Early Giithaa sculptures

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Tue, 29 Dec 1998, Robert Zydenbos wrote:

> Eastern Peoples_), the attitude that says we should pick up an old text,
> ardently believe in it and construct the whole of history on that text
> is not exclusively Hindu. But percentagewise, it seems more a Hindu
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> problem today than, e.g., a Muslim or Christian one.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'd be interested to know why you make
this observation, because it is the
exact opposite of my experience.  In
fact, the Western controversies over
evolution, the age of the universe,
the non-specialness of human beings,
abortion, contraception, etc. are
simply not found among Hindus.

In my experience, Hindu scriptural literalists
are negligible in number.  On the other hand,
political pseudo-Hinduism (e.g., the BJP) is
clearly a problem.  But this is not based on
literal interpretation of any text.

Every Western problem doesn't have to have an
exact Indian counterpart...

Regards, and best wishes for a happy new year,


Raja (a proud "pseudo-secularist").