Religion in India

Main article: India

Shaivism and Vishnuism

All the abundance of cults of Hinduism is generalized to the two main currents of Vishnuism and Shaivism. The concept of Shaivism also encompasses the closely related cults of mother goddesses, or Shaktian and Tantric beliefs.

The cult practice of Shaivism largely dates back to the oldest cults of fertility and carries a significant number of archaic features directly dating back to the era of family relations. It retains many typological features that allow you to reconstruct a number of religious-worldview models that were developed in the process of life practice of ethnic groups that were part of the oldest population of India.

Vishnuism developed in India after the arrival of the Vedic Arias, that is, by the beginning of the І millennium BC. e. To a certain extent, their progress through the country went under the banner of Vishnuism, since the doctrine of the avatars of Vishnu, which can be considered a clear example of the techniques used by the Brahmans for the ideological assimilation of non-Aryan ethnic groups, contributed to the introduction of local cults to Vedic forms of religion.

Vishnuism initially developed in an environment where the descendants of the Vedic aryas ethnically prevailed, and, becoming one of the essential components of their religion, reflected in itself the socio-legal relations that reigned in their society. Dominated and continued to develop intensively in this society system according to the "varna" model - caste "found in Vishnuism its ideological banner in the monuments of Vedic literature in the epic and Puranas widely reflected ideas about the god Vishnu, who planted and asserted the strictness of the Varna borders and, at the same time, which is very important - equally caring for the members of all four varnas, unless they violated their dharma (In "Ramayana," for example, the book "Uttarakanda" tells how Rama - one of the avatars of Vishnu - cut off the head of a certain shudra, who dared to practice strict austerity, allowed only to Brahmins).

But before the heyday of the Guptas empire, that is, before the beginning of the 5th century. e., Vishnuism nevertheless continued to be limited to the three first varnas. Vishnuite texts dating from the Gupta period often emphasize that Shudras can also practice Vishnuism and that artisans from their varna are allowed to make images of Vishnu that are to be recognized as iconographic. The gradual introduction of Vishnuism into the masses of low castes was facilitated both by the doctrine that the poor and suffering will find a favorable subsequent revival through their love for the deity and the meticulous fulfillment of the dharma of their caste, and by the opportunities inherent in Vishnuism to assimilate various folk cults and superstitions.

The widest absorption of the cult of Vishnu by the masses of East and South Indian ethnic groups is associated with the medieval bhakti movement. Being inherently anti-feudal and anti-caste, this movement took place under the motto of love for this god and universal equality in his face. Vishnuism, which was originally a doctrine spread by the Vedic Brahmins, that is, those higher social groups against which the bhakti movement was directed, became the banner of this movement. Such a visible paradoxical is explained precisely by the high degree of adaptability given to Vishnuism by the doctrine of avatars.

In the Middle Ages, the cult of Krishna, "the shepherd god of the most democratic avatar Vishnu, reached its peak, which combined a number of features that stimulate fanatical manifestations of boundless love and absolute worship. These manifestations found their expression in a variety of forms and were widely reflected in folk art.

Long established among the non-Aryan ethnic groups, the Shakti cults of mother goddesses, dating back to the oldest era of the formation of agricultural cults, agricultural magic and the assertion of maternal law (and at the same time a number of ritual devices related to the veneration of the female principle), entered Vishnuism, as well as Hinduism in its broad aspect, in the form of worship of goddesses to spouses or beloved gods. In Vishnuism, this took on the character of veneration of Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, and Radha, whose constant desire for it became a symbol of the continuously growing love of bhakta for the deity (Vishnuite theologians interpreted this love as not ceasing for a moment the desire of the human soul to merge with the divine beginning).

The teachings of Vishnuism have long made religion alien to non-Aryan ethnic groups not only acceptable, but also easily digestible, and mutual adaptation in the field of religious worldview proceeded most painlessly under its auspices.

Due to such a historical coloring, such a flexible character, Vishnuism has become as significant a doctrine in Hinduism as pre-Aryan Shaivism. Moreover, in a number of features of Vishnuism, not only influence is traced, but also a direct assimilation of Shaivism in its different forms. So, among the Bengalis, where Vishnuism did not penetrate before the 10th century. e. and where only in the KhІІ century. acquired the form of theological teaching formulated in the sermons of the believers (for example, Ramanuji, who created a group of 74 preaching students in 1130-1140) and in literary monuments (for example, in the poem "Gitagovinda," written in the KhІІ century. in Sanskrit by the poet Jayadeva), this current of Hinduism was literally saturated with tantrism in a wide range of its erotic manifestations. Some researchers believe that Jayadeva was a Shaivite and only used the Hare Krishna plot to present his erotic-tantric worldview.

The Shaivite-Tantric influence on Vishnuism can be traced back to an earlier period in the wide range of the creation of Puranas. Thus, the Padmapuran, Brahmavai-Vartapuran and Bhagavatapuran contain many such descriptions of Krishna's love encounters with Gopi shepherds and with Radha, which are almost naturalistic in nature. A noticeable influence of "Brahmavaivartapurana" can be traced in the work of the Vishnunt poet Vidyapati Thakur, who lived in Mithil in the 15th century and wrote in two languages ​ ​ Vrajabuli and Sanskrit, and "Bhagavatapurana" was translated into Bengali in the 15th century and influenced the oral work of local Bhakta poets and the content of Krishna chants ^[1].

