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0 pointsscreye3y ago0 comments

Hey genuine question : what does being ex-hindu mean to you ?

I'm an Indian Atheist myself, but I never found my move away from Hinduism to be difficult or grating. My parents & community just sort of accepted it and moved on. If I had to be pedantic, I could call myself a Nastik/Charvak Hindu and I would technically be an 'Atheist Hindu'. I did have a "I refuse to do a namaskar or enter temples" Dawkinian emo-phase, but at some point I realized I was fighting against a bogeyman that didn't exist.

My current opinion on the matter, is that Abrahmic conceptions of Atheism do not work in a religion that does not have blasphemy or any single source of truth. So, while a term such as ex-muslim/atheist usually messages a certain ostracization or scientism, being an ex-hindu doesn't immeditely mean anything to me.

To use a favorite HN comment of mine : "If it's hard to tell the difference, it'll be hard to sell the difference".....and I can't tell the difference between a Hindu and an ex-Hindu.

(feel free to ignore it. My comment does seem a little out of place in a festival celebration thread. But, I got curious)

0 comments

gateaux3y ago

My two cents: someone being ex-Hindu means to me that they’ve reasoned themselves out of the doctrine and dogma. My assumption is that this person would be skeptical and not believing in things such as reincarnation or the caste system.

On the other hand, it doesn’t mean they have shed their entire Hindu identity”. They’d still probably culturally celebrate and partake in festivities: just without that belief.

Dunno if it makes much sense but just my perspective as someone outside of the Hindu community.

valarauko3y ago

> not believing in things such as reincarnation or the caste system.

As a Hindu, it's disappointing that people outside Hinduism see the caste system as either a doctrinal or dogmatic part of Hinduism. The belief in Reincarnation is dogma, the caste system is not. The caste system existed outside the belief system, and while certain sections definitely reinforced and exploited it, many traditional systems within the umbrella of Hinduism certainly saw it as a social ill. Rather, the caste system was a social hierarchy that developed in ancient India in parallel to Hinduism, and existed as well in religious groups that rejected Vedic Orthodoxy. Nor is the caste system as people think of it really a thing in Hinduism practiced by communities long isolated from the Indian mainland, such as Bali or the Caribbean communities.

sandeep19983y ago

This. I went through the same. And I can say that the case with me earlier was that I had not sufficiently understood some of ideas of Hinduism and was simple unaware of the others. We have a different framework.

qart3y ago

> being an ex-hindu doesn't immeditely mean anything to me

I suppose that depends on the age group. Among Indians, a person's religiosity isn't so easily discernible to me when they are in their 20s. That's the age when most people are generally just having a good time. But with anyone in their 30s or above, their religious values are easily seen. These values play a big role in whether they marry, whom they marry, how they raise kids, the historical figures they revere, the roles of men and women, the assumptions they hold as true, shared greivances, etc.

I have more in common with my Chinese and irrelegious European friends than I do with Indians of any religion. I have more in common with my ex-Muslim and ex-Christian Indian friends than I do with my Hindu family. I don't have much in common with the global left either, who seem to be god-less but not religion-less. One manifestation is the kind of topics I must nod along on, lest it provoke an argument or a fight.

screyeOP3y ago

Thanks ! Really appreciate the insight.

dotnet003y ago

Yeah, it's the same for me. My parents don't really mind that I don't believe in prayer or whatever as long as I'm not being an ass about it. So I also haven't really seen myself as an ex-Hindu as I don't mind participating in things in big festivals for the sake of being with family. It's very different from my understanding of Abrahamic religions in that the belief system and means of practice is so vague that a lack of belief doesn't really mean much.

I think this sort of vague belief system as a religion is generally a defining attribute of Eastern religions, in some ways better described as an extension of spiritualism than an organized system like Abrahamic religions.

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