masjid to the Ram temple
Hindu activists tear down a sixteenth-century mosque they believe stands on Rama's birthplace; after decades of violence and litigation, a grand temple opens on the site in 2024.
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- M. Siddiq (D) Thr. Lrs. v. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors. (Ayodhya judgment) — Supreme Court of India (2019)
Read more
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
- M. Siddiq (D) Thr. Lrs. v. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors. (Ayodhya judgment) — Supreme Court of India (2019)
For millions of Hindus the Ram temple is the fulfilment of a centuries-old longing and a moment of civilisational pride. For other Hindus it is a monument to their religion's capture by politics, built on the ruins of a mosque.
The Babri Masjid ("Babur's mosque") was built in Ayodhya around 1528–29 by Mir Baqi, a commander of the first Mughal emperor. Many Hindus believe it was built on the exact birthplace of Rama, over a demolished temple.
Ayodhya is Rama's birthplace, and the Mughal general Mir Baqi built the mosque in 1528 over a temple there, as a deliberate humiliation.
A mosque where Muslims had prayed for four centuries was destroyed in front of the police, those accused were never convicted, and the courts handed the land to those who tore it down.
There is no early evidence that the site was revered as Rama's birthplace before the eighteenth century, and archaeologists disagree over whether the remains under the mosque were a temple.
Weighing the evidence of possession and faith, the court gave the site to a trust for the Hindu deity Ram Lalla and five acres elsewhere to the Muslim side, while calling the placing of idols in 1949 and the 1992 demolition serious violations of the law.
Core beliefs & worldview
Ask a Hindu friend what Hinduism is and you may get a smile and a story rather than a definition. That is not evasion. Hinduism is a family of traditions that grew together over three thousand years, without a founder or a central authority, and Hindus themselves disagree about almost every doctrinal question while recognising one another as Hindu.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- The Hindus: An Alternative History — Wendy Doniger, Penguin Press (2009)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press (2001)
Brahman and the self. The Upanishads teach that behind the changing world lies one ultimate reality, brahman, and that the deepest self, atman, is connected to it, in the Advaita (non-dual) reading identical with it: tat tvam asi, “you are that”.
- Upaniṣads (Oxford World's Classics) — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Oxford University Press (1996)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- A Survey of Hinduism (3rd edition) — Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press (2007)
Gods and God. A Hindu might pray to Ganesha before an exam, light a lamp for Lakshmi at Diwali and visit a Shiva temple on Mondays, while saying that all are faces of one divine reality. The great traditions are:
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- Vaishnavas, devoted to Vishnu and his incarnations (avatars), above all Rama and Krishna.
- Shaivas, devoted to Shiva, the ascetic and cosmic dancer, often worshipped as the linga.
- Shaktas, who worship the Goddess (Devi or Shakti) as supreme, as Durga, Kali, Parvati or the village mother goddesses.
- Smartas, linked to Shankara’s Advaita, who worship several deities as equal forms of brahman.
Dharma, karma and moksha. Dharma is cosmic and social order and one’s own duty within it. Karma means that every action has consequences that follow you through many lives. Liberation, moksha, can be sought through knowledge (jnana), selfless action (karma yoga) or loving devotion (bhakti), the three paths described in the Bhagavad Gita.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography — Richard H. Davis, Princeton University Press (2015)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- The Hindus: An Alternative History — Wendy Doniger, Penguin Press (2009)
Scripture. The Vedas, including the Upanishads, are shruti, “what is heard”, the highest authority. The epics, the Puranas and the law books are smriti, “what is remembered”. In practice, the epics and devotional poetry shape most Hindus’ faith far more than the Vedas, which few have read.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Daily life & customs
Puja at home. Many Hindu homes have a shrine, from a shelf to a whole room, with images (murti) or pictures of the family’s deities. A morning or evening puja may involve lighting a lamp and incense, offering flowers, water, fruit or sweets, ringing a bell and saying a prayer. The offered food, prasad, is then shared.
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press (2004)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
The temple. Hindus go to the temple not for a weekly congregational service but to have darshan, to see and be seen by the deity, who is treated as a living royal guest: woken, bathed, dressed, fed and put to bed by priests. The waving of lamps (aarti) is the high point of many visits.
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press (2004)
Food. Vegetarianism is a Hindu ideal linked to non-violence (ahimsa) and purity, but practice varies hugely. In Pew’s survey 44% of Indian Hindus said they were vegetarian, and many more avoid meat on certain days. Beef is the strong line: 72% said someone who eats beef cannot be Hindu, because the cow is revered.
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
Festivals. Diwali, the festival of lights, and Holi, the festival of colours, are known worldwide, but every region has its own great days: Durga Puja in Bengal, now on UNESCO’s heritage list; Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra; Navaratri dances in Gujarat; Pongal in Tamil Nadu; Onam in Kerala.
