Hindus and their reluctance in reading their own "holy books"

Hinduism is a very "diffuse" religion and is quite different from the other "dominant" religions of the world, i.e., Christianity and Islam. In that sense, it closely resembles the other prevalent religions of the East, e.g., Buddhism and Jainism. I am talking here about the reverence accorded to its ancient texts and scriptures, the sacred books.

My observations in this post will be more familiar to a practicing Hindu in India than to Hindus elsewhere or to followers of other religions. I have observed a very casual disregard of daily or regular reading of holy texts among Hindus on one hand and fierce egoism and touchiness regarding their content on the other.

In recent times of viral content, reels, and social media, there have been quite a few "controversies" regarding the content of one or the other Hindu holy books. There is the evergreen and never-ending debate on casteism, as well as zealotry on the topic of vegetarianism, misogyny, sexual content, and how much and how accurate is the Science present in the holy books. I like to read books, and although I am not a great or fast reader by any measure, I am still baffled by the lack of interest among Hindus in actually reading, scrutinizing, and critically analyzing their own foundational texts.

I can think of a few reasons for this reluctance. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. The absence of universally recognized holy texts in Hinduism - this is I think the biggest reason. Unlike Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism, who have their Bible, Quran, and the Guru Granth Sahib, there is no "one text to rule them all" in Hinduism, a book accepted by all Hindus to be holy. Ramayana may come the closest to be the definitive one, but there are 2 very different versions in circulation - a Sanskrit one written by Valmiki, and a Hindi one written much later by Tulsidas. 

Mahabharata comes second, but it is HUGE, and keeping it at home is considered unlucky as it is basically one long story of two groups of brothers fighting and killing each other. Bhagwat Gita is one small sliver from the Mahabharata and contains philosophical messages in the form of a sermon given by Shri Krishna, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is one of the 3 main Hindu gods who are considered to form the holy trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Because of its philosophical/motivational teachings, Bhagwat Gita is probably the holy book with the largest presence in Hindu homes.

2. The emphasis on Gurus - Gurus hold a special place in Hinduism. A guru is a teacher, and in the context of Hinduism, gurus are spiritual teachers. A student is called a "Shishya," and the Guru-Shishya relationship is considered sacrosanct in Hinduism. Sure, Christianity has its pastors and Islam has its Mullahs, but Hindu gurus are in a league of their own.

Because Hindus don't read their holy books, we have a huge number of charlatans and fake gurus who keep spouting nonsense and citing the scriptures. And people keep on believing these fakers because who has the time to go and fact-check? 

3. The absence of a reading culture - Hindus in general do not have a reading culture. Reading for pleasure, reading for knowledge, and reading for understanding the world are quite rare. This phenomenon has many roots, but the main one is the emphasis on grades in schools, colleges, and universities. Children and young folks are tortured for good grades and marks, so much that at the end, good grades and marks become the only measure of learning. So learning for learning's sake is tossed into the dustbin. This is changing, I think and hope, but this is still largely the case for most of the Indian academia.

4. Sanskrit - Although exalted and revered, Sanskrit can be tough to read in original. I don't think a large section of readers who actually read sacred Hindu texts read the original Sanskrit. However, it is the language in which most of the sacred texts were written. Still, translations are almost always available, at least for the "main" texts, so this is quite a lousy reason.

 

I think the problem is a bit deeper. Hindus do not have the absence of a reading culture, but what they have is the absence of a "critical thinking" and "reasoning" culture, because reading is only a tool for better thinking about the world and our place in it. Sorry I do not have a ready-made cure for this ailment, but I hope I have given my two cents for the diagnosis at least.

The following article may be of interest to someone interested in exploring this issue in more detail: Check it out here.