Hinduism is a “ religion Who has his canonical texts and official exegetes. However, insists Wendy Doniger, there is another way of telling his story, taking into account oral and vernacular traditions. A way, too, of deconstructing the political uses of Hindu nationalism.
This new book by Wendy Doniger, Sanskritist and historian of religions at the University of Chicago (Divinity School Since 1978, after Harvard and Oxford), offers both a synthesis of classic Hindu texts and an alternative vision on these same texts. Classic synthesis because it represents a real sum of current knowledge on the textual tradition in Sanskrit, and alternative by its interest in subjects most often discredited or deemed anecdotal. From the 1970s, when the Sanskritite Studies Middle remained centered on relatively “ classic “Of literature or the history of religions (rhetorical figures, concepts of” sacrifice », Etc.), the author is known to deal with original subjects, in particular divine figures and metaphors relating to sexuality. Dialogue with anthropology and psychoanalysis, she showed the consistency of themes omitted or minimized by supporters of an apologetic reading or “ purely spiritualist »Sanskrit texts.
Recall that, following a M. Monier Williams or a F. Max Müller at XIXe century, “ Hinduism “Tends to be considered as a” religion “Based on the Corpus of the Vedas (like the” Christianity Building on the Bible) and whose spiritual message would prevail over the renowned mythological imaging of popular, coarse and negligible origin. Taking the opposite view of such positions, Doniger showed not only the rationality of apparently strange themes (a mare coming out of the sea, the erotic games of the god Shiva, etc.), but also resets their development in socio-political contexts constantly changing. In other words, “ Hinduism Is a complex subject, which requires an equally complex story, and “ alternative Faced with the common presentations posing the category without questioning its content.
A story “ popular »Hinduism
It is first of all a story emphasizing “ alternative “(Women, untouchables, etc.), in relation to the majority speeches which are most often written from the point of view of” The Hindu man with high caste “(High Caste Hindu Male). The author wants to show how many such subordinate or underestimated groups have also participated in the construction of the set of texts and practices which are called “ Hinduism ». Alternative then means in the interest it brings to the borrowing of Sanskrit texts from oral and vernacular traditions, where the majority of specialized works presuppose the derived character of the second vis-à-vis the first, deemed founders and more essential. She underlines, for example, the fact that the famous epic of Mahâbhârata knows countless vernacular versions which are not reducible to a single Sanskrit model.
It is finally a question of showing that Hinduism is not “ eternal (That is to say, the central message of which would not vary, as certain Hindus and Sanskritis assist), but responded to historical circumstances and religious and ethical alternatives. The major alternatives were represented by Buddhism, born from a criticism of the ideals and Brahmanic rituals, and monotheistic Islam, brought by the merchants before being by various conquerors. On this subject, Doniger also makes a development on the real cases of destruction of temples attributed to the iconoclasm of Muslims by Hindu nationalist propaganda. The attested cases were much less systematic, and much more political than religious, than they say.
The author of a book on Hinduism can obviously do not save the definition of its object (p. 24-35). On this point, Doniger has a rather pragmatic position. It recognizes that the term Hindu is of foreign and geographic origin (it first designates the inhabitants of northern India, beyond the Sindh river, for Westerners), and does not become a religious category to designate the “ pagan »From India (neither Christians, nor Muslims) than at the end of XVIIIe century. The word “ Hinduism “Does not replace the periphrase” Hindu religion “That around 1820. In addition, there is no” cannon “Textual recognized by all, and the great diversity of sectarian currents prevents from formulating something other than a relative definition of” religion of the inhabitants of the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent ». From a textual point of view, however, it is fairly fair and practical to define “ Hinduism By crossing various criteria, themselves relative, starting with the reference, even negative, to the Vedas (but also to the notion of Karma, Dharma, etc.). The author still specifies, however, that it is only a center for conservative Brahmans, because what they consider as a peripheral can be central for other Hindu … The work thus retraces the evolution of important themes for current Hindus (non-violence, sacred cow, etc.), which puts the affirmed timeless time of these themes without denying their existence. The familiar of Doniger’s work will not be surprised to find, too, the theme of women, oppressed groups (dalits, tribal) or even animals (cow, horse, dog, pig).
