The Hindu Religion is Racist

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: ancienthistorian

That’s a little bit beyond the truth. The group of religions we call Hinduism has grown out a group of cultural influences, one of which was Indo-European.

From here we get the idea the Aryans (early Indo-Europeans, not the nonsense that the Nazi’s and other people masturbate too) came from the urheimat (homeland), and took over the Indus Valley culture.

Indo-Europeans? Well you and I are typing in an Indo-European language (English, a Germanic Languge, which is a branch on the IE language family tree). Chances are there were people who did not quite appear as we’d thing Indian Sub continent people did amongst that group.

So no I don’t see Hinduism as racist, not in the modern sense.

If we were going for that line of thought (lets try) the Asier of the northern Germanic people, fought with the Vanier, who might have been non Indo-European inhabitants of Scandinavia? The Tuatha de Dannan beat the Fir Bolg, who might have been non IE Irish etc etc. The legends of Giants (Jötunns), cyclopes , Fomorians, Ettin etc, are very not complimentary on many potentially not Indo-European people. They were evil, and deformed. Are we thus saying all these are racist too? Who knows perhaps they are?

I’ve bigger issue with a caste system still in existence in the modern world to be honest.

The fact remains that the Hindu scriptures criticizes dark skin as being ugly & hideous , we can clearly see the cultural influences the religion has on Indian society.

Its well known. Blue gods are actually dark brown south indian gods. Such as krishna and cali. North Indian invaders made them blue to accept them in to Hinduism.

a reply to: ancienthistorian

So you are skipping the rest of the comments, to stick to your poorly thought out thesis? I am not shocked based upon your other threads.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Blue can represent a lot of things.

One being "Spirit".

Closely related in terms of a blue body, is asphyxiation or just a corpse.

Spirit and death are closely related, as well as breathing, because air is commonly thought of as blue (the sky is blue) so therefore breath or wind is blue.

It's no coincidence that the color "Blue" is deeply connected with the word "Blew".

Let's investigate shall we?
blue adj1

Old French blo, bleu "pale, pallid, wan, light-colored; blond; discolored; blue, blue-gray,"

This is from PIE *bhle-was "light-colored, blue, blond, yellow," from root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn," also "shining white" and forming words for bright colors. The same PIE root yielded Latin flavus "yellow," Old Spanish blavo "yellowish-gray," Greek phalos "white," Welsh blawr "gray," showing the slipperiness of definition in Indo-European color-words.

it gets confused terribly:

The exact color to which the Gmc. term applies varies in the older dialects; M.H.G. bla is also 'yellow,' whereas the Scandinavian words may refer esp. to a deep, swarthy black, e.g. O.N. blamaðr, N.Icel. blamaður 'Negro' [Buck]

So blue is blue, yellow, gray, white, sea-green, and even black. Sigh...
But it's not red!

blow n1

"a hard hit (with a fist)," mid-15c., blaw, blowe, from northern and East Midlands dialects, perhaps from Middle Dutch blouwen "to beat," or an unrecorded Old English cognate. The ordinary Old English word for "to strike" was slean (see slay

So the hard hit connects with the act of breathing hard like in phrases such as "blown away" or "he blew him away".

Let's see, then we have blow v2, which is "bloom", as in 'full-blown'.

blow v1

"move air, produce a current of air," Old English blawan "to blow (of the wind, bellows, etc.), breathe, make an air current; kindle; inflate; sound (a wind instrument)" (class VII strong verb; past tense bleow, past participle blawen), from Proto-Germanic *blæ-anan (source of Old High German blaen, German blähen), from PIE root *bhle- "to blow."

So both are from PIE root -bhle (blue the color and blew the past tense of blow), and they relate to death or the slain.

The word "azure" (meaning blue) derives from a location where lapis lazuli was found, "Lajward", which is actually between Siberia and India/Afghan...

a reply to: ancienthistorian

As a result of my etymological research, your point stands in coloration context.

Because "Blue skin" must be seen via other contextual clues, which support your argument in terms of at least skin color differentiation, it seems safe to assume they meant lighter colored rather than darker colored.

