ABSTRACT
The theology of Vedantic Hinduism provided the motivation towards individual self-realisation. The Brahmo Samaj became a platform for trying out egalitarian congregationalism but met with little tangible result. Hindu mythology is exceptionally rich in stories about Divine intervention on earth. The big difference between Hindu renunciation and the Exodus – the latter also implied a renunciation of sorts, namely renouncing the slave-existence in Egypt – is numbers. Traditional Hinduism had its own forms of socio-political violence which was often associated with world-renunciation, for world-renouncers stand outside the Brahminical social order that restricts the use of violence to the ruling classes. Between 1884 and 1885 Bankim wrote a philosophical dialogue in Bengali which he serialised in the magazine Navajivan, edited by Akshay Chandra Sarkar. The basic predicament of Hindu nationalism is captured by Bankim some years after Dharmatattva.
