A quality of Hinduism which attracted Many.

5. A quality of Hinduism which attracted Many.

Hindus have their full quota of faults; they have their own pride and prejudices. But there is one quality of Hin­duism which has attracted the attention of many outsiders and thinkers, that is, the spirit of tolerance in Hinduism, its pluralistic view of religion, the absence of crusades and organized missions to convert people. Take the Encyclopedia of Religions and Ethics. Most of it is written by Christian theologians and has a pronounced Christian bias. In fact, the whole work could be considered a part and parcel of the Christian Apologetics. Not only are the Hindu Gods false and the Hindu theology fanciful, the Hindu morals are even worse. The Encyclopedia discusses concepts like charity, love, chastity, pity, truth, purity. In all, Chris­tianity comes out at the top and Hinduism is not even a poor second. But when it comes to the discussion of religious persecution, Hinduism scores over other religions by the absence of this phenomenon. This is a point which is of utmost interest to a Seminar which stands for promoting religious freedom. This is a vast subject and a proper discussion of it will involve going into the whole ethos of Hinduism. This cannot obviously be done here. I shall, therefore, here refer to only one or two basic points.