Western/Eastern; gay/straight, dharmic/adharmic Being Different : Rajiv Malhotra

"Being Different" by Rajiv Malhotra is an important book for all Hindus who live in societies which are heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian beliefs and ethics.

According to the book's website , "This book addresses the challenge of direct and honest engagement on differences, by reversing the gaze, repositioning India from being the observed to the observer and looking at the West from the dharmic point of view. In doing so it challenges many hitherto unexamined beliefs that both sides hold about themselves and each other. It highlights that unique historical revelations are the basis for western religions, as opposed to dharma’s emphasis on self-realization in the body here and now. It describes the integral unity that underpins dharma’s metaphysics and contrasts this with western thought and history as a synthetic unity. The west’s anxiety over difference and fixation for order runs in contrast with the creative role of chaos in dharma. The book critiques fashionable reductive translations and argues for preserving certain non-translatable words of Sanskrit. It concludes with a rebuttal against western claims of universalism and recommends a multi-civilizational worldview.

The discussions and debate within the book employ the venerable tradition of purva-paksha, an ancient dharmic technique where a debater must first authentically understand in the opponent’s perspective, test the merits of that point of view and only then engage in debate using his own position. Purva-paksha encourages individuals to become truly knowledgeable about all perspectives, to approach the other side with respect and to forego the desire to simply win the contest. Purva-paksha also demands that all sides be willing to embrace the shifts in thinking, disruptive and controversial as they may be, that emerge from such a dialectical process. "

In the debate about world religions and related philosophies, Rajiv Malhotra is an advocate for "mutual respect" instead of tolerance in the inter-faith exchanges. He then uses the lens of dharma to examine the Abramanic religions and to examine the differences.

This book does explain some of the concepts of dharma which often seem inexplicable in response to questions of 'So.. what is your Bible", "Do Hindus believe in many Gods", etc.

Being Different also challenges the idea that 'all religions are the same' and also questions supposedly secular traditions and the way they question Indian traditions.

The book has many references and quotes. The author has been working for many years on advocating this kind of gaze.. East examining West.

The book is an excellent read for those of us Hindus especially who have grown up having to answer the questions about how much like or unlike we are other religions. Being Different also asserts that the Hindu/Indian tradition has embraced diversity in practice and thought, many of which are conflicting.

The rhetoric is nice to follow and easy to believe.. but the author does gloss over the 'legitimate concerns' of the caste discrimination, sexism etc. In addition, Malhotra I think does not recognise that there might be diversity in the 'West' - and it is true that 'progressive' Christianity and Islam are often dismissed by others as not authentic.  Some of the claims he makes are made generally, some are interesting and could have been referenced further. This is an interesting discussion about the book

Gay/Straight
One of the claims is that 'there is no gay taboo in dharma'..  probably true according to many of the Hindu spiritual leaders. Others though, like to talk about 'gay rights' as a 'Western' imposition. Many activists around the world have indeed said that homophobia was the colonial imposition, not the respect for diversity in sexual orientations.

What I found most fascinating in Malhotra's thesis is how he positions the attitudes on sexual orientation against "Western Universalism"

On p310 .. ".. Engaging in sweeping generalizations, the Western Academy routinely passes judgement on whether Hinduism is a legitimate religion, how and when it should be discussed (if at all), and who its authorised spokespersons are. All of this causes many in the dharmic traditions to doubt the legitimacy of their culture , especially in relation to the established, prevailing taxonomy" .

His footnote to this part reads
"Indian mimicry of British Victorian laws enacted under colonial rule has led to a contemporary controversy about gays. In traditional Indian society, there are no normative sexual categories of 'gay' and 'straight' , and therefore being gay is neither banned nor formally sanctioned. It is simply left ambiguous and indeterminate for individuals to figure out themselves in their own contexts. In the traditional Indian approach, the Western categories of gay/straight are not mutually exclusive, nor are they permanent essences of a person. From such a perspective, questions such as whether a gay person is 'allowed' to be a Hindu appear strange."

Malhotra also explains how Gandhi applied some of the dharmic traditions in his own analysis of the British and in his work for Indian independence.

Malhotra uses an interesting quote in  his conclusion - from the Mahabharata.

“Be like a garland maker, O king; not like a charcoal burner.”

As explained here, this admonition asks the king to preserve and protect diversity, in a coherent way. The metaphor used is that of a garland, in which flowers of many colours and forms are strung together for a pleasing effect. The contrast is given against charcoal, which is the result of burning all kinds of wood and reducing diversity to homogeneous dead matter. The charcoal burner is reductionist and destroys diversity, whereas the garland maker celebrates diversity.]


This diversity in human kind also extends to the way we acknowledge our spiritual and religious beliefs.