In addition I think it's important to understand the ambiguity here, again based on the contextual clues. "Gold + yellow + flame" ? This could mean fire or it could just simply mean blonde Caucasians. If this is an actual historical account, than people with their heads on fire may seem a bit outlandish.

Which is funny because my avatar is a skull with flames for hair but I digress...

Now, if you want to construe them as racist, which is plausible and seems accurate, why exactly did they hate the darker skinned peoples? What did those people do that generated this mindset? You've been reading the scriptures, you tell me.

Paraphrased from.
Hinduwebsite.com

What is the cast system?

The Hindu caste system is unique in the world, but resembles in some ways Plato's ideal society of philosophers, warriors and commoners. A caste is a division of society based on occupation and family lineage. Hindu caste system recognized four distinct classes or divisions among people based on these criteria and enforced it through a rigid code of conduct that was specific to each class and rooted in the dharmashastras (law books) of the later Vedic period. 

Caste System has been the bane of Hindu society for centuries. In terms of impact, it did much greater damage for a much longer period to a great many people than the slave system of the western world or the witch-hunting practices of medieval Europe. The Hindu caste system was a clever invention of the later Vedic society, justified by a few law makers. 

Non-Vedic Character of Caste System

The Vedic priests did not bring with them the caste system. The early Vedic people had a flexible social organization in which people could change their vocations easily. Different members within the same family practiced different vocations. But as they came into contact with hostile tribes and competing traditions, they resorted to caste system to preserve their identity as a group. Some form of caste system was already in vogue in ancient India 6, which in all probability the Vedic people adopted to maintain their racial purity and family lineages. This is evident from the fact in the entire Rigveda there is no reference to the caste system except in the Purusha sukta which is considered by many scholars as a later day interpolation.

India as a society has been "racist" or "classist" for a very long time. Hinduism, has and is used as a hierarchical controll system of the masses by the lawmakers and wealthy. All religions are interwoven into the social fabric of society, misconstrued and abused by the poltical and ruiling elite.

Although the doctrine of the Rigveda does not create a total framework for the caste system. (Unlike the Abrahamic texts that clearly state how to treat your slaves :-))The text has been expanded a contorted to controll man. Krishna was raised by a family of cowheaders to become a god among men. Others came from the ranks of lower casts to become theological and ruling elite.

Personal note. On travels of India the finacial inaqality is repulsive, the wealthy are filthy rich, the middle class well off. Everyone else lives off sweet f@#$ all, yet somehow are mostly so warm happy and hospitable. With the rise in techonolodgy, immigration and foreign investing in finacial and social cohesion. The caste system is slowly filtering out. Finacial inaqality as an issue needs to be addresed globally. The "1%" rapes the rest.

a reply to: aliensanonymous

Because India is increasingly a magnet for investments and job creation, I expect that the lowest class will slowly raise their standards of living over the coming decades and become more affluent.

Also there are many economic fields that virtually anyone can become successful in, and those opportunities increase by the day as we as a species advance and develop our technology.

I do agree with your post however.

originally posted by: SpeakerofTruth

Yeah, Hindus and Buddhists are just so "evil." In the meantime, some bomb just exploded in a crowded shopping district after someone just shouted Allahu Akbar... But Hindus and Buddhists are "evil."

Really, then this should make you happy...

Hindu mobs rampaged through this city in western India on Thursday, killing more than 60 people as they burned Muslims alive in their homes and set fire to Muslim-owned restaurants, shops, cars and apartments.

source

a reply to: SpeakerofTruth
Bhuddist are actually quite vile in Myanmar, where its the Majority religion.

OP, I enjoyed your thread six months ago called The Physical Appearance Of the gods According To Ancient Text. It dealt less with racist implications/assumptions and more to the common themes of their appearance across land and time.

To be quite frank, much of the historic texts seem to refer to fair skinned and light haired types of peoples. Some of the common themes are that they conquered the indigenous people, or assisted others in doing so.

However, there is possibly some merit in these accusations. All over the Earth, we can find repeated examples of darker skinned people of even common races are treated with less regard historically than those of a lighter tone.

