During my time so far with the Building Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) Fellowship, I’ve gone from viewing interfaith as a medium of discussion between separate world views to a intricate web of connections that span across humanity. These connections are so intricate and diverse that even traditions thought to be “homogenous” end up housing their own fractals and webs.

Much of my interfaith learning happened under the tutelage of my mentor from the BILI Fellowship, Dr. Vrajvihari Sharan. When I first joined the BILI Fellowship, I was excited to learn about different practices and hear different experiences from people all across the world, but I didn’t expect to also learn so much about my own tradition and its relationship with a massive expanse of traditions.

Dr. Vrajvihari Sharan taught me about the diversity of the Dharmic traditions, from the monotheistic traditions of Śākta (Sh-ahk-tah), Vaiṣṇava (Vai-shnah-vah), and Śaiva (Shai-vah) Dharmas, to Sanātana Dharma/Hinduism, non-theistic Dharmas and others. The common understanding of Hinduism as one religion is a far more recent notion, which has led to the erasure of many independent Dharmas from crucial discussions of religion in the modern world. I have come to learn of more complexity: how many traditions of South Asia believe in one God or no God at all, how some are devotional or are purely philosophical. Each tradition teaches a nuanced view of how the multiverse works and our place in it. As I continued my involvement in BILI, and engaged with the complexity of the similarities and differences among traditions, I confronted an inescapable issue.

Most of the Dharmic Traditions—Śaiva, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava, Smārta, Sanātana/Hindu, Buddha, Jaina, Sikh, and Tribal/Regional Dharmas—have at various points rejected the various forms of Jāti (formalized groups or clans of people) and caste that was created in South Asia by Mīmāmsaka Dharma, yet many today nonetheless see caste as an integral part of Hinduism. The emphasis on caste is symptomatic of a broader issue of my own understanding of Hinduism as opposed to the broader Dharmic Traditions. I could not recognize and honor their individual histories, ethics, and cultures outside of the categories created by the world religions paradigm in education systems, governments, and judiciaries. Only the distinctions between the Dharmic Traditions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were apparent to me. This is a journey that I am still undertaking, but I learned the value of the interfaith lens for understanding the diversity, distinctions, and complexities of the independent Dharmic traditions often subsumed under the Hindu label. 

I was prompted to explore Jāti and Caste in the Dharmic traditions after learning about the Lingayat tradition. Lingayat is one of the many traditions of Śaiva Dharma. Notably, it is one of the Dharmic traditions that has rejected Jāti and Caste since its inception. While I now know this to be the case, my entire life I held the assumptions of caste which I learned as I grew up. These assumptions stem from colonial, majoritarian frameworks and understandings of Dharmic Traditions that still hold influence today. I couldn’t even imagine Dharmic traditions that rejected Jāti and Caste outside of the already distinguished Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh traditions. Yet I realized this was too simplistic. From this revelation, I began my journey of reading. I was able to learn more by talking to different professors and reading a variety of sources. I found Susan Bayly’s Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age especially enlightening on the complex nature and narrative of Jāti and Caste in South Asia across many eras and empires. 

I eventually came to realize that Caste was never a homogenous and commonly agreed-upon system or institution in South Asia. Different Dharmas would adopt, modify, or outright reject Jāti and Caste throughout their lifetimes. Each individual Dharma’s understanding, accepting, or rejecting of caste needed to be understood fully, rather than perpetuating colonial and political presumptions that everyone in South Asia supported a caste system, when in fact there are entire Dharmic traditions founded to oppose it. Silencing these histories is a page from the playbook of majoritarians, and I hope to continue to learn in order to understand how these narratives are being wielded in the world today. 

Beyond supporting my personal inquiry into the depth of Dharmic Traditions, the BILI fellowship has more broadly showed me that understanding the history and nuance of each world religion is a crucial step in creating a future where interfaith cooperation and dialogue can be commonplace. This insight of using the interfaith lens to view the different Dharmic traditions is something that spurred me to further my interfaith work on campus. In my second year as the interfaith chair for Georgetown University’s Hindu Student Association, I wanted to explore the unique teachings and lived experiences that practitioners of the different Dharmas had. I have had the unique privilege of planning and taking part in many events to explore the breadth of shared experiences between the Dharmas, from an event featuring reading of Islamic, Sikh and other Dharmic inspired poems, a workshop exploring plant-based diets and challenges to it within the various Buddha Dharmas. I understood that the best way to be a proper interfaith liaison with the Dharmic traditions is to be present to the needs of all members, and to those interested in the Dharmas. My journey as an interfaith chair truly evolved when I was invited to apply to serve as the interfaith chair for the newly formed Jain Student Association (itself an historic first for Georgetown University). Whilst not being Jain myself, the leadership chose me as they recognized my earnest desire to learn and support — my main goal was to use my networks to raise awareness of Jain Dharma on campus in the hopes that a Jain student with similar interests will take on this role in the future. 

The BILI Launchpad fellowship started me on a path of expanding what interfaith means in not only my own life, but also with my own faith and related traditions. Interfaith is a culmination of millennia of diverse human experiences that communicate with each one to create a harmonious society. When we take the time to respect the individuality of those experiences and the plurality of society, we take a step in the right direction towards greater interfaith community. I have barely scratched the surface by re-examining my own perpetuation of majoritarian narratives on Dharmic Traditions and the topic of Caste through an interfaith lens, and there is still so much more to investigate using this new view. I am excited to continue on this journey and see what interesting ideas and views I may find.

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Image: students and university leaders gathered to celebrate the opening of Georgetown’s Dharmālaya, a new meditation center for members of Dharmic spiritual traditions—the first of its kind on a U.S. campus. Courtesy of Georgetown University / Student Experience, Nov. 11, 2021.