Is Hinduism the most secular and democratic religion?

1. The concept of 33 crore Gods, Goddesses in Hinduism provides a freedom of choice and expression. It’s like saying ‘I will not dictate to you of how God looks like. I see Him in the love of Krishna, you can see Him in the anger of Shiva or in the naughtiness of Indra. This concept of protecting the foremost right of each human being, of not being a slave to anyone’s ideology and having the freedom to worship God in his own manner, is the foundation of democracy and secularism.

2. Hinduism brings to us the legacy of great kingdoms such as Ram rajya, and those of Raja Harischander, Raja Chola, Chandragupta Maurya and more whose empires were based upon the strongest of democratic principals where equality, respect of human rights, tolerance, intellectual debates and freedom of expression were enjoyed by all its citizens.

3. Hinduism is not an ideology but a philosophy which gives it the spirit of openness, new learnings, dialogue, respect to your fellow humans, respect to environment and the natural ecosystems, mutual accommodation of each other’s views, and all these happen to be the basic values that a strong democracy is built upon.

4. Hinduism is the mother and it is in her womb that other great religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism were born. Hinduism welcomed on its shores foreign religions of Muslim and Christianity and allowed them to spread their message.

Thus the foundation of India is a ‘Hindu rashtra’ based on the strongest democratic values which are derived from Hinduism. The constitution was written based on these strong Hindu value system of Unity in diversity and living in harmony. Let us not dilute it to any other flavors or our own personal versions.

A check on any intolerance or dictatorship style of governance is essential at all times in this world’s largest democracy.