Part 1 :How to protect Hinduism in the long-term in India from the imperial religions

This article uses lessons from around the world on how we can strengthen Hinduism in the long-term in India.

Religion is often one of the most misunderstood things -often mistakenly seen as a pursuit for God, religion is not a theoretical unselfish endeavor, as it is a- colliding of selfish wishes, fear and community.

Many countries have and are currently seeing a rapid change in demographics(eg Nepal -Christianity went from 1%-10% within 2010-2020 ,South Korea Christianity went from 1%-30% within 3 decades ,Africa christianity went from 1% to 50% within a century -wiping out the indigenous religions)- while many for time immemorial seem to be in a stage of steady continuity - unchanged by outside forces ( Afghanistan has seen a negligible change despite foreign occupation and domination for more than 2 decades, Poland despite the communist regime has seen Church attendance and religiosity stay more or less the same throughout its domination, Even russia for that matter did not see a decline in religiosity even during the period of the Soviet Republic).

India too is seeing a rapidly changing population with large numbers adopting christianity, sponsored in part by the excessive funding coming in through the FCRA($2-3 billion every year). Arunachal Pradesh has gone from 1%-30% within 3 decades 1981-2011, Kanyakumari district has gone to close to 50% within a few decades. Similarly other states such as Andhra Pradesh have gone to 20%(although currently not accounted for by census data, Tamil Nadu has gone to 10%

While the factors that lead to religious change and causing religious change are often more clearly understood - a partitioned society and society in flux, monetary power to convince, physical and political power to coerce, and a radical clergy and link to society to enforce, the factors that strengthen continuity are often slightly less well understood.

Looking at the countries that have maintained a continuity in religion despite odds we can come up with certain factors that can be used to enhance continuity.

1)Linking of religion with identity - not with political party but with identity- despite religion not being a rational endeavor however linking of religion with the identity and especially a victim identity, in our case framing our identity as coming from 1000’s of years of a religion- that has been repressed, and linking religion to nationalism can help create a religious identity that is more robust against external attack and lasts longer, it makes people less receptive to other ideas and as a group less tolerant to external attack.

Countries that show great examples of this include Poland, where despite the Soviet repression, religion survived and prospered. This was because religion was closely linked to the national polish identity. Thus even today Poland has record church attendance and a large no of Individuals, even in the younger generation, see themselves as Christians. Another example is the USA where the link of religion and Nationalism led to record high church attendance- only post the end of the soviet era did it start falling.

Solution:
1)Link identity of person, group, village, country with Hinduism - tell them how they relate to the Hindu tradition -and how they are continuations of a 10,000 year old civilization which has been victimized by external forces- how they call our gods evil, how they spend billions of dollars to convert us, how thousands of ancestors died to keep them away
2)Create local gods and relate to other gods in Hinduism
3)Create an othering of other religions -stress on how Christians view Hindus as enemies and Hindu gods as false gods, the foreignness of Christianity.

2)Creation of diversity within rather than outside- Despite whatever religion one may belong to there is often a variety seeking behavior, between generations ,among the frustrated, among the condemned etc. and this often leads to space for new religious movements to arise and share space.

The most successful religions are not those that don’t allow for this space but those that create a framework and working space within which these religious movements can operate. For eg. the long term success of Christianity can be attributed to the fact that a lot of religious movements that arose operated within the framework of Christianity whether it be the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the SDA etc. Although with a variety of teachings they operate within the framework and at least in name profess belief in the Bible traditions

The death and unification of such movements in Hinduism is something that has led to the frustrated to look for options outside this net.

Solutions:
1)By creating new movements such as Arya Samajis which profess belief in one-god or other neo-hindu movements some of the frustrated can be prevented from shifting board and venturing outside the religion.
2)Promoting Buddhism among the repressed and creating a Buddhist movement for Dalits -led by strong Buddhist leaders and strongly funded by Buddhist missionaries can prevent the coming in of foreign religions

3)Creation of alternates and avenues for needs that are served -Despite whatever we say about religions they do function to serve particular needs - for example the congregation creates a community, the pastor and religious writings serve to guide in times of difficulty, the God a place to put your troubles.

In the absence of alternates people find it difficult to switch, an example of success of such solutions was in Soviet Russia- despite the atheist nature of the country people would go to church to get married. It was only when the govt. allowed marriage celebrations in Halls in the city - the people switched, and this tradition has continued post the end of the Soviet Republic

Thus it is often in absence of internal solutions that people are forced to look outside for solutions. By creating solutions that meet these needs, the need for such external religious solutions(adopting other religions) can go down.

Solutions:
1)Creating online-communities and organizations for temple festivals, creating a sense of community and linking with Hinduism
2)By creating Gurus and Hindu guides who guide people during difficulties ensure people do not leave the faith and have a personal touch to help them tide over difficulties and prevent them falling prey to predatory religions
3)Creating Hindu motivational songs, stories and content which motivates people during different types of trouble and makes them believe that Hindu gods can solve their problems

4)Creating avenues for leadership and purpose -Most people lack purpose in their life, and during the free time they may lose motivation for life. Also for many religion is not about religion but a framework and location to rise and succeed in the community.

By creating a framework to allow individual gurus and priests in the hindu community to rise and succeed acquire not material but social capital by propogating the Hindu religion we can create a system where more entepreneurial and religious spread efforts by the Hindu priest-dom are encouraged.

Solutions:
1)Public honoring and awarding of priests who spread Hinduism in India and abroad
2)Allowing new priests to arise and shielding successful priests and gurus such as Asaram, Nithyananda who do a good job spreading Hinduism(sacrificing small scale individual rights for the civillisational rights)
3)Creating a public mission whereby individual Hindus are encourage to spread Hinduism and to protect Hinduism

5)Encouraging Hindu festival celebration - Festivals link us not only to our past but also our good times and memories. By encouraging festival celebration Holi, Diwali by means of crackers, water colors we can link the celebration and god to the individual and ensure it becomes harder to cleave him from the pack

One example of this is in the Roman times, the Christians unable to cleave people off their traditions decided to link the traditions of Christianity and Paganism. Thus Saturnalia became Christmas and many practices such as the Christmas tree were adopted wholesale. Protecting the festival thus becomes paramount to retain the civilization

Solutions:
1)Encouraging all types of celebrations - crackers, parties during Diwali and encouraging pooja as well. Reversing all cracker bans and encouraging increasing celebrations
2)Encouraging celebrations on social media- putting up picture of India during Diwali, celebration on social media to encourage people to remain connected with the festival

Let us come together to protect this beautiful legacy, the idea of India is rooted in the Civilization and this civilization, in our religion, death and decline of Hinduism would lead to the decline of a civilization which currently has lasted thousands of years.

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitaha