Islam and Christianity—let me ignore other religions for now—are monotheistic traditions. They revolve around one God, one book, and one messenger. That structure works well for them, and if it brings meaning to their followers, good for them.
But Hinduism is not that, and it never was. Because the reason and purpose of Hinduism was entirely different from what Islam and Christianity sought to establish.
Hinduism is not a structured, rule-bound religion. It is expansive, layered, and often playful. It accommodates contradictions, celebrates diversity, and thrives on debate. Yet, what is being marketed today by the RSS/BJP ecosystem is far removed from what our ancestors lived, practiced, and protected through centuries of Mughal and British domination.
Had RSS/BJP existed at the birth of Hindu thought, they would have forced it into a mold: one God (Ram), one scripture (Ramayan), one way. In other words, just another monotheistic faith.
But that is not Hinduism.
If you travel back in time, you’ll find stories and traditions that defy neat packaging. Stories that make you question. Stories that shock you. And stories so complex and layered that you can spend a lifetime unweaving them.
Shivaites once killed thousands of Vaishnavites, and Vaishnavites retaliated in equal measure—all over the question of who is greater, Shiva or Vishnu. Lord Krishna had a passionate affair with a married woman. Lord Indra disguised himself to seduce a sage’s wife. Hindu scriptures overflow with tales—beautiful, disturbing, symbolic, and endlessly interpretable.
This is the Hinduism our forefathers embraced: messy, contradictory, profound, and alive. What is packaged today as Hinduism is something else—heavily influenced by the monotheistic models of Islam and Christianity. It sanitizes the past, erases its complexity, and pretends to present “the only truth.”
To write openly about the real Hinduism today is risky. The political climate doesn’t allow for its playful chaos and contradictions to be acknowledged. But the truth remains: Hinduism was never meant to be uniform, never meant to be caged in a single book, a single God, or a single way.
Till then, many will continue being swayed by this new, simplified, and distorted Hinduism—believing it is the only truth that ever existed.