Abstract
The new atheists have been quite critical about religion. Their criticisms do not just confine to religious doctrines, and unavailability of reason in religion, they also extend their criticisms against all aspects of religion. The criticisms include doctrinal and speculative components about religion (Dawkins 2006, Dennett 2006) and also the ill-effects of social and cultural practices that emerge out of religion. In this article, we focus on the New Atheists criticism of Hinduism. The new atheist remarks that Hinduism as a religion has specific social and cultural practices that go against the value of modern values of gender equality and human rights (Hitchens 2007). Notably, Hitchens claims that Hinduism as a religion has practices like Suttee (Sati). We contend in this article that Hitchens’ criticisms against Hindu practices like Suttee (Sati) confine to a very few sets of people, and it may not be the mainstream understanding of Hinduism We bolster our position from the following arguments. 1. This practice was never sanctioned in the Hindu Scriptures. 2. It is more a social evil than a religious one; hence, religion cannot be blamed for this practice. 3. This social practice was in less number, but the number has been increased for vested interests. 4. Moreover, thinkers and social reformers were trying from their side to reduce and reject this evil practice, and 5. This practice alone cannot be taken as a claim that religion is bad.