Of all the preachers of Vishnuism in East India, Chaitanya enjoyed the greatest influence (late XV - early XVI centuries). He lived in Bengal, but at the end of his life he left for Odisha, where he also gained wide popularity. He established a special mystical-sensual cult of Krishna, synthesizing Vishnuite philosophy with the orgiastic practice of Tantrism in his teachings, thus actively promoting the spread of Vishnuism in an ethnic environment that kept the ancient traditions of Shaivism.

Mithila, which, judging by the numerous instructions contained in the "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata," since ancient times has become a stronghold of Vedic Brahmins, has long served them as a kind of ideological stronghold in their attack on the unknown cults of the peoples of East India. And only in the XII-XV centuries. the cult of Vishnu penetrated into these areas up to Assam and Manipur, covering the wide masses. Krishna also became the most popular avatar of Vishnu here, and this form of Vishnuism, along with Shaivism, persists in these areas of the country at the end of the 20th century.

In South India, Vishnuism also began to spread in the post-Kuptov era. Based on the Vishnuit Puranas, created for the most part in the ІІІ-VI centuries. ("Vishnupurana," "Bhagavatapurana," "Matsya- Purana," etc.), the genre of glorifying songs flourished here.

Vishnuism gained here, as in other areas of India, patrons in the person of the kings of local states, which is explained by the presence in the Puranas of the statement about the presence of a particle of Vishnu itself in each ruler. The images of such rulers, revered in Vishnuism, were the legendary avatar kings Rama and Krishna.

In different ethnic environments, these avatars enjoyed varying degrees of recognition. Thus, the Tamils, perceiving Vishnuism, began to read first of all Vishnu himself, and then Krishna, while Rama did not gain popularity here and at the end of the 20th century was more likely known there as the "Aryan expansionist," who conquered local peoples with fire and sword. Among the Malayali people, Vishnuism is most rooted in the form of Ramaism, which does not exclude the veneration of Krishna. Two other large Dravid-speaking people of Kannara and Andhra equally venerate both of these avatars, but, like the Tamils, preference is given to Vishnu.

Among the Andhra people, Vishnuism became the religion of some local rulers as early as the 5th century. e., and later approved here by the means of kings from non-ethnic dynasties who annexed certain parts of the territory of this people to their states; a similar situation developed in the life of the Kannara people in their lands, Vishnuism was associated with the era of the rule of the dynasties of the Western Ganges and Chalukya.

Spreading throughout the country, Vishnuism came into continuous contact with Shaivism. There was a process of either mutual adaptation and syncretic connection of various cult elements (for example, the emergence of the deity Hari-Hara, depicted as a figure, one half of whose body is Shiva and the other Vishnu), or partial displacement of pre-Vishnuit beliefs. Shaivite-Shaktian cults in many groups of the population here during the study practically cannot be completely separated from the Vishnuit cult practice. But there are also groups (usually castes or associations of related castes) that clearly adhere to either Vishnuism or Shaivism and fulfill both in ritual and in everyday and cultural life only the instructions of this religious direction.

Chronicle

2023: Hindu lynching of two Christian women in Manipur state

Members of the Kuki tribe who profess Christianity in July 2023 protested due to regular oppression by local authorities, the destruction of Christian shrines and churches by adherents of Hindutva ideology.

In response, backed by the military-run nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, sponsored by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Manipur, members of the Hindu Meitei tribe began setting fire to the cookie areas, forcing them to flee their homes.

After that, terrifying personnel appeared on the Web: a crowd of men from the Meitei tribe leads two naked women from the cookie clan.

Meitei and Kuki are two tribes living in the state of Manipur. There have been riots for more than two months. Members of an ethno-religious majority backed by the paramilitary nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh burn houses, expel and kill members of the cookie.

This video again recalls the chaos that is happening there. The personnel breaks off at the moment when people reach the field. But, knowing the customs of meitei, women will only face gang rape, limb cutting and burning alive, wrote the Rybar channel.

2022: Islamists execute Hindu for publicly supporting remarks about prophet Muhammad

On June 28, 2022, two Muslims - residents of Udaipur in Rajasthan - Riyaz Attari and Gous Muhammad brutally cracked down on local tailor Kanhaya Lal for his public support for statements about Prophet Muhammad made by the ex-press secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nipur Sharma.

Reprisals in the tradition of radical extremist organizations like the Islamic State (head cut off) and subsequent threats to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, filmed on video, caused a wide resonance within Indian society.

Despite the fact that the killers were detained a few hours after the brutal murder, more than 7 thousand people protested. Hindus organized processions in Udaipur, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, New Delhi. They demanded swift and decisive action by the authorities in the form of the death penalty for the two Muslims.

The ruling party urged citizens to wait for an official trial and not destabilize the situation in the country on confessional grounds. However, tensions remain in India. Representatives of the "right" want an immediate solution to the issue of the spread of radical Islamism.

In the state of Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, an increased regime of readiness of law enforcement agencies has been introduced. And to prevent the dissemination of extremist video materials with the public execution of an Indian citizen and calls for the fight against Muslims, the Internet is completely disconnected.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political agenda since 2014 has been built on Hindutva, a movement preaching the superiority of Hindus over other ethnic groups in the country. It is they who make up the majority in the election campaign of the current government.

Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party are in an extremely difficult position. In the event of a death sentence, the Indian leadership may face the wrath of not only Islamic radicals, but also ordinary Muslims because of the privileged, in their opinion, position of Hindus in all spheres of life.

Since the beginning of 2021, demonstrations of the Muslim population have been periodically held in the northern and northwestern states of the country due to oppression by the authorities on religious grounds.

However, if the Indian leadership is in principle accustomed to this situation, since they have been emerging for several years, then while preserving the lives of the detainees, the ruling party may face much greater problems in the form of dissatisfaction with Indian nationalists.

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