When the buccaneers of an expanding, colonial Europe (including Britain) sought new routes to the allegedly mysterious lands of the East in order to acquire ready access to the much-valued spices originating in these lands, they merely sought trade opportunities.
Their superiority in armaments and firepower then led to the acquisition, by force mainly, of lands, their resources and their riches.
European man's technological dominance was thus established, notwithstanding the fact that, at the end of the fifteenth century, China had been the most technologically advanced nation in the world.
Admiral Cheng Ho's 7 Treasure Fleets provide some of the necessary evidence.
The harvesters of souls for Christ soon arrived, many causing havoc to the cultures and civilisations they encountered.
The priest who accompanied Pizarro to the Americas is a wonderful case study.
Quoting John 14.
1 from the New Testament where necessary, the missionaries sought conversions from those they described as natives, but succeeded only with some at the bottom of the socio-economic pile in Asia.
The Hindus were able to stem the tide a little by quoting Krishna thus: to whatever god you pray, it is I who answer (or words to that effect).
Some European scholars then claimed that Hinduism is only a new religion, less than 2,000 years old.
How so? Confronted by the apparent multitude of gods depicted everywhere, and prayed to with much fervour, by a people whose physical hardships were enormous, many Western scholars and writers missed the core beliefs of this seemingly complex religion.
They may also not have realised that the dogma associated with Christianity, such as the affirmations about the risen Christ, and the reference to the body and blood of Christ during a church service, might have been very confusing, or even unacceptable.
Then, in the 18th and 19th centuries came academic support to the asserted superiority of the colonising mind - that the European is genetically superior to all others of the human species.
The rubbish published, for example, that Chinese is a 'baby language' or that the Asian mind could not have come up with the complex cosmology of Hinduism, was quite impressive.
Yet,...
yet, there were many, such as the philosopher Schopenhauer, who understood the insights encapsulated by Hindu writings.
Hinduism is undeniably the oldest known religion.
The Indian civilisation interwoven with this religion is the only unbroken culture of mankind, going back thousands of years.
Like all the other religions, many of its adherents remain economically unviable; faith provides food only for the soul.
The 2 core teachings of Hinduism are: that there is a Creator of all that is; and that the Creator is within all creation.
Are these any different from the core teachings of the other major religions? Since the Creator or God is said to be 'unknowable,' Hindus rely upon symbolic manifestations of the one and only God, praying to the image of a particular 'god' in times of a specific need, or to a goodly number in regular prayerful occasions.
They do realise, when they pray, that they are addressing the only god of mankind, but through the more tangible images.
I was taught that this omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God is an interventionist god, but regrettably have not found it so.
In the absence of a Good Book such as the Bible or the Koran, there are all manner of gurus and commentators in Hinduism whose utterances can offer guidance, but without being binding.
Our priests are not authoritarian, do not tell us what to do, but provide (for a fee) those long-established services which are accepted as appropriate.
As I was also free to respect all other religions, in British Malaya (a multicultural nation-in-the-making) I learnt to be a freethinker in matters religious.
The sectarian differences of other religions did not affect my family.
Hinduism taught us intercultural tolerance.
Unlike the other major religions, Hinduism offers a complex cosmology.
This takes us beyond the ethics-based priest-guided religious practices to an explanation of the Cosmos.
This cosmology does not, in my experience, impact upon most Hindus.
The ritualistic and ethical components of one's faith are adequate in all religions for a normal life.
Yet, I have found the Upanishads a useful guide to the metaphysics of Hinduism.
I seek to know from whence I came and where I will go, and the trajectories and timelines involved.
The journey is indeed wondrous.