One of the world's oldest forms of faith, Hinduism has an unbroken
trajectory of beliefs and rituals that have continued for many millennia
through the footsteps of pilgrims and the pedagogies of theologists;
through myth, science and politics. But what does all that mean to the
modern Hindu today? Why do Hindus call themselves so? Is it merely
because their parents were Hindus? In what way does the faith speak to
those who profess to follow it? What does Hinduism mean to the
everyday-practicing or sometimes-accessing ordinary Hindu?
Away from the raucous debate around religion, this is the journey of a
common Hindu, an attempt to understand why, for so many Hindus, their
faith is one of the most powerful arguments for plurality, for unity in
diversity, and even more than the omnipresent power of God, the sublime
courage and conviction of man. Being Hindu is an exploration of Hinduism
in a way you have never seen before, almost through your own eyes.
This is the first book on Hinduism to have won the Wilbur Award given
by the Religion Communicators Council of America for excellence in
writing about religion.