Intro
- Military response - see defence page.
- MT posits: “Mohammedanism needed special backing for its effective survival in the subcontinent. … Demographic and missionary aggression by Mohammedanism might not have been sufficient for it to overrun the Hindu dharma.”
- For generic intellectual and identity based response patterns, see defence/id page
- “The striving for non-Hinduness might have even lead to internal rifts within Mohammedanism as each group was trying be more Mohammedan than the other. " [MT]
On the nature of Abrahamist God
A classical vaidika hindu view would be: “The Gods are and always were in perfect harmony. Myths of their battles, though sacred and valuable, are not to be taken literally. So this monopolistic God is at best petty human misinterpretation, and his cults are deadly memetic epidemics.”
Intelligent critiques
A few Hindu-s did understand and produce some very high-quality critiques of Abrahamistic thought. For example, we have a 9th century apostate of Islam, Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishak al-Rawandi, quoting barAhima (or brAhmaNa-s) of al-hind:
“If prophets are sent to preach adherence to things that can be established by the use of intellect then the prophets are just like ordinary people. If, of the other hand, they come to preach what contradicts those things – god has made those things to be perceived as proofs; they will not suit anything else except through the altering/perversion of the intellect itself.”
Other reports:
In the 19th century, we see excellent critiques by dayananda sarasvatI and arumuka nalavAr - and to some extant by vivekAnanda.
Muted inquiry into the Abrahamisms
In classical Indian literature “the Muslims, who were not only present in India for many centuries, but were its actual rulers, appear only in vague and marginal references” (HALBFASS 1988: 182); “the Sanskrit tradition has never taken official notice of the existence of Islam” (ERNST 1992: 30); “I would lay stress on this - the religious identity of the Central Asians [who invaded India] is not once thematized in Sanskrit sources” (POLLOCK 1993: 286).
Kalachakra Tantra
From Heid1998: In Sanskrit literature the Kalacakra tantra is unique in presenting a fairly comprehensive and quite accurate portrayal of Islamic beliefs and practices. [WP]
Counteract subversion
Old institutions
maThas (monasteries), temples, utsavas have offered continued access to some part of the the dharma’s ethos and ideas. They have thus been a potent force in the dvijas with strong saMskAras and rural people resisting the subversion.
Spiritual movements
The great patriot vivEkAnanda worked to revive hindu svAbhimAna and conscience through the rAmakRRiShNa mission. His presentation of the hindu dharma and saMskAras found great appreciation abroad; and there fore became ‘cool’ in bhArata. Arya-samAja, yOgAnanda’s ‘self realization fellowship’, bhakti movements such as that of gauDIya vaiShNavas through ISKCON, mahEsha yOgi’s transcendental meditation movement, ravisha~Nkara’s ‘Art of living’ continued and strengthened this resistance.
Non-hindu movements springing from bhAratIya darshaNas such as various bauddha traditions of various bauddha countries, sikh movments reinforced this to some extant.
yOga gaining popularity in the west - through the efforts of people from shivAnanda, bikrama and kRRiShNamAchArya’s gurukulas (BKS iye~NgAr, paTThAbhi jois), has again subverted the westerd subversion of the dharma.
Resistance: cultural movements
Inspired in part by vIra sAvarkar, rAShTRIya svayaMsEvaka sangha (RSS) pioneered hindu revivalism - they have tried to cultivate hindu youth strong in both body and intellect by starting a grassroots/ bottom-up movement across bhArata in the form of shAkhAs in different places.
saMskRRita-bhAratI, another grassroots movement, is working towards the revival of sanskrit, the language of liturgy in bhAratIya darshaNas and of classical culture. saMskRRita has great potential to function in bhAratIya revival in a way analogous to the role of the ‘master switch’ in a house’s electrical circuitry.
More traditionalist movements, such as the vishva hindu parishat (VHP), have worked to organize hindu leaders.
All these movements have spread to the bhAratIya diaspora abroad.
