| Subject: buddhism & social equality |
| Buddha did great work in his times by bringing people of different groups together for a common cause- spiritualism. In fact, he is considered as the 9th avatar of God according to Hindu texts. Such was his greatness!!
However, the belief that Buddhism brought about social equality is a bit misplaced. If Buddhism was meant to bring about social equality, then why did it have to leave India, even when it had established itself in India for 1000 years? And how come the 4-varna system was able to re-establish itself, if it was unfair, because even now the general or open Hindu category is only 20% of the total Hindus, and it must have been the same then. Then how was it possible for those 20% general Hindus to overpower/convince the other 80% Hindus to re-establish an unfair 4-varna system, especially if Buddhism was supposed to have established social equality for 1000 years!!! There seems to be no historical event that certifies such an overturn.
Also, if Buddhism advocates social equality, then why was there no social equality in China for 1940 years out of the 2000 years that Buddhism has been there ?(China has become a peoples republic only in last 60 years). And even now there is no complete social equality in China!!
Buddha was the one who guided the people towards spritualism in dark times, but the concept of Buddhism bringing about social equality seems to have a lot of political undertones rather than facts, most probably of cross-border origin. Lets not disgrace Buddha by creating a divide between general category & other categories of Hindus. |
| Posted by: devang on 23 Sep. 2008 |
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