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Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def) .. very long
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def) .. very long
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From: ntiwari@rs3.esm.vt.edu (N. Tiwari)
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Date: 21 Jan 1996 23:21:21 GMT
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
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References: <DKBuD9.968@ecf.toronto.edu> <4d736m$8fc@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4df2ob$68l@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4di8c9$fos@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4dks54$kh5@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4dpeq6$mo1@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
Singam (vijia@pop.jaring.my) wrote:
: vivek@cs.rice.edu (Vivek Sadananda Pai) wrote:
: >I would have hoped that it proved nothing, but take a look at a recent
: >post on soc.religion.hindu:
: >In article <4df2vq$6a8@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
: >Santhosh Kumar <santhosh@iss.nus.sg> wrote:
: >[...]
: >>I would like to clarify Caitanya that you cannot be a Hindu
: >>because you are born in Canada, a Hindu is the one who is
: >>born in Hindustan ( INDIA ) and follows Sanatana Dharma.
: >>However, the Hinduism is based on Sanatana Dharma and anybody
: >>could practise that and benefit from it.[...]
: >In other words, there are definitely Hindus who feel that you _must_
: >be born in India in order to be a Hindu. This definition would
: >probably make most of the members of the HSC, for example, non-Hindu,
: >since they were likely born in the US.
: Oh dear, I was born in Malaysia and not in Hindustan. I suppose that
: means I too am not a Hindu :-(
: Just out of curiosity, I wonder what percentage of those subscribing
: to SRH are 'non-Hindu'.
Read my post on the History of term Hindu.
The term Hindu has been used by several persons in
several senses. The sense, which you are alluding to
you may not be the right one for you. The geographical
connotations became important (i.e. Hindu is one who
loves in India) when the Dharmic way was uproooted
from places like Afghanistan, Sindh ..., and the
people in India thought that the only people who
followed the Dharmic path were in India. So, they
started calling people of India as Hindus. However
with the restortation of swarajya, and the spread of
Hinduism in other places of world, I do not think that
Hinduism should be intrinsically related to India,
the nation. If tomorrow all Indians shed there
religion in favor of some other path, it will be
rather quite silly to call them Hindus.
--
Nachiketa Tiwari
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