Hinduism – Unjust and Unequal

The Title may trigger anguish to many of the followers of Hinduism, but it deserves the title for its wicked content and immoral principles. This blog illustrates the practices persisting in the religion which deteriorates the society and its own people.

The common people of India have suffered for a very long period, for about 2000 years, under religious influences and social institutions that are inimical to their freedom and advancement. The social system emphasized by Hinduism, orthodoxically known as Vedic Sanathana Dharma, is unequal and unjust. It prescribes and sanctifies the graded birth-based inequality among various castes organized on Varna system.

The four-fold Varnas are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisiyas, and Sudras. Those outside the Varna fold are known as Avarnas, Panchamas, Chandalas etc, called ‘Untouchables’ and ‘Unseeables’. People born in Sudra, Avarna, Panchama etc castes form the lower and the lowest rungs of the social ladder. In this graded inequality, they have been denied educational and other facilities to develop their mental faculties and moral stature. They were kept illiterate and superstitious by religious heads and priests.

The scriptures like epics (Ithihasas), mythologies (Puranas) and Codes of Conduct (Dharma Sastras) taught them that by birth they belonged to a servile class. They were made to believe, by the principle of Karma, which they were born in a low caste because of their misdeeds in the previous birth.

Being mentally shackled, the vast majority of Indians, the Sudras and Panchamas, forming more than 80 per cent of the population, were made to lead a wretched life for several centuries under monarchs who ruled according to the principles and Codes of Conduct laid down in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Manu Dharma Sastra etc.

Such scriptures condemned these people as sinners by birth (Paapa Yonih.) Among the servile classes, the lot of the Panchamas was the worst, being treated as untouchables. Condemned to live in the outskirts of the villages or in the slums of towns, they were prohibited to use public streets, lakes, wells, schools, temples etc. They were not allowed even to clothe decently.

Sati is the traditional Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Sati was considered as a most virtuous and meritorious act which inflamed innocent women in the name of religion.

Devadasi system is the religious system of votive offering of girls of particular community to the deities in the Temple. The system forced the Devadasis to prostitution in the name of God and religion. This ignominious Hindu tradition kept destitute and hapless women shackled for a very long duration of time.

Hinduism entertains the practices of Sati, Devadasi, Child marriage, Bigamy, Untouchability and characterized by caste system and inequality is certainly the menace to mankind