This is as much true in Hindu India or the Buddhist Far East and South Pacific as it is in Europe, the Americas and Australia. It is also quite common in Central and South America from what my parents tell me.

It is not just Hindu or the Gods, it is as if the human psyche is conditioned to having the fair skinned rule over, receive better treatment than the darker subservient.

Almost makes one believe there could be some truth to the theory the planet was invaded by fair skinned humanoids that conquered and then cross-bred with the indigenous darker inhabitants . Bible says God made us from dirt. Well that is an ancient language translation way of saying all life is carbon based. Maybe the genome shows something thats right in our faces we are missing that fair skin and dark skinned people have different.

Maye there is an element or mineral that exists in different proportions ratios between these races??


To be honest, I feel like much of what we regard as Religious texts may actually have started out as scientific journals and historical documents, and as societies crumbled and languages changed the translations just became that much more fanciful over the millennia.

Interesting theories and thoughts to ponder either way.

originally posted by: Ophiuchus 13
a reply to: ancienthistorian

What is being blue mean or symbolize?

Suffocation. Some how his soul became immortal through the process.

a reply to: Noinden

The Caste system is a power pyramid system that flows suffering downwards while it flows karma upwards.

It is quite insane for Hindus to not see how flawed the Caste system is based on their own teachings on non duality (all souls being one whole).

On duality/nonduality scales Hinduism the things I have read are more on the Nonduality side than manipulation towards spiritual bigotry. The Abrahamic religion ideas are pushing towards spiritual bigotry.

Anyone can read every idea in a book, check it on duality/non duality scale against every other idea to see what % a book ideas is objectively dualistic, in between or nondualistic.

a reply to: LittleByLittle

Yeah I know how the caste system works. The rest of the Indo-Europeans got rid of it many centuries back .... India? Not so much. But the various Hindu faiths are not really racist. As someone pointed out, classist yeah. When you see how Brahmani get away with things aas guru .... you understand, something needs to change.

As for not seeing the problem? Its what you know. We wonder why little Kim is still in power, well most North Koreans know no better. Most Indians know no better. Those who do, try, but are stymied by convention.

It will change. Given time.

a reply to: Noinden

I agree

I don't understand the caste system. It pretty much mirrors the standard pyramid scheme that is human hierarchy is it not?

Like if you put both of them side by side, all the levels of authority and servants end up in the exact same places whether its India's Caste or America's "free market" principals, don't they? I think India just happens to call an apple and apple, while other allegedly progressive societies prefer to call that apple and orange.

a reply to: muzzleflash

If it is about spiritual color then it would mean that the blue people where good at expressing ideas since it is the throat.


White would represent light that includes all color at a spectrum that can be seen with a prism.

a reply to: ancienthistorian

There's a lot more to racism than the colour of a person's skin, that's just the one that's been drummed up. India has a caste system so the different levels of life idea is deeply ingrained. It just seems kind of short sighted to look at this from a purely skin colour perspective.

Here's the deal. For decades I have heard this argument about the ethnicity of Christ. I have heard this argument about Norse gods, etc etc, blah, blah, blah.

All of this presented as though it was of some profound significance. It isn't, especially not when the point these entities, beings, "fables," or however you view them,were trying to get across are totally ignored.

In that light, this isn't any different. What significance does their pigment have in relation to spiritual progression? Zero.

Tell me not whether a teacher was white, black, brown or yellow, tell me what they taught because what they taught is the only thing that has any impact on the spiritual journey whatsoever.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

But the Buddhist, Hindus and Sikhs should know better than to create a flawed power pyramid system that is similar to the power pyramid system created in the west. They are awareness based and should critically think about it and dismantle it. They should be a people filled with thinkers like Socrates.

In some religions the problem is that man is not leaning and following the teachings and implementing a social structure that would lead to less suffering. In other religions the problem is that man is following insane ideas and implementing them.

If implementing fundamentalism increase or decrease suffering depends on the fundamental (the ideas).

a reply to: LittleByLittle

Why yes, Humanity has shown its capable of being better, just because a religion it follows says so .... /sarc

Modern Humans should know better than playing with Nuclear weapons, or smoking, or buying Beiber albums, those happen to.

The people are the issue not the religon.