“Hindu is a Persian word, its meaning is Black.”
Birth of Indian Subcontinent
During the time before history, drawing upon the discipline of geology and earth science, it was Francis Bacon (1561-1626), an English philosopher and man of science, who first noticed from African map that the coastlines of eastern Africa matched with the triangular shaped India and the western matched neatly with South America. Geologists in the nineteenth century hypothesized that all the continents we know today, were connected together as a single “supercontinent.” Today’s geologists believe that 200 million years ago our world mass of land was one big continent which they have named “Pangaea.” Thus we find that, about 50 million years ago, a triangular plate of a huge land mass broke away from Madagascar—a large island lying today off the southeastern coast of Africa. Adrift on the earth’s mantle and breaking away from the continent of Africa, it sailed across the ocean and smashed into the belly of Central Asia to become what we know today the “Indian subcontinent.” With the appearance of different regions and continents the world population was initially divided into 4 major races, namely the white Caucasian, the red Mongoloid, the yellow Chinese, and the black Negroid and Australoid. Since the triangular area of India had split from Africa the aborigines of India known Dravidians were of Negroid race.
Thus the origin of Proto-Dravidians may have been in the Indus civilization of Harappan race who after the demise of Indus civilization had moved to southern India and later on some of them scattered all over the sub-continent. But we notice that from the material remains of the culture of Indus Civilization, rather it would be more proper to say the Harappan Civilization (c. 3,300-c. 1,300) which might well be the key to the roots of Hinduism, the Harappans, both through land and sea had been trading with the peoples of Mesopotamia. The Harappans being black in color were named by the Mesopotamians as Hindus—meaning black in ancient as well in today’s Persian language, just as the Europeans named the Africans as Negros, a word from Latin’s Niger meaning black. Within this perspective the South Indian State Karnataka’s Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi proclaimed, “HINDU is a Persian word, its meaning is horrible.”
However, it would have been more proper if the people of the sub-continent India were named Harappans or as the Arabs called them Sindhus after the name of river Sindh—the original name of river Indus—rather than the Indians which is given by the Greeks or accepting the ancient Persian given name Hindu. We are well aware that the fair-skinned Aryans having settled on the western, central and eastern part of Eurasia who for the black people of Africa used the word Negro—a word from Latin’s Niger meaning black—but the people off Semite race who had settled in Mesopotamia used the word “Hindu”—in Persian meaning black—for the African-raced Harappans of the Indus valley of South Asian Sub-continent. It is no less surprise that the fair-skinned Aryans who entered the sub-continent of India in the second millennium BCE speaking the language of Sanskrit and expressing in their hymns disdain for the indigenous Indians as dark, snub-nosed, immoral—a people whose characteristics link them with the demons and evil spirits of Aryan myths—themselves accepted to be named Hindus meaning black.
The Arabs after the eighth century used to refer everyone who lived beyond the great river Sindh as the Sindhus. Since the Turkic rulers entering the subcontinent through the Khyber-pass were Persian knowing or mostly Persian speaking peoples they preferred to use the word Hindu rather than the Arab given name Sindhu. The Mughal emperor Babur in his memoirs written in sixteenth century CE wrote, “Most of the people [not all] in Hindustan are infidels who call themselves Hindu meaning black believing in reincarnation.”
Meaning of the Word “Hindu”
Wendy Doniger, holding two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford, is a Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, is the author of 778 pages book The Hindus: An Alternative History. Her book was banned in India after country wide protests that the book proves “Hindu” is not a native word but comes from the Persians in the fourth-century BCE—a period before the fair-skinned Aryans ran over the western and then eastern regions of the mighty river Indus. Today it inflames those Hindus who are sometimes called Hindu nationalists, or the Hindu right, or the Hindutva meaning Hinduness or Hindu fundamentalists. A very recent statement by the Karnataka Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi who said, “HINDU is a Persian word, its meaning is horrible.” When I checked the meaning of the word Hindu in a Persian Dictionary Farhang-e-Jamiya by Dr Syed Ali Raza Naqvi D.Lit., (Tehran) it means: black, thief, dacoit and slave; one living in Hindustan i.e., country of black people.
