On Hinduism Quotes

“The Ramayana, for instance, and the Mahabharata were first recorded in Sanskrit but have been retold—both written down and orally performed—in Tamil, Bangla and most of the other languages of India. And the people who share these texts did have ways of referring to themselves long before they called themselves ‘Hindu’. The term ‘Hindu’ was coined in opposition to other religions, but this self-definition through otherness began centuries before there was contact with Europeans (or, indeed, with Muslims).”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism

“All of us identify who we are in contrast with who we are not, and the ‘who we are not’ changes all the time.”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism

“Voltaire was deeply impressed by it and cited it often.”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism

“he female sex (and, for that matter, sex in general) has never found favour with any of the world’s religions, or with their priests and prophets (which should make us stop and think a little about religion in general, but that’s another book.)”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism

“The term ‘Hindu’ was coined in opposition to other religions, but this self-definition through otherness began centuries before”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism

“Its hatred is directed not only against Hindus of the more diverse traditions—the ones that the British, and Rammohan Roy, taught the Hindus to despise—but also, ironically, against the very monotheisms (Islam and Christianity) that nurtured the Hindu insistence that Hinduism is monotheistic.”
― Wendy Doniger, On Hinduism