Basic Beliefs
Hinduism is first and foremost a way of life. This means that Hinduism has tended to
be orthoprax (stressing correct behavior) rather than orthodox (stressing correct
belief ). It tends to be woven through the differing elements of everyday life, rather
than only performed as practices or rituals for certain days and times. Hindu religious
expression is conveyed through every facet of society: music, dance, art and architec-
ture, philosophy, politics, literature, and social life.
Some of the most important aspects of everyday life in the Hindu tradition are a
person’s family and social affiliations. Despite the incredible variety of Hindu belief
and practice, each family and local community is tightly and carefully organized.
Every individual, as a member of a particular family, has a well-defined role and an
obligation to fulfill specific duties. As in any culture, one’s individual identity is
strongly shaped by the linguistic, regional, or sectarian characteristics of his or her
family. This familial influence persists whether the family lives in its ancestral home or
moves to a different region of India or a foreign country.
Families, of course, are members of a larger community. These communities share
certain beliefs about a person’s proper role in society based on status, age, and gender.
Traditional Indian society was sharply hierarchical. According to the traditional social
groupings, there should be four status groups: the brahmins, who are scholars and
religious technicians; the kshatriyas, who are warriors and rulers; the vaishyas, who
are artisans and farmers; and the shudras, who serve the others. Each person is born
as a permanent member of a particular group. Society is seen as an organic whole, in
which some parts have higher status than others, but every part is necessary for the
whole to function smoothly. A common metaphor for social organization is the
human body, which has many different parts performing many different functions, all
of which are necessary for the body’s maintenance and well-being. In actual practice,
the picture was far more complex. Each of these four groups was split into hundreds
of subgroups known as jatis. Jatis were most often identified with a certain hereditary
occupation, and a jati’s status in a particular place was subject to all kinds of local vari-
ables. These variables could include whether or not members of a jati owned land or
the degree to which a jati’s occupation was economically vital to its community.
These beliefs about social status are becoming less important in modern India,
and have even less importance for Hindus who live abroad. In modern India, society
is still functionally divided into four groups: brahmins; “forward castes,” which tend to
control land, money, or power; “backward castes,” which have historically had very
little influence, although the situation is changing rapidly; and Dalits (“oppressed”).
Once called “untouchables,” many Dalits live in poverty and oppressive social condi-
tions. Except for the brahmins, these social divisions bear little relationship to the four
groups in the earlier model.
Reincarnation is still a pervasive belief within Hinduism, as it is in other Indian
religions such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Almost all Hindus have generally
accepted that although our bodies are transient, our souls are immortal. After the
death of a particular body, the soul will inhabit a different body. The nature of one’s
incarnation in a future life is determined by the quantity and quality of one’s karma.
Karma literally means “action,” but it also can be generated by words or even thoughts.
It is not produced only by the things one does or says, but also by one’s underlying
motives. An individual’s good karma will bring a favorable rebirth in heaven as a god
or on earth as a wealthy or high-caste human being. Bad karma will bring an unfavor-
able rebirth. A person’s current social status reveals how properly he or she lived in the
previous life. The notion of karmic rewards and punishments is a central justification
for the traditional social hierarchy in India.
Karma is thought of as a purely physical process, like gravity, operating without
any need for a divine overseer. An action one performs, for good or for ill, is seen asviii