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Hinduism is one of the most ancient world religions, tracing its origins back over 5,000 years. Today there are more than 900 million Hindu people worldwide, but mainly in Bharat (India), and the nations of the Indian subcontinent.
As the Hindu religion was born in India, its criticism is irreversibly linked with the broader problems that India's people face today.
Theological Criticism
Hinduism is often seen by its critics and people worldwide as a religion of over 5,000 gods and deities and the worship of animals, animal gods and natural phenomena.
Hinduism's pantheism is strongly criticized by the proponents of Islam and Christianity, who link the religion with paganism.
Great Hindu epics are seen by some as a distortion of events in ancient India. For example, Indra, the King of Heaven is considered to have been a leader of Indo-Aryan tribes that entered India and supposedly were responsible for the fall of the Indus Valley Civilization. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are seen as based on real wars that claimed large sections of the population, almost to a genocidal scale.
Criticism of Hindus
Hindu society is criticized even by educated Hindus, who denounce boon worship, materialism, and the corruption of the brahmin or priestly order.
The historic poverty and illiteracy of a vast number of Indians has also given the impression that Hinduism is linked with the degradation of Indian society, and that Hindus are generally illiterate and ignorant, and if given the benefits of modern education, would denounce the degraded practices of the Hindu religion themselves.
Casteism and Untouchability
The four varnas caste theory in theological Hinduism is condemned as a device to maintain the domination of the upper castes, brahmins and kshatriyas (the ruling order) over the rest of society, using divine doctrine and notions of racial purity. Many modern Hindus feel that the caste of the person should be not determined by birth, but by adult choice.
Critics decry the socio-political fragmentation of the caste system. For example, there are over 80 subcastes of brahmins, and the Jat Hindu communities of Punjab and Haryana are considered a separate caste by themselves.
One of the worst products of the caste system was untouchability. The practice of considering members of tribes, native Indian communities and poor immigrants from other lands as untouchable, and that apart from all proper human interaction, the untouchables must continually serve all others gained strength in medieval India, and left millions of people permanently tied down to poverty, ignorance, servitude and victims of physical, social and violent abuse.
India and all of modern Hindu society almost universally condemns untouchability, even if the caste system debate is open. Untouchability was outlawed after India gained independence in 1947, and people who were formerly identified as untouchables have made considerable economic, social and political progress in India. However, subtle discrimination and isolated acts of violence in the inner parts of India frequently cause political and sectarian tensions.