Reincarnation
One of the fundamental assumptions of
Indian religious life. See samsara
Religious Duty
See dharma.
Religious Law
See dharma, dharmashastra, and
dharma literature.
Religious Persecution
In popular belief India is visualized as a
land of perfect religious tolerance in
which all schools of thought have been
allowed to grow unchecked. Although
true in its basic form, this picture is
greatly simplified. There is a long history
of competition between differing reli-
gious communities and schools of
thought, sometimes fueled by scathing
polemics designed to persuade listeners
that one was correct and the others
false. What has been quite rare, however,
are acts of violence accompanying these
arguments, or the notion that people
should have to fear for their lives
because of their ideas. In the literature
of the Nayanarand Lingayatcommuni-
ties—both devotees (bhakta) of the god
Shiva—language toward the Jains has a
genuinely hostile edge, and the Nayanar
leader Sambandarhas been persistently
implicated in the impalementof 8,000
Jains in the southern Indian city of
Madurai. In the same way, the northern
Indian king Sashanka, who was also a
devotee of Shiva, harbored a pathologi-
cal hatred of Buddhists. Sashanka
reportedly not only persecuted
Buddhists themselves, but also tried
to destroy the tree in Bodh Gaya
under which the Buddha purportedly
gained enlightenment.
Sectarian competition aside, people
whose religious faith has led them to
ignore generally accepted social con-
ventions have been quite likely to
encounter stiff opposition. Stories of the
devotional (bhakti) poet-saints are
replete with tales of the troubles they
faced from guardians of conventional
morality, usually said to be brahmins. In
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
there was a running and often bloody
conflict between two groups of militant
ascetics—the Naga class of the
Dashanami Sanyasis, and the Bairagi
Nagas—although in that case the
motives might just as well have been
economic, namely, the control of trade
in the Gangesvalley. A final example of
religious persecution appears in the rise
of Hindutvain the 1980s. Propelled by
verbal attacks on Muslims and
Christians, this persecution has all too
often prompted physical violence.Renuka
In Hindu mythology, the wife of the sage
Jamadagni and mother of the Para-
shuram avatar, the fifth avataror incar-
nation of the god Vishnu.Republic Day
Indian national holiday, falling on
January 26, that marks the day the
Indian constitution was adopted in- As a holiday connected with
Indian independence, it is one of the few
celebrated according to the common
calendar. Republic Day is comparable
to the Fourth of July in the United States
and is celebrated with massive parades
in India’s major cities. The largest occurs
in New Delhi—from which it is televised
to the rest of the nation—and includes
singers and performers from all over the
country, as well as large displays of mili-
tary hardware, including fly-overs by the
newest jet planes.
Reservations
Modern government policy designed to
rectify the long-standing economic and
social disadvantages faced by certain
poor or low-status groups by offering
them preferential treatment in employ-
ment and education. This is usually
done by setting aside, or “reserving,” for
such groups certain percentages ofReservations