The name “India” is derived from the name of river Indus which is also a derivative of the word Sindhu related to the region of Sindh the southern region of subcontinent of India. However, the name “Indus” of the mighty river has been in use in Greek since Herodotus (5th century BCE). Here, a big question is, why the Hindus failed to adopt a vernacular name for their faith and embraced the Persian word Hindu meaning black for identity. One of many other reasons is that the Wendy Doniger in her book The Hindu further speculates;
Most of the people we call Hindus call themselves something else, like Golkonda Vaporish, or on the rare occasions when they do regard themselves as a group, refer to themselves as Hindus but as people with the sorts of definitions that we have just considered (Aryas, people who revere the Veda, who follow the system of class and stage of life, and so forth). Moreover “Hindu” is not a native word but comes from the “river” (Sindhu) that Herodotus (in the fifth century BCE), the Persians (in the fourth century BCE), and the Arabs (after the eighth century CE) used to refer to everyone who lived beyond the great river of the northwest of the subcontinent, still known locally as the Sindhu and in Europe as the Indus.1 (Doniger 2009 p.30)
But it is also true that the word “Hindu” and “Hindustan” has a geographical basis, it is not just the word, rather the very concept of Hindus and Hinduism that is geographically rooted in history from the ancient to present time. The textbook of Hindu legal code coming from first century CE known as dharma attributed to “Mani” does not use the word “Hindu” but does offer a geographical definition of the people to whom this dharma applies.
Hindu Religion
Though the essentials of Hinduism are same as those of other monotheistic faiths, but the religion of the Hindus evolved without a central dogma or a philosophy which would have knitted together thousands of myths into one common religion. Whereas it does not represent an Abrahamic form of transcendent monotheism, its views regard Brahman as the only one ultimate reality, who causes the universe and all others to emanate from itself, and is the Self of all living beings. But there are many types and varieties of Hindu religion that it becomes difficult to define a unified description. With a belief in ultimate reality Hinduism brings forth a misshapen image of polytheism, idolatry, caste system, and a big baggage of mythical characteristics which are considered indefensible. The Vedas are scriptures heard in an oral tradition and passed on by the sages who virtually had seen what their content describes, which are regarded as timeless, uncreated wisdom produced by neither god, nor man. Anand M. Saxena, in Hinduism: A Religion for the Modern Age, writes:
Hinduism is the oldest surviving religion in the world. Many of its thoughts and traditions can be traced back to prehistoric times—more than five thousand years ago. It differs from Western religions in certain key respects: (1) its origin cannot be traced to a single person who received a divine revelation and became the founder of the faith; (2) it cannot be defined in terms of a dogma or a body of beliefs that distinguishes its followers from the rest of humanity, and; (3) it does not have an established institution with powers to induct or expel people from the faith. . . The roots of Hindu religion can be traced to books called Shrutis—rather than to any individual—that include the Vedas, Upanishads and Brahmanas. Although the Bhagavadgita is a larger text, being technically a part of Mahabharata, its enormous impact on the Hindu way of thinking has elevated it to the status of a Shruti.2 (Saxena, 2007, pp1-3)
As a religion, Hinduism is a complex amalgam of doctrines, cults, myths, and many ways of life with a unifying concept of fire sanctified and introduced by the Aryans as a parallel to Zoroastrian worship of fire symbolized as god. Fire is thus a key element in Hinduism and is common within thousands of cults, myths and traditions of the people living in every corner of India. The expanded role of fire or Agni is identified in the early hymns of the Rig Veda as:
You, O Agni, are Indra, the bull [strongest] of all that exist; you are the wide-striding Vishnu, worthy of reverence; you, O Lord of the Holy World (Brahmanaspati), as the chief priest who finds riches [for the sacrifice]; you, O distributer, are associated with munificence. You, O Agni, are King Varuna, whole laws are firm; you are Mitra, the wonder-worker to be revered; you are Aryaman, the reliable lord, of whom I would get enjoyment; . . . You, O Agni, as Rudra, the Asura of lofty heaven; as the troop of Maruts, you control sustenance.3 (Rig Veda II.1.3, 4, 6)
Here Agni not only stands for the other gods in the sacrifice, but is all the gods. However, the hymns of the Vedas, meaning the “sacred knowledge,” composed around two thousand years BCE and introduced by the Aryans are the bedrock of the religious and traditional values of Hinduism. When we see Hindu religious rituals, we find everything starts with fire worship and ends with the final role of fire. Hindus chant a vast variety of prayers carrying fire in a platter with eatable delicacies as “parshad” and keep fire burning before an idol of worship; they whirl seven times around a fire lit hearth to solemnize marriage vow; they finally cremate their dead ones and throw the ashes in the river; they used to burn alive the wife with her deceased husband—a practice stopped by the British rulers by enforcing strict law—and glorify Agni (fire). The opening verse of the Rig Veda declares Agni the ultimate priest who acts as an intermediary between mankind and the celestial beings: “I glorify Agni, the divine priest and the messenger of my oblations to Devas” (RV 1.1.1).
