The transfer of power in 1947 was accompanied by slaughter and pillage of huge proportions. Millions of Hindus left their homes in Pakistan for India, and millions of Muslims migrated in the opposite direction. The tension culminated in the assassination of Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic in January 1948.
The policy of the new Indian government was to establish a secular state, and the successive governments have broadly kept to this policy. The governments of the Indian states, however, have not been so restricted by constitutional niceties. Some state governments have introduced legislation of a specifically Hindu character. On the other hand, the Congress governments have passed legislation more offensive to Hindu traditional prejudices than anything the British Indian government would have dared to enact. For example, all forms of discrimination against “untouchables” (now usually referred to in administrative language as “scheduled castes” and in informal speech as “Dalits”) are forbidden, although it has been impossible to enforce the law in every case. A great blow to conservatism was dealt by legislation in 1955 and 1956 that gave full rights of inheritance to widows and daughters, enforced monogamy, and permitted divorce on quite easy terms. The 1961 law forbidding dowries further undermined traditional Hinduism. Although the dowry has long been a tremendous burden to the parents of daughters, the strength of social custom is such that the law cannot be fully enforced.
The social structure of traditional Hinduism is changing rapidly in the cities. Intercaste and interreligious marriages are becoming more frequent among the educated, although some aspects of the caste system show remarkable vitality, especially in the matter of appointments and elections. The bonds of the tightly knit Hindu joint family are also weakening, a process helped by legislation and the emancipation of women. The professional priests, who perform rituals for laypeople in homes or at temples and sacred sites, complain of the lack of custom, and their numbers are diminishing.
Nevertheless, Hinduism is far from dying. Mythological films, once the most popular form of entertainment, are enjoying a renaissance. Organizations such as the Ramakrishna Mission flourish and expand their activities. New teachers appear from time to time and attract considerable followings. Militant fundamentalist Hindu organizations such as the Society for the Self-Service of the Nation (Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh; RSS) are steadily growing. Such movements can be seen as the cause or the result, or both, of persistent outbreaks of communal religious violence in many parts of South Asia. On both the intellectual and the popular level, Hinduism is thus in the process of adapting itself to new values and new conditions brought about by mass education and industrialization. In these respects it is responding to 21st-century challenges. Hinduism outside India
Since the latter part of the 19th century, large Hindu communities have been established in eastern and southern Africa (particularly in South Africa), Malaysia, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and some islands of the West Indies. Members of these communities have adhered to their religion faithfully for several generations. In the late 20th century they were aided by Hindu missionaries, chiefly from the Arya Samaj or the Ramakrishna Mission. Since World War II many Hindus also settled in the United Kingdom, and after 1965 many began settling in the United States. Although the earliest migrants were comparatively uneducated, many of the émigrés of the late 20th century were highly skilled and well-educated professionals.
Contemporary Western culture is ready to accept Eastern religious ideas in a way that is unprecedented since the days of the Roman Empire. A recent manifestation of the spread of Indian religious attitudes in the Western world is the Hare Krishna movement, officially known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). This is essentially a bhakti movement, broadly following the precedents of Chaitanya (1485–1533), a mystic poet and worshipper of Krishna whose practices have influenced devotional Hinduism. Since its foundation by a Hindu sannyasin (ascetic), A.C. Bhaktivedanta (Prabhupada), in 1965, its growth has been surprising, and sankirtana (devotional singing and dancing) can be seen in the streets of New York City and London, performed by young men and women from Christian or Jewish homes wearing dhotis and saris. These manifestations are part of a process that began in 1784 with the first English translation of a Hindu religious text, Charles Wilkins’s version of the Bhagavadgita.
Hinduism is not by nature a proselytizing religion, in part because of its inextricable roots in the social system and the land of India. In the late 20th century, however, many new gurus, such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation, and Sathya Sai Baba, were successful in attracting followers in Europe and the United States. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi followed a pattern established earlier by Vivekananda and Paramahamsa Yogananda (1893–1952), who emphasized to Western audiences the nonsectarian and philosophical teachings of Hinduism and taught that meditation, yoga, and parts of the Vedantic texts were compatible with any religious tradition. Mahesh Yogi presented Transcendental Meditation as a technique for improving health and reducing stress. These benefits were also connected with the practice of Yoga. Since the late 20th century, there has been a veritable boom in Yoga studios in the West, which has in turn led to its renaissance in India. Divorced from its Indian religious and philosophical roots, it is now almost ubiquitous in fitness centres across the United States and Canada.
In the early 21st century the Hindu diaspora in the United States has greatly increased in a number of cities, and wealthy Hindu communities have built large temples and endowed chairs in South Asian studies at major universities. The temples also serve as community centres and provide classes in classical Indian music and several forms of bhakti-imbued classical dances from India—including bharata natyam, kuchipudi, and orissi (odissi). In the diaspora, these art forms, along with popular devotional songs (bhajans), are an important means of transmitting Hinduism to younger generations. Internet mailing lists and blogs have forged ties between Hindus throughout the country, and globalization, which once meant the influence of European and American culture on Hindus in India, has now reversed its flow. Such forms of Yoga as Iyengar, Bikram, and Patanjali have gained popularity. Bollywood movies, almost all of which portray some form of Hindu culture, are extremely popular in many parts of the world. And a new generation of gurus—including Mata Amritanandamayi (the “hugging guru”)—have brought a particular brand of Hinduism to the Western world. Arthur Llewellyn Basham J.A.B. van Buitenen Wendy Doniger Vasudha Narayanan Sacred texts Vedas Importance of the Vedas
The Vedas (“Knowledge”) are the oldest Hindu texts. Hindus regard the Vedas as having been directly revealed to or “heard” by gifted and inspired seers (rishis) who memorized them in the most perfect human language, Sanskrit. Most of the religion of the Vedic texts, which revolves around rituals of fire sacrifice, has been eclipsed by later Hindu doctrines and practices. But even today, as it has been for several millennia, parts of the Vedas are memorized and repeated as a religious act of great merit: certain Vedic hymns (mantras) are always recited at traditional weddings, at ceremonies for the dead, and in temple rituals. The components of the Vedas