- Kolkata's Durga Puja (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO (2021)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Rites of passage. Life is marked by samskaras: naming, first rice, the sacred-thread ceremony for some boys of upper castes, the wedding, in which the couple walk around a sacred fire, and cremation, after which ashes are ideally scattered in the Ganges. Annual rites honour ancestors.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Signs you may notice. A red dot (bindi) or vermilion in the hair parting of married women, a forehead mark (tilak) showing someone’s tradition, a thread on the wrist after a ceremony, the word Om on a pendant, or a swastika, an ancient auspicious symbol in Hinduism long before the Nazis misused it.
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Wounds & sensitivities
Mockery and misuse of the sacred. Images of deities on shoes, bathing suits or toilet seats, or casual jokes about many-armed gods, wound many Hindus deeply. So does the treatment of Hinduism in some Western media as exotic or primitive.
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
Memories of temple destruction. Muslim rulers did desecrate temples in medieval India, sometimes notably, as at Somnath in 1026 and in Varanasi and Mathura under Aurangzeb. Historians argue about how many there were and why: Richard Eaton documented about 80 cases between 1192 and 1760, mostly political acts against enemy kings, while many Hindus believe the number and the religious motive were far greater.
- Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States — Richard M. Eaton, Journal of Islamic Studies 11 (3), Oxford University Press (2000)
- Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History — Romila Thapar, Verso (2005)
Colonial and missionary contempt. Many Hindus remember how nineteenth-century missionaries and officials depicted their religion as idolatry and superstition, and how caste was defined and fixed through the colonial census.
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press (2001)
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (New Cambridge History of India III.1) — Kenneth W. Jones, Cambridge University Press (1989)
Caste, from both sides. For Dalits, caste is a lived wound of exclusion from temples, wells and marriages, and of violence. Many other Hindus feel that their whole religion is unfairly reduced to caste by outsiders. Both feelings are real, and the debate in the US over adding caste to anti-discrimination laws showed how raw it is.
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
- Annihilation of Caste — B. R. Ambedkar (1936)
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press (2001)
Being a minority. Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh have shrunk sharply since 1947 through migration and periods of persecution, and the Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of the Kashmir Valley in 1990. These stories matter a great deal to Hindus.
- The Partition of India — Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, Cambridge University Press (2009)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Being lumped with Hindutva, or against it. Many Hindus abroad dislike being assumed to support Hindu nationalism; others feel that any expression of Hindu pride is now unfairly labelled extremist.
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
Modern attitudes
Faith remains strong. In Pew’s 2019–20 survey of India, the great majority of Hindus said religion was very important in their lives, and most prayed daily.
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
Religion and nation. In the same survey 64% of Hindus said being Hindu was very important to being truly Indian. Those who held this view were much more likely to support the BJP. Many other Hindus see India as a secular republic where faith is private.
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
Caste and marriage. Most Hindus still marry within their caste: Pew found that about two-thirds of Indians thought it very important to stop women in their community marrying into another caste. Yet inter-caste and “love” marriages are rising in cities and the diaspora, and Dalit and backward-caste movements have transformed politics.
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
- India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst / Columbia University Press (2003)
Women. Goddesses are central to Hinduism, and women run home worship and many festivals. Women have also fought for, and won, the right to enter some temples that excluded them, such as Sabarimala in Kerala, a case that split opinion bitterly in 2018–19.
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
Global Hinduism. Yoga and meditation, rooted in Hindu traditions, are practised worldwide, sometimes stripped of their religious roots in a way some Hindus welcome and others resent. ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement founded in New York in 1966, brought Krishna devotion to Western converts.
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns — Steven Vertovec, Routledge (2000)
Not all Hindus are the same
Region and language. A Tamil Shaiva, a Bengali Shakta who worships Kali and eats fish, a Gujarati Vaishnava who is strictly vegetarian, and a Balinese Hindu follow very different customs, languages and festivals.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press (2004)
Sect and guru. Many Hindus follow a particular sampradaya (lineage) or guru: the Swaminarayan movement among Gujaratis, the Lingayats in Karnataka (some of whom say they are a separate religion), ISKCON, the Ramakrishna Mission, or a living teacher.
- A Survey of Hinduism (3rd edition) — Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press (2007)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Caste. The experience of a Brahmin and a Dalit within Hinduism can be very different. Some Dalits worship as Hindus, some follow Ambedkar into Buddhism, and others reject religious labels altogether.
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
Devout to cultural. Some Hindus perform daily rituals, keep fasts and go on pilgrimage; others only go to the temple at Diwali. Many educated Hindus see themselves as spiritual but sceptical of ritual, and some are atheists who are still culturally Hindu; Hindu thought has long included atheist and materialist schools.
