Four main religion were born in India while the others came with invaders, travellers and missionaries from abroad.
Despite the multitude of faiths prevalent in India, the country has by and large, been free of any internecine strife. Hindus constitute an overwhelming majority in the country and it is a creed which is renowned for its catholicity of outlook.
For Hindus, religion is a tool to achieve a one-to-one communication between god and man. However, Hinduism became too ritualistic; and in the 6th century B.C., a great social churning took place in the country – out of which emerged Jainism and Buddhism.
Jains place self-conquest above all else – it is one of the most ascetic of faiths, with its votaries living in the most spartan manner imaginable.
Buddhism, on the other hand was exported to the Far East, although its philosophy was almost snuffed out in the land of its origin. An iconoclastic faith like Buddhism could not compete with ritualistic Brahminism that cleverly co-opted Buddha into their 'holy pantheon of gods'.
¤ Dominance of Islamic Religion
By the 12th century, India began to get coloured with a distinctly Islamic flavour as wave after wave of Islamic hordes descended on the country. Drawing sustenance from the Koran and the Sunnah (sayings of Prophet Mohammad), their missionary zeal was unmatched.
Although Islam (which has two main sects – the Shias and the Sunnis) is as distinct from Hinduism as chalk from cheese, the two faiths learnt to coexist with each other, cheek by jowl. and the confluence of the two religions produced a cultural syncretism, which is exemplified by the Urdu language – an amalgam of Persian and Hindi. and out of the fusion of the two cultures arose new religiou ...