Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single
system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of
nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson
introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity
is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in
innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to
seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the
philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the
worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single
system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as
separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate
rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality.
Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and
early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and
Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers
portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse
belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later
Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi,
whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong
to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques
the way in which Eurocentric concepts--like monism and dualism,
idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and
heterodoxy--have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian
philosophy.
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