Hinduism did not become a religion by organic evolution. It was forced into becoming a religion by colonial definitions, Christian templates and Brahminical reinterpretations. What had functioned for centuries as a civilisational ecosystem of caste, ritual, myth, kinship, land and livelihood was squeezed into the narrow mould of “religion” as understood in the industrial West.
When American warships demanded “freedom of religion” from Japan in the mid-19th century, the Japanese court struggled to understand the word. After inquiry, they concluded that religion is something one converts into and out of. It is chosen. It is contractual. It is institutional. Buddhism and Christianity qualified. Shinto did not. Shinto was ethnic identity, not a religion. One is born Shinto, not converted into Shinto. Just as one is born Han in China. You cannot become Han. By this logic, Hindu identity also functioned through birth, not belief.
But Hindus were not allowed to define themselves. Definitions were imposed. In the 19th century, the Hindu elite was asked to define Hinduism using Christianity and Islam as benchmarks. Religion now meant belief in one God, a prophet or founder, a holy book and the possibility of conversion. It meant choice, contract, entry, exit. Christianity had baptism. Islam had circumcision and shahada. One could become ex-Christian or ex-Muslim. One could change religions. One could become secular.
Hindu society did not fit this grammar. One could not become “ex-Hindu” in any meaningful social sense. Caste remained. Even converts carried caste identities: Brahmin Christian, Dalit Christian, Rajput Muslim. The British could not make sense of caste because caste was not theology; it was social organisation, economic function, ritual obligation and hereditary identity.
So Hinduism had to be reconstructed as a religion. And this reconstruction happened through a Brahminical lens. Brahmins were assumed to be the natural interpreters because they were labelled the “priestly class”. A top-down model was imposed: Hinduism must flow from the Veda. Truth must be in scripture. But the Vedas were polytheistic, ritualistic, metaphorical and sacrificial. To colonial eyes, this looked pagan, not religious.
The Brahmin intellectual solution was Vedanta, especially Advaita Vedanta. Advaita spoke of one reality, one truth, one ultimate principle, and treated diversity as illusion. This sounded closest to monotheism. The Bhagavad Gita was elevated as the central Hindu text because it could be read philosophically, abstractly and ethically, without messy ritual, caste, blood, sacrifice, debt, or land. Hinduism was reframed as philosophy rather than ritual economy, as metaphysics rather than social structure.
Colonial translations deepened the distortion. Astika and nastika were equated with theist and atheist. In classical usage, this was false. Astika meant those who followed Vedic social obligations: marriage, ancestor rites, sacrifice, debt repayment, hospitality, ritual violence, social continuity. Nastika were those who rejected these obligations, especially monks who refused family life, ritual debts and sacrificial economy. It had nothing to do with belief in God. But under pressure to appear as a religion, Hindu texts were reread as theological documents rather than social metaphors.
A new “Protestant” Hinduism was imagined: philosophical, abstract, monistic, textual, elite. Like Enlightenment thinkers in Europe, Brahmin intellectuals began treating philosophy as truth and mythology as falsehood. Vedanta was “real”. Itihasa-Purana became “symbolic”. Ram could only be acceptable if he was reduced to a moral hero, not a living god. Scholars argued Ram the god was a later invention. Politicians then flipped the logic: mythology was not false, it was history. Ram became a historical king. Krishna became a historical leader. Shiva became a historical figure. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Ram, Krishna all became “historical personalities” rather than mythic ideas. Myth was denied its symbolic power and forced into factuality.
Thus Hinduism was reshaped to look like a religion: one philosophy, one scripture cluster, one ethical core, one spiritual goal. Diversity was rebranded as “many paths to the same truth”. Caste became an embarrassment. Ritual became superstition. Folk gods became backward. Village goddesses became primitive. Everything had to align with elite Sanskritic philosophy.
Finally, a new mechanism of entry was created: guru-based initiation, based on theosophic ideals. Diksha replaced birth. Hinduism was redefined as something one could join through a guru’s cult. Foreigners could become Hindu without caste. Europeans and Americans were given sacred threads, allowed Vedic study, privileges denied for centuries to women and lower castes. Authority shifted from social ecosystem to charismatic guru. From community to cult. From lived tradition to selective scripture.
This is how Hinduism was forced to become a religion. But today we face another problem. People want to “decolonize” Hinduism. If that is achieved, no more will anyone be able to become Hindu by joining a guru’s cult. Worse, our identities will be defined by caste, already a volatile issue. The world today accepts religion as a category despite its essentially violent and exclusive nature. It rejects caste as a category owing to its essentially discriminatory nature.
Devdutt Patnaik
The writer is an acclaimed and renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.
This article was previously published on 28 March 2026 in the Opinion section of the Economic Times.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of The Truth One.
