Fast facts
- Began
- No founding date; Vedic texts composed from roughly 1500 BCE, with far older roots in the Indus valley
- Founder / origin
- No founder — Hindus often call it Sanatana Dharma, the eternal way
- Followers
- About 1.2 billion — roughly 15% of humanity
- Figure from
- Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape (2020 estimates)
- Where
- India (about 94% of all Hindus), Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia's Bali, and diasporas in Britain, the Gulf, the Caribbean, South Africa and North America
- Scriptures
- Shruti (heard): the four Vedas and the Upanishads. Smriti (remembered): the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the Puranas
- View of God
- Brahman, the one ultimate reality, understood as manifesting in many deities — Vishnu, Shiva, Devi and others. Interpretations range from strictly monistic to devotional monotheism to genuinely polytheistic
Core ideas
- Brahman: the single ultimate reality behind everything that exists
- Atman: the self or soul, which many schools hold to be one with Brahman
- Karma: every action carries consequence, in this life or another
- Samsara: the cycle of birth, death and rebirth
- Moksha: liberation from that cycle — the real goal, rather than paradise
- Dharma: duty appropriate to one's role, stage of life and circumstance
The main streams
Vaishnavism worships Vishnu and his avatars, chiefly Rama and Krishna, and is the largest stream. Shaivism worships Shiva. Shaktism worships the Goddess. Smartism treats several deities as equally valid faces of Brahman.
Philosophically, Advaita Vedanta teaches that only Brahman is real and the self is not separate from it; Dvaita teaches that God and the soul are permanently distinct, which is much closer to a theistic view. A Hindu you meet may hold either.
Practice
Puja — offerings of flowers, food, light and incense before an image — at home or in a temple; pilgrimage, especially to the Ganges and to Varanasi; festivals including Diwali, Holi, Navratri and Ganesh Chaturthi; vegetarianism in many communities and a near-universal avoidance of beef, the cow being sacred.
The varna and jati system, usually called caste, structured Indian society for centuries. Caste discrimination is illegal in India today and is rejected by many Hindus and by reform movements, but its social effects remain real.
Shared history with Islam
Islam has been present in India since the 7th century through Arab trade in Kerala, and Muslims ruled large parts of the subcontinent for centuries. India today has around 200 million Muslims, one of the largest Muslim populations anywhere. Any conversation carries that history, and often recent political pain with it.
The Islamic view
Where it meets Islam, and where it differs
Common ground
- A belief that reality is more than matter, that the soul survives death and that actions have consequences.
- Moral seriousness: truthfulness, non-violence, charity, hospitality, respect for parents and elders.
- Fasting, pilgrimage, ritual washing before worship and set times of prayer are all familiar practices.
- Some Hindu texts speak of one reality behind all names, which is a real point of contact with — the Upanishads' 'ekam sat, vipra bahudha vadanti' (truth is one, the wise call it by many names).
Where Islam differs
- Islam accepts no image, statue or form in worship. God is not represented, and He does not take a body or descend as an avatar.
- One life, then judgement — not a cycle of rebirths. Islam has no reincarnation.
- No one inherits a station by birth. The Prophet said plainly that no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab except by God-consciousness.
- The self is never identical with God. The Creator and the creation remain distinct forever.
Talking points
- Begin with the one reality. Many Hindus will tell you the many deities are faces of a single Brahman — ask what that one is, and whether it can be pictured.
- Ask about moksha: what actually ends the cycle, and how a person can know they have succeeded. Islam's answer — one life, God's mercy, a clear account — is a relief to hear.
- Caste and equality: the Prophet's (SAW) farewell sermon on the equality of all people lands hard and honestly.
- Never begin with idols. Begin with God being greater than anything the eye can hold — a thought their own scripture contains.
Avoid
- Do not call their deities 'demons' or use insulting language about anything they hold sacred. The Qur'an itself forbids abusing what others invoke, lest they abuse God in return.
- Do not raise Indian politics, Babri Masjid or Kashmir. It ends the conversation and does no good.
- Do not assume vegetarianism or caste applies to the person in front of you. Ask.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape (2020 estimates) and The Future of World Religions
- Rig Veda 1.164.46; Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads
- Bhagavad Gita, on dharma and the paths of knowledge, action and devotion
- Qur'an 6:108; 112:1–4; Prophet's farewell sermon, on the equality of all people
This overview describes the tradition as its own followers describe it. The Islamic view is kept in its own section above so the description stays honest.
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