Comments by "M Shastri" (@libshastra) on "Salvatore Babones, 5 questions on India's global rankings, the good, bad u0026 some ugly" video.
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Earlier this year, the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies held a conference regarding how Hinduism is defined along Euro centric and protestant lines. What does this Euro centric perspective of Hinduism mean? Well it means, if Hinduism doesn't follow the Protestant model, it is not modern, incapable of reforms, stuck in it's old ways. It also means you ignore reform within Hindu practices and institutions. This means people with 'Protestant' leanings and/or influences are projected as the sole class of reformist people. For eg, Reforms promulgated by anti caste Ramalinga in the South are labeled as not modern, maintaining barbaric practices. That's why we learn more about Raja Ram Mohan Roy (I must stress, his efforts should not be understated) and not someone like Ramalinga.
Thanks to Nehru, this perspective has essentially been cemented into Indian intellectual thought and propagated by Govt since Independence. In some sense previous/contemporary generation of Indian intellectuals, have ironically become Macaulay's children or Macaulayputra.
This was just with Hinduism, now the same intellectual extends that thought tradition to India as a concept, country, idea etc.
I think we do need a serious rethink about several things about India.
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