Frontline On Air | Conflating Hinduism with Vedic religion is a dangerous distortion

It will fossilise the entire Hindu spiritual tradition by burying it in conservatism, ritualism, and orthodoxy.

Any attempt to establish an exclusive and singular interpretation or an authoritative central power within the eclectic practice of Hinduism is motivated only by political and not spiritual concerns. Such attempts will inevitably lead to the destruction of the whole Hindu mei-gnana tradition and therefore must be stoutly opposed by anyone committed to preserving it.

India’s age-old mei-gnana tradition is not a monolith either: it is a complex and plural body of knowledge that has evolved via centuries of intense philosophical debates; it has been enriched by the steady iteration of rebuttals and ultimate syntheses of mutually opposed points of view. The debates themselves, since they hinge on fundamental questions of life, are never likely to cease, and so the tradition, too, will inexorably continue to evolve. It is only in a space where multiple perspectives and practices jostle and nudge one another that the true seeker of knowledge can find an opportunity for enlightened philosophico-spiritual enquiry.

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