Q1.
In English, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are often labelled ‘religions’. You may notice that we have avoided this term, preferring ‘schools of thought’ and (later in this chapter) ‘belief systems’. This is because there are many aspects to those schools and systems, which we will explore gradually — a philosophical aspect, a spiritual aspect, a religious aspect, an ethical aspect, a social aspect, to name a few. Many scholars agree that the word ‘religion’ is too limiting in the context of the Indian civilisation.
Answer
The book is making a point about vocabulary, not about faith. Its claim is simple: the English word ‘religion’ is too small a box for what these traditions actually contain.
| Aspect | What it covers | An example from this chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophical | Reasoned enquiry into what exists and how we know it | Gārgī questioning Yājñavalkya on the nature of the world and of brahman; anekāntavāda, that truth has many aspects |
| Spiritual | Inner experience and the practices that lead to it | Yoga, which “developed methods intended to achieve the realisation of brahman in one's consciousness” |
| Religious | Deities, prayer, ritual, worship | Yajña; the daily offerings to Agni; the deities of the Vedic hymns |
| Ethical | How one ought to behave | Ahimsa, aparigraha, right action and right thinking in the story of Rohineya |
| Social | How communities are organised | The Sangha of bhikṣhus and bhikṣhuṇīs; monasteries; rock-cut caves with the monks' names still on them |
Two things the chapter shows that a narrow word for ‘religion’ cannot hold.
- A school of thought with no god at all still belongs in the story. The Chārvāka or Lokāyata school held that only the material world exists and there is no life after death. It is discussed in the same paragraph as the others, because in India these were all considered positions a thinking person could take.
- People chose. “There was a wide diversity of intellectual or spiritual belief systems; people were free to choose what suited them.” The chapter treats belonging as something one arrives at, not only something one is born into.
Why a word choice is worth a whole box: a word carries a shape, and the shape decides what you look for. If you go into these traditions expecting only a ‘religion’, you will look for a god, a book and a place of worship — and you will walk straight past Yoga's methods, Vedanta's arguments and the Chārvākas' objections. Choosing the wider phrase, ‘schools of thought’, keeps all five aspects in view at once. This is the same lesson Chapter 6 taught with ‘Indus Valley civilisation’: check what a familiar name is quietly assuming.
Careful: the box does not say these traditions are not religions, and it does not rank one above another. It says the English word covers only part of what they are. Notice too that it lists Sikhism, which this chapter does not otherwise discuss — the point is meant to apply to Indian traditions generally.