Why is it problematic to define Hinduism as a single religion?

Hinduism, the umbrella term for the many religious traditions of the majority of India, is one of the largest and certainly the oldest of established religious traditions existing today. It spans over four millennia and there over nine million followers worldwide, the majority of which reside in India and Nepal. However Hinduism is not exactly what everyone would call a religion in the western sense, in fact as we shall see, the term Hinduism is not even of Indian origin.
The term is actually Persian, based on the Sanskrit for the Indus River – Sindhu. Hindus were therefore originally defined as settlers of the Indus River area. Fuller, Smith, Hawley and Larson argue that the term was later used to define the religion(s) of India by the British administration occupying India. These people were determined to group and define the lands they entered and the multitudes of religions of India were placed under the umbrella term Hinduism. Writers such as Doniger, van der Veer and Lorenzen argue otherwise. According to Juluri’s discussion of ancient sayings, the term is taken from the Indian words himsa (violence) and duramu (distant) – meaning he who is distant from violence (Juluri 2006: 2): another meaningful and sensible argument.
Some of the main concepts found within Hindu traditions are dharma – law or actions and bhakti, the devotional strain of Hinduism which scholars argue is the closest the religion comes to becoming similar to monotheistic religion. The three strains of this bhakti religion are Vaisnavism (worshipping the incarnations of Visnu), Saivism (worshipping Siva) and Shakti (female goddess aspect e.g. the Devi).
Within Hinduism there are many different philosophical schools – the oldest is Samkhya (concerned with the belief that everything essentially originates from the self and energy), yoga (incorporating the personal god), Nyaya (logical philosophy incorporating four sources of knowledge), Purva Mimamsa (emphasizing the importance of the Vedas), Vaisheshika (placing importance in the Brahman for the source of all consciousness, this philosophical school was merged with Nyaya later on) and Vedanta (the school that develops the teachings and writings of the Upanishads). These are some of the most influential philosophical schools existing within the Hindu religious traditions and yet they often conflict in teachings and belief. So how can we understand Hinduism as one religion? Is it one religion?
Flood discusses the great trouble in defining Hinduism, approaching the subject by looking at what the traditions collectively called Hinduism all have in common. To begin with, a more accurate term to describe the collection of Indian religions is Sanatana Dharma (the eternal law). The similarity that binds these religions together is, as Flood affirms (Flood 1997: 6), the shared belief in reincarnation (samsara) and the cosmic law cause and effect (karma). This way of defining the religion(s) of India provides a basic definition and is therefore less problematic than the western determined “Hinduism”. However these beliefs are also observed by other Asian religions – Buddhism and Jainism both offshoots of Hinduism.
The religious tradition known as Hinduism is not a religion definable in the western sense of the term; as cultural and religious awareness of eastern religions has developed in the west, our understanding of and interests in the Hindu paradigm has intensified. There are different approaches to defining though. If we take essentialisation definition of religion which is rigid then we find it hard to define Hinduism as a religion. However by taking Wittgensteinian ‘family approach’ definition, Hinduism as a group of religious traditions becomes clearer.
Kinsley likens the nature of the Hindu faith with that of a collector, hoarding the many different scripts and traditions and maintaining these alongside modern outgrowths. Hinduism can therefore be seen as a collection of shared/similar beliefs that have evolved within Indian culture instead of a strict definition of a uniform religion. It is very unlike religions originally practiced in the west because of its flexible, fluid nature. Hindu faiths have other similar characteristics; one is that they follow the Hindu scriptures but place different importance on them. For example, as Halbfass argues, the Vedas provide the focal point for Hindu self-understanding (as cited by Llewellyn 2005: 15). However these are by no means canonical for all Hindus, this means that not all Hindus believe these to be essential reading as religious scriptures within their personal tradition, but many Hindus do.
The Vedic religion which existed over three thousand years ago is the earliest and arguable most primitive form of Indian religion and from this the classical Hinduism developed. Classical Hinduism incorporated some of the rituals and practices of Vedic religion and many of the supreme gods of Vedic religion were given minor roles in classical Hinduism which developed in the medieval period. Their are countless tribal religions of India, or adivasi which many other Indians believe to represent a closer relationship to the older, Vedic religions. Some are mentioned in the Mahabharata (one of the Hindu Epics) however most Indian tribes are non-Hindu or practice their own customs.
Orientalists, westerners who were enticed and aroused by the exotic nature of the Indian religion, were at the forefront of studying the religion of India and were using their own religion (Christianity) to define and understand Hinduism. This led to the outsider definition as understood and propounded by the western scholars for so long. Whilst westerners were learning and living in India experiencing Hindu culture, a cultural exchange was happening whereby westernized second generation Hindu scholar aided the Orientalist vision by assisting in the essentialised definition of the religion, to make it more understandable in western terms. This is a more subjective form of defining the religion.
This bred Neo-Hinduism, a version of Hinduism which was assessed by rationality and critical analysis of Hindu ritual and Hindu science. The term Hinduism is also believed to have been used by westernized Indians to define and discuss the high priests or Brahmans practicing a more scholarly religion than the ordinary Indian folk.
Juluri provides an insightful assessment into how Hinduism is perceived and portrayed by the media and what it actually is. As a Hindu working as a western academic he can see from the inside and the outside of the argument. He argues the matter of Hinduism is how it is lived, and not about how it is defined.
The Hindu tradition is by nature pluralist. This means it promotes the idea that there are many paths, or solutions to a goal or problem and it is our choice as to which path we chose to the goal. It also claims that not one religion can claim divine authority over all. This makes Hinduism as a religious tradition relatively unique. Hinduism embraces other religions and promotes interfaith dialogue. This concept was at first strange to monotheistic, western religious followers, who had previously been taught their religion, was the one true path. A religion with so many branches or paths would naturally promote the pluralist viewpoint though.
In a Supreme Court ruling Chief Justice Gajendragadkar stated that, “…we find it difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it. Unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one God; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion of creed.” Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar (1995, paragraph 28). This quote really summarises the nature of Hinduism and the reason for difficulty in defining the Indian religious phenomenon.
From this discussion we can see the issues surrounding the term Hinduism and some of the problems faced when attempting to define social and religious systems different from what is familiar. That western understanding of religion is very different from what Hinduism or the religions of India are. Hinduism is a clumsy, all-incorporating attempt to define the religious beliefs, culture and practices of the majority of the Indian population but in order to understand it from a western perspective it has been defined in the terms of a western religion. Hinduism is not one religion, it is an umbrella term used to define existing religions and cultural practices within India and Nepal.