Uniformisation of religious philosophy and personal laws

This article delves into the concept of pluralism which has been the essence of Indian society since time immemorial and how it is being uniformised, for political reasons more than social reformation.

- SEEMA SINDHU

First, let’s talk of how the religious profiling of Hindus is being uniformised towards one deity that is lord Ram. Ramayan and Gita are the two most popular religious epics which have dominated the Hindu philosophy. BJP has centered the Hindu religious philosophy around lord Ram leaving the philosophy of lord Krishna on the fringes. Lord Ram is maryada Purshottam and his life is lesson RSS and BJP want the Hindus to live. The reason is obvious- he had one wife and he is purshottam - who suffered 14 years exile to keep the sanctity of his father’s promise. Krishna had 16108 wives, mostly de jure and few de facto according to the scriptures and folklore. And he had Shri Radha - relation we idolize as purest form of love. But there’s an inconvenient truth about it and that is that according to some literature and folklore she was married. While lord Ram is the ideal incarnation of lord Vishnu, lord Krishna is the liberal avatar. That’s why the political discourse around deities and Hindu philosophy has been uniformised towards lord Ram.