Invitation to World Religions

The History of Hinduism  135

of Hindu nationalism, anticipating the more extreme Hindu nationalist groups that would appear in the early twentieth century. Other figures, less influenced by colonial and Christian critiques of Hinduism, were not as concerned as Ram Mohan Roy and Dayananda Saraswati with reform- ing Hinduism in ways that would appeal to the West. One of these figures was the enormously popular Bengali mystic, Ramakrishna (1836–1886). A devotee and temple priest of the goddess Kali, Ramakrishna devoted himself to spiritual exer- cises drawn from different religious traditions, including Vaishnavism, Advaita Ve- danta, Tantrism, and even Islamic Sufism and Roman Catholicism. These served as the basis for his teaching that all religions are directed toward the experience of a God who creates religions to suit the spiritual needs and tastes of different peoples. Seen in this way, Hinduism could claim the same legitimacy as any other religion. Among Ramakrishna’s disciples was Narendranath Datta (1863–1902), a former law student who took monastic vows during Ramakrishna’s last days and was thereafter known as Swami Vivekananda. In 1886, shortly after the death of Ramakrishna, he oversaw the founding of what would become the Ramakrishna Math, an order of monks devoted to the teachings of Ramakrishna. Swami Vive- kananda had an enormous impact on the representation of Hinduism in the West, particularly in the United States. In 1893, he visited the United States to speak on behalf of Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Quoting from the Bhagavad Gita , he represented Hinduism as a tolerant and universal religion. Like his teacher, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda asserted that all religions are true. His stirring speech proved a milestone in changing Western attitudes toward Hinduism. It also ensured his fame in America, and he went on to establish the Vedanta Society of New York. Today, Vedanta Societies throughout the world are dedicated to the study, practice, and promotion of Hinduism. Gandhi and the Struggle for Indian Independence Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948), a towering religious, political, and social reformer in India, recast many Hindu ideas in the service of the fight for Indian independence. Born into a middle-class family of merchants, Gandhi was an English-educated lawyer and a deeply religious man. As a law student in England, he had read the Bhagavad Gita , and it had a profound impact on him. Gandhi’s political career began in South Africa, where he worked as a lawyer. It was here, in a struggle against racial discrimination, that he began to develop his political philosophy of nonviolent resistance. He characterized nonviolent resistance as satyagraha (Sanskrit, “grasping the truth”) and explained that its strength lay in converting wrongdoers to justice rather than striving to coerce them.

Gandhi returned to India in 1915 to join the fledgling Indian independence movement, which sought to free India from British colonial rule. Deeply influenced by the American writer Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), especially his thoughts on civil disobedience, Gandhi established an ashram (a place of religious seclusion) PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS