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> A large part of India is quite religious and Hinduism is the main religion The article mentions: Ahmed, a middle-class slaveholder in Uttar Pradesh in India

> A large part of India is quite religious and Hinduism is the main religion The article mentions: Ahmed, a middle-class slaveholder in Uttar Pradesh in India, was eager to show me around the village where he was a member of the ruling elite. While I was grateful for the warm reception, I was visiting Ahmed’s community because of gross human-rights violations – bonded labour, child exploitation, and outbound human trafficking. My understanding is that Ahmed is an Arabic name and I had been told that Arab people enslaved Indians and that this practice still goes on today. So I'm confused now. Are Hindus enslaving other Hindus? Further, I'm wondering how this all relates to the article. The article doesn't mention religion at all so it is unclear to me whether you're saying Hinduism encourages slavery. I have Hindu friends who told me there is no such thing as "scripture" in Hinduism because there is no "god given" book like Torah, Bible or Quran. So I'm having difficulty understanding what's going on in India.

chimeracoder 10y ago
> I have Hindu friends who told me there is no such thing as "scripture" in Hinduism because there is no "god given" book like Torah, Bible or Quran. So I'm having difficulty understanding what's going on in India. There's no short answer to your question. The real "answer" is that Hinduism is a multifaceted religion which encompasses a massive range of different beliefs and practices, which cannot all be neatly classified with a single stroke. To give you some perspective, it's arguably easier to make statements about Abrahamic faiths as a whole (encompassing everything from Satmars to Salafists to Mormons) than it is to make statements about Hinduism as a whole.
- mercer 10y ago
  > To give you some perspective, it's arguably easier to make statements about Abrahamic faiths as a whole (encompassing everything from Satmars to Salafists to Mormons) than it is to make statements about Hinduism as a whole. I'm not disagreeing, just to be clear, but fascinated by this statement. Could you provide some evidence for it?

chimeracoder 10y ago

> I have Hindu friends who told me there is no such thing as "scripture" in Hinduism because there is no "god given" book like Torah, Bible or Quran. So I'm having difficulty understanding what's going on in India. There's no short answer to your question. The real "answer" is that Hinduism is a multifaceted religion which encompasses a massive range of different beliefs and practices, which cannot all be neatly classified with a single stroke. To give you some perspective, it's arguably easier to make statements about Abrahamic faiths as a whole (encompassing everything from Satmars to Salafists to Mormons) than it is to make statements about Hinduism as a whole.

mercer 10y ago
> To give you some perspective, it's arguably easier to make statements about Abrahamic faiths as a whole (encompassing everything from Satmars to Salafists to Mormons) than it is to make statements about Hinduism as a whole. I'm not disagreeing, just to be clear, but fascinated by this statement. Could you provide some evidence for it?