Atheism and Rationalism in Hinduism

The Indian subcontinent is commonly depicted as a hallmark of religion and spirituality in public discourse. A selective inattention to positions and perspectives that counter this stereotype also runs through academic scholarship. This article focuses on exceptions to this observation by introducing studies that represent and analyze atheistic and rationalistic individuals, groups, and arguments associated with and in opposition to Hindu traditions. However, any general assessment of atheism and rationalism within “Hinduism” is confronted with manifold limitations, given the historical depth, geographic range, linguistic plurality, cultural diversity, and (therefore) fuzzy borders of various Hindu traditions. Above all, there is a lacuna of comprehensive publications interrelating the impact and entanglements of diverse philosophical and religious traditions—above all Hindu and Muslim traditions—on the subcontinent. Against this background, this article centers, first, on studies of classical schools of thought within Sanskrit-Hindi philosophical traditions. The first section, General Overview: Classical Schools of Thought, comprises three subsections, focusing on Lokāyata and Cārvāka in particular, and more generally on Atheism in Classical Schools of Thought and Rationalism in Classical Schools of Thought. It also addresses the relation between atheism and rationalism and discourses of heterodoxy/heresy, and touches briefly on the mutual influence of Buddhist and Jain religious traditions on the subcontinent. The second section, General Overview: 19th and 20th Centuries, introduces studies of contemporary secularist, atheist, or rationalist groups, concentrating in particular on forms of secular activism rather than general or implicit forms of unbelief or irreligiosity. Consequently, the article moves toward a discussion of Influential Atheists and Rationalists, as well as Organized Atheism and Rationalism. In contrast to the aforementioned paucity of academic research on the topic, atheist and rationalist activists have produced a large body of writings, a small and selective portion of which is introduced in the subsection on Literature by Activists. Without going into much detail, the final subsection, Atheism and Rationalism in a Broader Context of Social Critique, indicates related movements or topics that are not necessarily atheist or rationalist in any explicit or predominant way. All three terms—atheism, rationalism, and Hinduism—have to be taken with a grain of salt here to reduce the implicit presentism (anachronistically reading into the past concerns and perspectives that emerged in the present) and Eurocentrism (given the Christo-Occidental genealogies of the notions “atheism” and “rationalism”) inherent in such terms