Well, in the actual India, not the one of imagination, there is the most rigid priesthood yet, the Brahmins, privileged by birth, assumed to have won their position by karmic merit, and frankly, not very tolerant themselves (which has a lot to do with the stunning absence of Buddhism in its birthplace, and the marginilization of the Jain and the Sikhs). Not to mention Untouchability, the Thugee devotees of Kali, suttee (the act or custom of a Hindu widow willingly being cremated on the funeral pyre of her husband as an indication of her devotion to him), the ritual of throwing oneself under the wheels of the chariot of Lord Juggernaut to die a holy death, and so on.
Mysticism is easy to focus on, because you can ignore all of that....... |
