Bharat is a Hindu-majority country. The western media routinely labels the Modi government as a “populist Hindu majoritarian” government. It also laments the supposed oppression of minorities due to the “Hindutva agenda” of the Bharatiya government. Yet, ironically enough, Hindu Studies is one of the most marginalized academic disciplines in Bharat.
The first-ever Hindu Studies course in Bharat was started by the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 2021. The university started an MA Hindu Studies course in 2021. The program is being reportedly offered by BHU’s Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Department of Sanskrit, and Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology under the Faculty of Arts.
That there never existed a Hindu Studies program in a Bharatiya university before 2021 is hard to digest. Indology (study of Indian history, literature, languages, philosophy, and culture) and Hindu Studies are widely taught in western universities. But these are mostly taught by western scholars and academicians with little or no direct first-hand experience of Hindu culture and civilization. Many academicians also use these courses to peddle anti-Hindu propaganda, and the curriculum in general, is steeped in Hinduphobia.
Noted author Rajiv Malhotra has highlighted and dissected the issue of academic Hinduphobia in the west in many of his works. His book Academic Hinduphobia: A Critique of Wendy Doniger’s Erotic School of Indology alerts Bharatiyas and Hindus to the inherent Hinduphobia in the Indology and South Asian Studies departments of elite western universities. In the name of scholarship, Hindus are casually characterized as misogynists, anti-minority, irrational, violent, oppressive, etc., argues the book. These departments mass produce atrocity literature targeting Bharatiya culture in the name of Hindu studies, it further says.
Ten Heads of Ravana: A Critique of Hinduphobic Scholars edited by Rajiv Malhotra is another work that offers a critical take on the scholarship of renowned Hindu studies and Indology scholars such as Wendy Doniger, Michael Witzel, Sheldon Pollock, Kancha Ilaiah, etc.
Indology and Hindu Studies is dominated by non-Bharatiya and non-Hindu scholars. In fields like let’s say Islamic Studies or Christianity Studies, most scholars and academicians would come with an insider’s perspective, and an outsider’s perspective would be more of an exception than a norm. I mean how many Hindu names have you heard of who are popular academicians for their supposed critical take on Christianity and Islam while teaching courses on these subjects? Probably none. It seems Hindu Studies is the only discipline where a biased and prejudiced outsider’s perspective is the norm and an insider’s perspective is not even allowed.
Coming back to the subject of Hindu Studies courses in Bharat, since BHU introduced the first Hindu Studies course in 2021, many Bharatiya universities have introduced such courses. Nalanda University offers a course called MA in Hindu Studies (Sanatan Dharma). Their website includes the course curriculum which includes an introduction to all the Vedas, an introduction to major and minor Upanishads, an introduction to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, fundamentals of Hindu philosophy, ethics of Hindu philosophy, etc. From the curriculum description, it seems a fairly comprehensive course that covers major aspects of Hindu Dharma and philosophy without adding unnecessary woke value judgments to the curriculum.
Delhi University also set up a Centre for Hindu Studies in 2024 under which it has introduced a new “Hindu Studies” course. The university’s website lists the Centre for Hindu Studies but unlike other centres, one cannot find any information about this particular centre on the website.
The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) also offers a Post Graduate Diploma in Hindu Studies. The details of the curriculum are on their website. As per various media reports, Lucknow University is also launching a new MA in Hindu Studies course in which students will be taught Vedas and Sanatan Dharma. Also, Sanatan Vedic culture will be taught as a mandatory paper at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Sanskrit, as per the reports.
An article published by The Wire in October 2023 says that courses on Hindu Dharma and Hindu studies are gaining momentum in Bharatiya universities. It talks about the Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University in Kanpur introducing a certificate and a diploma course on “Karmkand” and a master’s course in “Jyotirvigyan (Astroscience)”. According to the article, Karmkand courses have reportedly also been introduced at Gorakhpur University.
If you google the term” Hindu Studies in India”, you come across many such courses being introduced across lesser-known universities across Bharat such as the Sri Sri University, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, etc. The Indus University in Gujarat also offers excellent courses in Indology. In a way, it’s good that the elite universities of Bharat aren’t the ones taking the lead in launching Hindu Studies courses because these are the ones that are maximum under the influence of western academia. If such universities start introducing Hindu Studies courses, the chances of the curriculum and the faculty being woke and Hinduphobic are far greater. Hopefully, local universities of Bharat will manage to stay away from foreign influencer academicians and experts trying to sabotage their programs by adding their biased spin. Hopefully, Bharatiya scholars with a rigorous grounding in Hindu Dharma, culture, and Sanskrit language will be the ones teaching these courses.
Bharatiya universities should be extremely cautious about collaborating with elite western universities for offering Indology/Hindu Studies courses. The Indology and Hindu Studies courses offered by these elite institutions are mired in Hinduphobia, and there is a plethora of academic evidence to support this. Many Bharatiya universities are probably simply not aware of these dangers, and therefore, as Hindu Studies gain ground in Bharat, there is the danger of “foreign experts” and “elite western universities” being given a free hand in the designing of course curricula and pedagogy.
When one googles the term “Hindu Studies Courses in India”, the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies also pops up. According to its website, the Centre offers online courses that “are the perfect introduction to Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Yoga Studies”.
Checking out their course list, one is rather shocked to see the description of some of the courses they offer. One of the courses is titled “Colonial Hinduism”. The course description says, “During the colonial era, Hinduism saw significant changes in its religious ideas and social practices. It could be said to have turned relatively more liberal, rational, socially sensitive, and utilitarian”. It’s a propaganda course insinuating that British colonialism modernized Hindu Dharma and the wild, primitive Hindus, a reiteration of the most common of colonial anti-Hindu stereotypes.
Another course they offer is titled “Introduction to Hindu Ritual, Yoga, Caste, and Gender”. “This course provides the ultimate introduction to Hinduism, from religious practice to temple ritual to classical yoga and its influence on Hindu culture. This course also includes a comprehensive look at Hindu society as well as an exploration into the caste system. This course also looks at how does gender plays out within modern Hinduism. This course is ideal for students wanting to expand their general knowledge of Hindu culture and religion”, says the course description.
It’s scary to imagine that such prejudiced and Hinduphobic courses being offered by such an elite educational institution will be sought after not just by foreigners but also by Bharatiyas and Hindus. Modern-day Hindus, clueless about Hindu culture and civilization, will turn to such courses, further poisoning their mind against their own cultural and civilizational ethos. It should certainly ring alarm bells.
It’s not the task of the government to interfere in the functioning of educational institutions or monitor curriculum. But sadly, we live in times when powerful foreign lobbies with vested interests have hijacked the Bharatiya academia. It’s neocolonialism of the worst kind where the west is poisoning us against our own culture and civilization, turning us into woke zombies in the garb of scholarship and academics. Thus, the Bharatiya government must lay down a roadmap for the development of the Hindu Studies and Indic Studies curriculum and pedagogy framework in Bharat from a Bharatiya and Hindu perspective.
