On Hinduism: Reviews and Reflections is a collection of Ram Swarup’s essays presenting Hinduism as a profound spiritual tradition and responding to its denigration by missionary and Marxist propaganda.

Key Themes

Hinduism as a Dharmic Tradition

  • Based on natural law (dharma), karma and rebirth
  • Pursues direct experience of truth through meditation (yoga) and self-realisation
  • Pluralistic and tolerant—can accept other spiritual paths as valid
  • Views the Divine as impersonal consciousness (Brahman) rather than a personal Creator

The Reawakening of Dharmic Traditions

As colonial domination recedes globally:

  • Eastern dharmic and native traditions are finding new respect
  • Yoga and Vedanta are becoming popular worldwide
  • The impersonal consciousness of Indic traditions has more in common with modern science than Biblical religion
  • Organised religion and institutionalised belief are being set aside in favour of diverse spiritual approaches

Distortions of Hinduism

Ram Swarup catalogues the systematic denigration of Hinduism:

  • Denounced as “polytheism,” “idolatry,” “pantheism” by Christian and Muslim polemicists
  • Associated primarily with caste and social evils by Marxist thinkers
  • Christian missionary propaganda has been “perhaps unparalleled by any religion in the world”
  • Hindu gods with animal faces are criticised by people who “eat animals” but whose God has “traits that would be regarded as tyrannical or egoistic in a person”

Contemporary Threats

  • Evangelical Christianity targeting India for mass conversion
  • Islamic fundamentalism fueled by petrodollars
  • Marxist influence in Indian academia and media
  • The New Age movement in the West being a counterattack against Hindu influence in America

See Also