Philosophy of Hinduism
Indian philosophy is analogous to the philosophical traditions of ancient Greece. As early as in the fifth century BCE, identifiable schools of thought began to recognize each other, arguing, refuting, and interacting. Different approaches labeled as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism started to coexist in the subcontinent of India. However, philosophy, or darsana, meaning “view,” “perception,” or “insight” remained within the orbit of Indian thought, and what was “viewed” or “sighted” was truth about the nature of reality. Understanding the nature of reality is the aim of philosophizing in Hinduism, reflecting the fact that man is capable of attaining experiential knowledge of metaphysical truth. However, through the ages, philosophy in Hinduism is recognized as an attempt to seek the true nature of reality in terms of a meditative inner or spiritual quest. Unlike Western philosophy, it is not a purely intellectual pursuit focused on rationality. Rather, in Hinduism philosophy and religion are combined within the orbit of the doctrinal authority of the Vedas and Upanishads. The vernacular term for philosophy in Hinduism is darsana, “seeing.” The main goal of philosophy is the achievement of moksha, “enlightenment,” which means escape from the cycle of reincarnation, driven into it by karma, “actions” or “deeds.” In Hinduism, an individual atman, “soul,” transmigrates from body to body depending on the nature of the karma and passes through a kind of purgatory process until it attains enlightenment.
Ancient Hinduism reflected the idea that the boundless human desires are the basic cause of evil in this world. In order to achieve nirvana, “renunciation,” it is important to escape from evil, which is possible only by suppressing all personal desires through an act of will or by yogic discipline. In Hinduism the conception of life is a never-ending cycle, and death is simply a migration into another incarnation of life. The reincarnated life adopts a form depending on the nature of karmain previous life. Nirvana is the final goal of excellence to which to aspire. Since people are naturally unequal, few achieve nirvana. This notion of the inequality of people by nature gave birth to the caste system that still prevails in Hindu society even in present-day India.
Hinduism with all its complexities splendidly represents metaphysics, epistemology, logic, and ethics. Although it does not represent an Abrahamic form of transcendent monotheism, its views regard Brahman as the only one ultimate reality. Brahman causes the universe and all others to emanate from itself, is in all things, and is the Self of all living beings. Though as a religion, Hinduism is a complex amalgam of doctrines, cults, myths, and many ways of life, its pursuit of knowledge through debates attempts to seek evidence of the nature of reality with philosophical approach. Questions seeking rational answers about the nature of a person and personal identity, pluralism versus monism, and a personal deity versus an Absolute are a part of its religious, traditional and philosophical outlook.
Ethics in Hinduism is represented by its realization of moksha, the highest good achieved by an escape from the beginning-less cycle of rebirth and the clutches of karma. Moral values in Hinduism serve religious values and are concerned with all sorts of activities in one’s life to achieve enlightenment. According to its philosophy, the Hindu scriptures assert and implore adherence to the truth about ultimate reality, the nature of the human self, and the achievement of the highest good.
The origin of various philosophical ideas of Hinduism that were developed in its system is the Vedas—composed around two thousand years BCE ago. The hymns of the Vedas, or “sacred knowledge,” are the bedrock of the religious and traditional values of Hinduism. The Vedas are scriptures heard in an oral tradition and passed on by the sages who virtually had seen what their content describes. These are regarded as timeless, uncreated wisdom produced by neither god nor man. Their philosophical character was developed in a context of subsequent Vedic literature called the Upanishad, treatises that reinterpret themes relating cosmology, psychology, and sacrifices in symbolic terms. A central philosophical thesis is the identity of Brahman (the highest and the greatest, and the source of all things) and atman (the self or the soul). The Vedas hold that in the beginning there must have been something, as nothing comes ex nihilo. In the Upanishad this primeval being is the same as the spirit within, and the highest wisdom is intuitively realizing this identity of spirit and body.
The nineteenth century German philosopher Schopenhauer said that there was no study as beautiful and elevating as the Upanishad, and viewed it as the solace of his life and the solace of his death.The Upanishad played its role in the introduction of philosophy, but it also generated a desire for mystical knowledge that would ensure freedom from rebirth. It promoted the growth of asceticism and the doctrine of rebirth known as transmigration. The ascetic wanderers and the traditional hermit way of life further encouraged mysticism as a search for union with the ultimate that would bring bliss and moksha, release from transmigration. The Upanishad marked the beginning of philosophy in Hinduism by making analogical arguments, but its literature embellished it with its logical reasoning and arguments from observed facts.
The essence of the Vedas and the Upanishad is contained in the Bhagavad Gita, which is esteemed as the most important book of the Hindu religion and its literature. The Bhagavad Gita is a very popular book and is universally regarded as the jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom. Its terse verses illuminate revelations of the essential nature of human beings and their relationship with the ultimate. It reflects the science of self-realization with a message that each human life has but one ultimate end and purpose: to realize the Eternal Self within and know the joy of union with Him. Whereas in the traditions of Hinduism such knowledge was to be sought by completely retreating from the everyday life of this world, the Gita teaches the possibility of such achievement in the midst of the world through nonattached action in the context of devotion to God.
MIRZA IQBAL ASHRAF
