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Thursday, July 7, 2022

Ram Swarup on Christianity and Islam

“Like Marx who hated capitalism but regarded it as a higher form of economic and political organization and welcomed capitalists as sappers and miners of Communism, Christianity detested Islam but honored it for destroying idolatry.” 

“Though Christianity has a poor opinion of Islam, yet it regards it as a partner up to a point; it welcomes Islam's role as a cleanser of the "world from the gross pollution of idolatry,”—the name by which the two religions remember all other religions, past or present. This sympathy arises from the fact that the two religions in spite of the long history of conflicts share a common perspective and common ideological premises.”

~ these two quotations are from Ram Swarup’s book Hindu View of Christianity and Islam

Ram Swarup is right. Political battle between Christianity and Islam has been raging for almost 1200 years, but at a doctrinal level, there is affinity between the two religions. Both are anti-idolatry; both are anti-polytheism. Since Hinduism is the world’s oldest and most widespread movement of polytheism and idolatry, it is the supreme target for both Christianity and Islam. 

In my opinion (this is not Ram Swarup’s view), Christianity is a philosopher’s and trader’s religion, while Islam is a warrior’s and tyrant’s religion. In the last 500 years, the Christians have tried to convert the Hindus by coming up with theological arguments and by offering financial incentives. In the last 1300 years, Islam has adopted coercive and militaristic methods for converting the Hindus.

3 comments:

Ajit R. Jadhav said...

Anoop!

> "Political battle between Christianity and Islam has been raging for almost 1200 years, but at a doctrinal level, there is affinity between the two religions."

Three, I would say. How could possibly you miss the third? [Or, may be, more. [God knows how many!]]

> "Both are anti-idolatry; both are anti-polytheism."

About the first part: Explain the statues of the Mary the Mother in the many temples of the first.

About the second: Yes, *all* of them do tend to be authoritarian, and authoritarianism cannot brook a second opinion or option --- qua a matter of a principle.

Hence the many reports/books since the Oil Crisis of the 1970s, and especially before and since the 2000's.

But principles can get long. Even longer that the indicated time-frame. And, hence, more important to the point: The long-term-ness is actually is a saving grace. At least for me.

And, apart from it all, Anoop, you have been tending completely to miss Aristotle here at your blog for quite some time here, and, definitely here in this post. He is there in the first, but mostly not there in the second, in your "both". How do you explain it?

> "Since Hinduism is the world’s oldest and most widespread movement of polytheism and idolatry, it is the supreme target for both Christianity and Islam."

My remarks:

Re. the very first "is":

The "is" suggests a certain kind of a uniformity which many "Hindutvavaadi" fancy, and always have (at least since Hedgewar et al.), but the grounds for which is destroyed by the actual evidence. (Anoop, I not only am Indian, I also live in India.) But, yes, I grant you, the said "evidence" has been in the building since we won freedom in 2014 [and eventually, you found a new voice].

Re: "Supreme"

Anoop, you lost your brains here. Please recover, for your own good sake. Get them back.

Go back to Aristotle. To do that, start with LP's history lectures. Will you?

[As to me: I am going to start on the so self-prescribed diet too, anyway... Irregularly, and slowly. As always... Together with lectures and materials on NRQM and CFT.]

Best,
--Ajit
[You attack LP's said lectures; I am ready; you should know in advance. Now you know.]

Ajit R. Jadhav said...

I meant QFT

Anoop Verma said...

@Ajit: Very nice comment. Though I might have some quibbles about some of the things that you have said, I can empathize with your viewpoints.

I have now transcended Aristotle. I have realized that a good society cannot be created my merely philosophy. You need men of action for creating a good society. History is not made by philosophers--it is made by the men of action.

I talked about the political battle between Christianity and Islam because theirs is the biggest battle of the last 1200 years. But it is true that Hinduism is the oldest polytheistic religion. Most historians agree with this.