Religion makes you conservative or liberal?
Hinduism
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” — Albert Einstein.
From the above quote, we can conclude that there are two ways to look at things. One, miracle means GOD exists. And other is the scientific way. So in this article, I am going to talk about religious people, who believe in miracles/God.
First let me clarify what I mean by these words here — conservative, liberal, and Hinduism.
A liberal attitude toward anything means more tolerance for change. There are many meanings for liberal, but they mostly have to do with freedom and openness to change.
Conservative: a person who is averse to change and holds traditional values.
For Hinduism, please go through this: Who is a Hindu?. A conceptualization for 21st century | by Prof Milind Sathye | Medium. It’s hard to understand Hinduism as it’s a very broad term. In short, we can understand it as who believes and follows Vedas or scriptures.
According to this research, religions like Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus are lesser educated than Christians and Jewish. Also, highly educated religious groups have the smallest gender gaps in average years of schooling. Does it mean Hindus are traditional, that’s why they are less educated? Or is it just about the region and not religion?
I think it will be wrong to relate these observations completely with religion. Because in the same research it’s shown that even though Hindus are in minority in the US, they are most educated there. So rather than saying Hindus, we should say Indians because it’s more about the region and the reason could be poverty. India, Nepal, Bangladesh are developing countries. It’s not like Indians don’t want their kids to be educated. It’s just most of the time they can’t afford it.
But about gender inequality: In India, if parents can afford to educate only one kid. Then most probably they will choose to educate their son and not their daughters. Because this mentality still exists that girls need to take care of the family, not financially, as home-maker.
If we look at the reasoning part of the same research, “Learning is the foundational stage in the Hindu scheme of what constitutes a good and a meaningful life,” Rambachan says. Since ignorance is regarded as a source of human suffering, he adds, “the solution to the problem of ignorance is knowledge or learning.”
“The first, vidya, is everyday knowledge that equips one to earn a decent and dignified life. The second, jnana, is knowledge or wisdom that brings awareness of the divine. This is achieved by reading and meditating on Hindu scriptures.”
So yes we can say that Hindus are more liberal when it comes to education. But what we see in India in the 21st century, that when it comes to gender equality, LGBTQ, castism, freedom of career or life partner, and much more. I feel we are backward compared to western countries. So when I was growing up in a small city in India, I used to blame it on my religion (Hinduism). But now I know it’s because of the “society” and not because of Hinduism. When I tried to know what Hinduism is, I realized it gives more freedom. To know more about Hinduism, go through this and this.
When I look at any religion, its rules, regulations, boundations, rituals make it more kind of conservative and gives less freedom. For example, in some religions, it is not right to go for abortions or pre-marital sex. Though religion teaches us morals I agree on this, go through this research. But I think somewhere because of obligations to follow traditions or social values, it makes us conservative in some way. For example, gender inequality is kept going in our traditions, and we are following the same. But sometimes rather than following traditions blindly we need to think open-mindedly. How it is affecting us and our kids? Are we increasing unnecessary suffering just to be socially acceptable or just for the sake of traditions? A horrible example is “Honor killing”. I am not saying following traditions or culture is wrong. I am saying following blindly is wrong. For example, there is a cast system in Hindus and people say it’s written in Bhagavad Gita, so we have to follow it. But we need to understand and think with an open mind that cast (or classification) doesn’t decide by birth. It’s about the qualities of humans. We need to understand what actually your religion teaches you, rather than the following society. I think Hinduism is the most liberal religion if we try to understand it properly and following Vedas. I am saying it because Hinduism even accepts atheists. It has theories for people who don’t believe in God and believes in themselves. For details you can go through the links I have mentioned above.
I am not commenting on other religions because I have not lived in those religions. I am a Hindu and can talk about it only. I know we have restrictions in India too. A lot of societal problems we face here but it’s not because of Hinduism. People have forgotten their own culture or values. People are not educated. They are just following blindly. And the reason might be foreign invaders. I am not going into much of history.
So yes, if you follow a religion or social values blindly, it can make you conservative. There will be lesser chances to grow. Try to understand things with an open mind and be liberal. In Bhagavat Gita, it is written accept the change, “Change is the only constant thing”. See humans as humans and not as a religious group. So we can accept each other. Hinduism also teaches us “Unite and Progress”. And that’s how we can become more liberal.
Thank you for reading till here.
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