- The Hindus: An Alternative History — Wendy Doniger, Penguin Press (2009)
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Outside India. Nepal is about 81% Hindu. There are Hindu communities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (mostly Tamil), Bali, and a diaspora shaped by indenture in the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius and South Africa and by later migration to Britain, North America and the Gulf. About a million Hindus lived in England and Wales in 2021.
- Nepal Population and Housing Census 2021: National Report — National Statistics Office, Nepal (2023)
- The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns — Steven Vertovec, Routledge (2000)
- Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021 — Office for National Statistics (2022)
Meeting someone
Conversation starters
- Festivals. “How does your family celebrate Diwali?” is almost always welcome. “Happy Diwali” works for anyone.
- Food. Ask about festival sweets or their family’s cooking, and accept prasad if offered (with the right hand).
- Stories. Ask who their favourite character in the Ramayana or Mahabharata is; people often have strong and interesting views.
- Temples. Many temples welcome visitors. Ask what to expect; remove shoes and dress modestly.
Topics to approach carefully
- Caste. Don’t ask someone’s caste.
- Beef. Don’t offer it, and don’t joke about sacred cows.
- Ayodhya, Hindutva and Modi. Feelings run high in both directions.
- “Idol worship”. Hindus may find the phrase offensive; the image is seen as a form in which the divine is present, not a mere statue.
- Yoga and appropriation. Some Hindus feel strongly that yoga’s spiritual roots are ignored.
Common misconceptions
- “Hindus worship 330 million gods.” The number is a traditional way of saying “countless”, and most Hindus see the many gods as forms of one divine reality.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
- “Caste is a Hindu commandment.” Caste is described in ancient texts, but Hindus have long debated it, and many saints and reformers rejected its hierarchy. Caste-like divisions also exist among South Asian Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press (2001)
- “All Hindus are vegetarian.” Fewer than half of Indian Hindus say they are.
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center (2021)
- “Hinduism is just about yoga and meditation.” Those are part of it, but most Hindus’ religion is about family rituals, temples, festivals and devotion.
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press (2004)
- “The swastika is a Nazi symbol.” For Hindus (and Jains and Buddhists) it has been an auspicious sign for thousands of years.
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press (2016)
People everyone knows
Adi Shankara (Shankaracharya)
A philosopher from Kerala who taught Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual view that the self (atman) and ultimate reality (brahman) are one. Tradition says he travelled the length of India in a short life, debating rivals and founding monasteries (mathas) whose heads still carry the title Shankaracharya. His thought became the best-known face of Hindu philosophy, especially in the West.
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Mirabai
A Rajput princess who, according to tradition, defied her in-laws and the conventions of her caste and sex to devote herself to Krishna, singing that he was her only husband. Hundreds of songs are sung in her name across north India. Her story makes her one of the most loved figures of the bhakti movement and a symbol of devotion that breaks social rules.
- Mira Bai — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement — John Stratton Hawley, Harvard University Press (2015)
Ram Mohan Roy
A Bengali scholar fluent in Sanskrit, Persian and English who argued, from the Upanishads, for a rational worship of one formless God and against image worship, caste and the burning of widows (sati), which the British banned in 1829. He founded the Brahmo Sabha (later Brahmo Samaj) in 1828 and is often called the father of the Indian or Bengal Renaissance.
- Ram Mohan Roy — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind — David Kopf, Princeton University Press (1979)
Swami Vivekananda
A disciple of the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna who electrified the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 with a vision of Hinduism as a tolerant, universal faith grounded in Vedanta. He founded the Ramakrishna Mission for service to the poor. Liberals, Hindu nationalists and spiritual seekers in the West all claim him, and his birthday is India's National Youth Day.
- Vivekananda — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
A revolutionary against British rule, imprisoned in the Andaman Islands, who in "Essentials of Hindutva" (1923) defined Hindus as a nation united by land, blood and culture, a definition that made it hard for Muslims and Christians to belong fully. He later led the Hindu Mahasabha. Charged in Gandhi's murder, he was acquitted. To Hindu nationalists he is "Veer" (brave) Savarkar; to critics, the father of a majoritarian ideology.
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi)
A Gujarati lawyer who developed non-violent mass resistance, satyagraha, in South Africa and then turned the Indian National Congress into a movement of millions. A devout Hindu who drew on the Gita, he campaigned for Hindu–Muslim unity and against untouchability, and was shot dead in January 1948 by the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse. Indians call him "Bapu" (father) and "Father of the Nation". B. R. Ambedkar and many Dalits criticised his defence of the caste order.
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press (1989)
- Mahatma Gandhi — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Born into the "untouchable" Mahar caste, he earned doctorates from Columbia and the London School of Economics and became the chief architect of India's constitution, which outlawed untouchability. A fierce critic of caste and of the scriptures that justified it, he converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of followers in 1956. To Dalits he is "Babasaheb", a liberator, and his statue stands in villages across India.
