New Paradigms for Understanding Hinduism and Contextualization

We need a new paradigm for understanding Hinduism not merely for the purpose of clear and accurate thought, but as a necessary prerequisite for comprehending contextualization in the Hindu world.

C. Kaushal remembered the bloody partition of India in 1947 as if it happened last week. Kaushal was 9 years old when the British withdrew from India, sparking the slaughter of half a million Muslims and Hindus. His family, which worshiped the monkey god Hanuman and four other gods, had little sympathy for the monotheistic Muslim minority.

But the death of Graham Staines has become a cause celebre in India, forcing a secular, democratic, and yet largely Hindu nation to confront difficult questions about the kind of society it wants to be.