Dialogues and loans
The book follows a historical plan, starting from the results of the excavations of the Industry valley (symbols engraved on the seats of steatitis around 2000 BC), then texts from the Rig Veda (around 1500 BC), Brahmanas (between 800 and 500 BC), etc., to the present. Each chapter summarizes, critically, the main debates of a given era, providing, in addition to a specialized table, a multitude of details that are not tackled (because complex in their links to major themes) in more “studies” classic ». We thus learn the history of themes like that of Karma (with the Upanishads, from around 500 BC), from the consumption of beef (attested until IIIe century BC) and its textual prohibition by high castes, reaffirmed at the end of XIXe century by Dayananda Sarasvati, the founding reformer of Arya Samaj. Doniger replaces each time in their historical context the most famous opposite couples, such as the relationship between renunciation and master of the house, sacrifice and non-sacrifice, constant and ideal non-violent violence, asceticism and eroticism, addiction and renunciation, sanskritization and location of literary traditions, etc.
Among other things, we learn in particular that the practice of suicide of widows (Sati) was criticized by pious Hindu as the playwright bana from the VIIe century (p. 150), long before his legal condemnation XIXe century under the impetus of the Rammohan Roy reformer. In contrast to the common portraits of the movement of the bhakti Or personal devotion to a puranic god, Doniger still underlines the influence that this type of relationship has had on the conception of royalty, the subjection to the sovereign is largely modeled on devotion to the God. By replacing the facts in their context, it puts into perspective the very categories that any descriptive discourse is forced to use, starting with those of “ Hindu ” And “ Muslim ». On this subject, she addresses the question of the worship of Rama to Vijayanagar, interpreted by the Sanskritist Sheldon Pollock as an index of anti-Muslim reactions. Without denying the possibility, she cites the work of one of her students showing greater complexity of the subject. It underlines the real dialogues and borrowings which took place between authors claiming to be vedas and jan, Buddhist, or Muslims (current nirguna of Kabir, Sufism, etc.) then Christians. The author also specifies, by the way, the difference between an academic approach and an approach claiming today from the “ interreligious dialogue ». The latter often falls under what she calls the approach “ Take a Hindu to Dinner “(P. 12), that is to say a meeting of representatives of” religions »Different (but the majority all the same) with a view to a common self -adjustment more than a real understanding. Let us add that cultivism culturalist (familiar in the United States but which tends to become widespread) maintains such a jamming of skills, suggesting that any indigenous believer is as qualified as a specialist to talk about his religious tradition.
Reinvented Hinduism
The last chapters approach the American and Indian versions of contemporary Hinduism. The first begins with the arrival of Vivekananda to Chicago (1893) and the theosophist fashion for the concepts and myths without revisited, to finish on the temples built in the United States, the “ virtual puja And other purifications by intermediaries offered on the web to the Hindus born abroad. After a more ironic passage on the process of market reuse and “ materialist »Concepts like Karma or texts like Kama Sutra or Tantra (which she nicely calls the« Californication of tantra ), Doniger, however, does not forget to respond to the objections of conservative Hindus considering that any foreign translation or commentary on their tradition can only be betrayal. As she points out, Hindus have also constantly adapted concepts and practices of other traditions, when they do not knowingly exploit, today, the expectations of Westerners. It is therefore rather necessary to speak of pragmatic exchanges much more than betrayal. In addition, as the work amply shows, features today deemed characteristic of Hinduism, such as vegetarianism or the character supposedly “ sacred From the cow, are themselves historically datable and textually very relative. Despite the character “ inclusive “Hinduism, so much celebrated as an example of religious and cultural tolerance (which is quite right for certain periods of history and less for others), the repressive character of current Hinduism vis-à-vis academic work on its texts appears clearly in the bag of the office of the Director of History of the University of Delhi, February 25, 2008. the very many versions of Rast (following the work of the literature specialist Ak Ramanujan), including some being irreverent to the hero of history, his wife (Sita) or his brother …
Apart from the personality of the author, the genesis of this new text (this is a general course dedicated to his students, revised for publication) and the broad audience targeted justify the frequency of references to the debates and anecdotes of the contemporary in the midst of the presentations on the ancient texts. In conclusion, despite the sometimes allusive and anecdotal character of the subjects covered, The Hindus represents a successful synthesis of Indianist popularization, synthesis “ American -style »In the sense that the author does not take himself seriously while never losing sight of the seriousness and the very current scope of the questions she dealt with.