Media, internet and videos
Videos of the epics rAmAyaNa and mahAbhArata (and later some purANas) broadcast on national television reacquainted bhAratIya children with the dharma, and reminded their elders of it. Books by rAjagOpAlachAri, amar chitra kathA comics did the same.
Videos about historical figures such as the marATha empire, chANakya, gAndhi reminded people of past successful hindu resistance to foreign rule.
The internet has allowed people to connect with people who care about the dharma even when they are far away from it.
Heathenizing Abrahamists
Famous cases
- AshIsh khAn, son of the master musician ali akbar khAn, stated in 2006 that his family were never officially converted into Islam, but hid under the guise of being muslims.
Akbar
- There was some extra-military response to Islam during muslim reign [MT], involving conversion of muslims, apostacy of Akbar; reducing virulence of Islam in Dara Shukoh etc..
- Apostasy of Akbar: MT and B.
Recovery of Mansur Al Hallaj
- Mansur was the son of a first gen Zoroastrian convert to Islam. At Gujarat where his unconverted relatives had fled, he was trained in haTha Yoga by nAthas.
- Mansur was accused of leaving Islam. Mansur didn’t deny the charge but kept saying “An al Haq” (I am truth) even as he was executed by the Caliph.
- while contemporary Sufis denounced Mansur, later Sufis accepted him.
General reconversion
- Tuglaq times: " brAhmaNa of Delhi had constructed a wooden seal on which were engraved the pictures of Hindu deities. Large numbers of Hindus resorted to his house to worship the seal. He had also converted Moslem women to the Hindu polytheism.” MT
Kashmir
- “In the sixth year of his reign when Shāh Jahān was returning from Kashmir through Jammu, he discovered, as Jahāngir had discovered before him, that the Hindus of Bhadauri and Bhimbar accepted daughters of Muslim parents and converted them to their own faith. These women were cremated at their death according to Hindu rites. Jahāngir had tried to stop this practice but to no avail. Shāh Jahān not only issued orders making such marriages unlawful henceforward, but ordered that these converted Muslim girls be taken away from their husbands, who in turn were to be fined. They could escape the fine if they accepted Islam. So widespread was this practice of converting Muslim girls to Hinduism that these orders discovered more than 4,000 such women.”
- Bogus malicious myth: “after Sikh conquest of Kashmir, Hari Singh Nalwa wanted to convert Muslims back to Hinduism ( & not Sikhism!). Muslims were ready to convert but “evil” Kashmiri Pandits refused!”
mahArAShTra
“In mahArAShTra the influencing and conversion of Moslems by Hindu religious figure is recorded into the 1600s of CE – e.g. an enigmatic female shaiva teacher who was active in this regard in the Adilshahi territory of the 1600s. In south India we hear of the great bhAskararAya makhIndra converting a Turkic woman to the Hindu fold in the 1700s. " [MT]
vanga-desha
- maa bonbibi (= mulsimified forest deity vanadevI durgA) of the sundarban-s IFC15.
Rousing fight to expel the Abrahamist threat
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“Make the people one; fill their minds with the single thought of resisting the Mleccha enemy…” - Samarth Ramdas’s letter advising Sambhaji. [ K1]
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“He (Vijayanagara ruler) commanded the Brahmins to deliver every day to the troops discourses on the meritoriousness of slaughtering the Mohammedans, in order to excite zeal for expelling them. He ordered them to describe the butchery of cows, the insults to sacred images, and destroying of temples, practiced by the true believers.” - Ferishta [GB].
Solidarity with other pagans/ polytheists.
- During the Yazidi massacre: Ravishankar gave aid.
- Assistance to Heraka of Nagaland.
Temple Reconstruction
Whenever hindu kings regained dominion, they restored or built fresh new temples the turuShkAs destroyed. Eg: somanAtha temple was rebuilt repeatedly, the vishvanAtha temple in kAshi (by the rAjaputra prince. then by ahilyAbAi, with gold added by raNajIt singh).
The vaishyas kept financing recontructions and repairs. Eg: mArvADis in the case of kAShi.