Editing Universalism (section)

====Hindu universalism====
{{Main|Neo-Vedanta|Hindu reform movements}}
Hindu universalism, also called [[Neo-Vedanta]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bharatabharati.in/2012/02/15/neo-vedanta-the-problem-with-hindu-universalism-frank-gaetano-morales/|title=Neo-Vedanta: The problem with Hindu universalism – Frank Morales|date=February 15, 2012}}</ref> and [[neo-Hinduism]],{{sfn|King|2002|p=93}} is a modern interpretation of Hinduism which developed in response to western colonialism and [[orientalism]]. It denotes the ideology that all religions are true and therefore worthy of toleration and respect.<ref>{{cite book|title=What Is Hinduism?: Modern Adventures Into a Profound Global Faith|year=2007|publisher=Himalayan Academy Publications|isbn=978-1934145005|page=416}}</ref>

It is a modern interpretation that aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism"{{sfn|Yelle|2012|p=338}} with [[Advaita Vedanta]] as its central doctrine.{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} For example, it presents that:
{{Blockquote|... an imagined "integral unity" that was probably little more than an "imagined" view of the religious life that pertained only to a cultural elite and that empirically speaking had very little reality "on the ground," as it were, throughout the centuries of cultural development in the South Asian region.{{sfn|Larson|2012|p=313}}}}

Hinduism embraces universalism by conceiving the whole world as a single family that deifies the one truth, and therefore it accepts all forms of beliefs and dismisses labels of distinct religions which would imply a division of identity.<ref>(Rigveda 1:164:46) "Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti" - Truth is one; sages call it many names</ref><ref>(Maha Upanishad: Chapter 6, Verse 72) "[[Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam]]" - The entire world is a one big family</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Badlani |first=Hiro |title=Hinduism: Path of the Ancient Wisdom |publisher=[[iUniverse]] |year=2008 |page=303 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NrQhyxH-GgC |isbn=978-0-595-70183-4}}{{self-published source|date=December 2017}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}

This modernised re-interpretation has become a broad current in Indian culture,{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}}{{sfn|Sinari|2000}} extending far beyond the [[Dashanami Sampradaya]], the Advaita Vedanta Sampradaya founded by [[Adi Shankara]]. An early exponent of Hindu Universalism was [[Ram Mohan Roy]], who established the [[Brahmo Samaj]].{{sfn|Ghazi|2010}} Hindu Universalism was popularised in the 20th century in both India and the west by [[Vivekananda]]{{sfn|Michaelson|2009|p=79-81}}{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} and [[Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan]].{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} Veneration for all other religions was articulated by [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Gandhi]]:
{{Blockquote|After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that [1] all religions are true; [2] all religions have some error in them; [3] all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives. My own veneration for other faiths is the same as that for my own faith; therefore no thought of conversion is possible.<ref>M. K. Gandhi, ''All Men Are Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told in his own words'', Paris, UNESCO 1958, p 60.</ref>}}

Western orientalists played an important role in this popularisation, regarding [[Vedanta]] to be the "central theology of Hinduism".{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} Oriental scholarship portrayed Hinduism as a "single world religion",{{sfn|King|2002|p=135}} and denigrated the heterogeneity of Hindu beliefs and practices as 'distortions' of the basic teachings of Vedanta.{{sfn|King|1999|p=135}}