- B. R. Ambedkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar (1992)
- The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation — Granville Austin, Oxford University Press (1966)
Try it yourself
The quickest way into a culture: a song, a film, a book and a dish.
“From the unreal lead me to the real! From the darkness lead me to the light! From death lead me to immortality!”
“I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.”
Listen
- Bhajans and kirtan Devotional songs sung at home, in temples and at all-night gatherings. M. S.▶ Listen
Watch
- Ramayan (TV series, 1987–88) Ramanand Sagar's serial on the state broadcaster Doordarshan; families garlanded their TV sets, and it helped make Rama a national, and political, symbol.▶ Watch
Read
- The Bhagavad Gita Seven hundred verses in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna on duty, action and devotion.Find it
Taste
- Prasad and festival sweets Food offered to the deity and then shared as blessing: laddoos, modaks for Ganesha, sweet pongal in the South.Recipe
See & do
- Diwali The festival of lights, in October or November: oil lamps, fireworks, sweets, new clothes and the worship of Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity.Look it up
- Holi The spring festival of colours, when people throw coloured powder and water at each other, sing, eat and briefly forget social rank.Look it up
- Bharatanatyam and classical dance The South Indian dance form, once performed in temples, tells stories of the gods through precise footwork, gesture (mudra) and expression.Look it up
- The Kumbh Mela A pilgrimage festival held in rotation at four river sites, where tens of millions bathe; the Prayagraj gatherings are among the largest human assemblies on earth.Look it up
Where
Homeland Diaspora Significant place
Related
Sources & further reading
- Speaking of Śiva — A. K. Ramanujan (trans.), Penguin Classics, 1973
- Annihilation of Caste — B. R. Ambedkar, 1936
- A Concise History of Modern India — Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, Cambridge University Press, 2012
- The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (revised edition) — C. J. Fuller, Princeton University Press, 2004
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst, 1996
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press, 2021
- India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst / Columbia University Press, 2003
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press, 1986
- The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind — David Kopf, Princeton University Press, 1979
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press, 1998
- The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate — Edwin Bryant, Oxford University Press, 2001
- From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement — Eleanor Zelliot, Manohar, 1992
- General Election to Lok Sabha 2024: statistical reports — Election Commission of India, 2024
- Hinduism — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Mira Bai — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Shankara — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Ram Mohan Roy — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Vivekananda — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Mahatma Gandhi — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- B. R. Ambedkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press, 1996
- The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation — Granville Austin, Oxford University Press, 1966
- The Partition of India — Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, Cambridge University Press, 2009
- Mahābhārata — James L. Fitzgerald, in The Hindu World, ed. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby, Routledge, 2004
- A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement — John Stratton Hawley, Harvard University Press, 2015
- Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope — Judith M. Brown, Yale University Press, 1989
- Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (New Cambridge History of India III.1) — Kenneth W. Jones, Cambridge University Press, 1989
- Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Kim Knott, Oxford University Press, 2016
- A Survey of Hinduism (3rd edition) — Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press, 2007
- Nepal Population and Housing Census 2021: National Report — National Statistics Office, Nepal, 2023
- Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India — Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press, 2001
- Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021 — Office for National Statistics, 2022
- Upaniṣads (Oxford World's Classics) — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Oxford University Press, 1996
- Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia — Paula Richman (ed.), University of California Press, 1991
- Hindu population change, 2010–2020 — Pew Research Center, 2025
- Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation — Pew Research Center, 2021
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador, 2007
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography — Richard H. Davis, Princeton University Press, 2015
- Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States — Richard M. Eaton, Journal of Islamic Studies 11 (3), Oxford University Press, 2000
- India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 — Richard M. Eaton, Allen Lane, 2019
- The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India — Robert P. Goldman (general editor), Princeton University Press, 1984
- Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History — Romila Thapar, Verso, 2005
- Why I Am a Hindu — Shashi Tharoor, Aleph Book Company / Hurst, 2018
- The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India — Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (trans.), Oxford University Press, 2014
- The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns — Steven Vertovec, Routledge, 2000
- M. Siddiq (D) Thr. Lrs. v. Mahant Suresh Das & Ors. (Ayodhya judgment) — Supreme Court of India, 2019
- Response to Welcome, World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893 (Complete Works, vol. 1) — Swami Vivekananda, 1893
- Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From — Tony Joseph, Juggernaut, 2018
- Kolkata's Durga Puja (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO, 2021
- Tradition of Vedic chanting (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO, 2008
- Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana (Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) — UNESCO, 2008
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar, 1923
- The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia — Vagheesh M. Narasimhan et al., Science 365 (6457), 2019
- The Hindus: An Alternative History — Wendy Doniger, Penguin Press, 2009