ABSTRACT
Democracy, in conjunction with the morally contextual rules of conduct of Hindu philosophies, makes for a complicated relationship with covenantal pluralism. The chapter focuses on one strand of Hinduism—Vedanta as championed by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda, and S. Radhakrishnan—and assesses its ethical and practical dimensions vis-à-vis covenantal pluralism. Vedanta’s tenets—seeing divinity in all beings, unselfish sacrifice for the general good, and interconnection with other beings—cohere with and even go beyond covenantal pluralism’s aims. However, these tenets collided with the reality of India’s subjection to British colonialism and in post-independent India, with the demands of democracy. Vivekananda’s stance shows the uneasy relationship between Vedanta’s inclusive attitude to other religions and the exclusiveness demanded by nationalism. Vedanta’s emphasis on the equal validity of all paths to divinity plays out in the “sarva dharma sambhava” (equal respect for all religions) motif of independent India’s constitutional attitude to religious diversity. However, Hinduism’s other imaginaries—as a religion, ancient order, and Indianness as a culture—in the constitution complicate legal interpretations of religious freedom and non-discrimination. The dominant trend in India has been towards either religious polarization or insular indifference, not reciprocal engagement.
