Is Hinduism tolerant? Is it nihilistic?

There are certain core Hindu values; apart from that, there is a lot of tolerance in transient cultural elements (including pantheons), and openness to new scientific knowledge regardless of authority

Aug 14, 2025

A common rāytā-coded meme: "Hinduism can blend syncretically with any religion, the problem with Islam/Christianity is it demands exclusivity". Zoomers who are offended by this reddit-brained suggestion that Hinduism is nihilistic and anything-goes, overcorrect by going "NOOO actually we are very intolerant and think of mlecchas as inferioor!!"

This is a good example of thinking on the wrong axis. You are so subconsciously tuned into thinking in liberal frameworks like "tolerance vs intolerance", "oppressor vs oppressed" that even if you oppose the liberal view, you can only swing away from it on their own axis—instead of developing your worldview from your own principles, you remain confined to the axis created by liberals.

So how might we understand how the ancients, in their own frameworks, viewed other cultures and religions? Here's something that might be relevant:

Sanskritization, and treatment of conquered mlecchas

Here, Kautilya describes how an Ārya conqueror ought to treat a mleccha land he acquires.

He should adopt the same mode of life, the same dress, language, and customs as those of the people. He should follow the people in their faith with which they celebrate their national, religious and congregational festivals or amusements.
...
He should always hold righteous/religious life in high esteem. Learned men, orators, charitable and brave persons should be favoured with gifts of land and money and with remission of taxes ... he should prohibit the slaughter of animals for half a month during the period of Cháturmásya (from July to September), for four nights during the full moon, and for a night on the day of the birth-star of the conqueror or of the national star.
He should also prohibit the slaughter of females and young ones (yonibálavadham) as well as castration. Having abolished those customs or transactions which he might consider either as injurious to the growth of his revenue and army or as unrighteous, he should establish righteous transactions.
...
He should initiate the observance of all those customs, which, though righteous and practised by others, are not observed in his own country, and give no room for the practice of whatever is unrighteous, though observed by others.
—Kautilya, in the Arthaśāstra, 13.5

(the section as a whole more generally refers to how to treat any conquered land, but these excerpted portions only make sense with regard to foreign lands, which lines up with the context of Mauryan rule in much of Afghanistan and Balochistan.)

In summary:

Abolish wicked practices, e.g. cow & calf slaughter, bad economic policies
Embrace local customs, dresses, festivals, gods
Learn their good practices; abolish the bad
Otherwise act in accordance with sacred law
Hold Hindu culture ("Righteous Life") to be highest-status, i.e. as the "high culture" of the land—aka "Sanskritization"

This sheds light on the Hindu approach to syncretism. Core values, principles and philosophy were non-negotiable, while we were exceptionally tolerant and syncretic in superficial "cultural" elements like customs, dresses, festivals and even flexibly admitting foreign deities. One may observe a parallel to Hindu philosophy, where it is Brahman that is fundamental and (at least in Advaita), all deities are seen as expansions of the same Brahman.

What might we consider "core principles" of Hinduism?

Brahman as a philosophically fundamental concept, and the associated Vedic literature and philosophy
The three goals, or Puruṣārtha: Artha (wealth), Kāma (pleasure), Dharma (righteous behaviour)
The three obligations/debts, or Ṛṇatraya: to gods (to follow the religion), to rṣis (to learn, advance and pass down knowledge) and to one's ancestors (to produce children)
The four sciences: the Vedas and associated Vedāṅgas (which include the study of grammar and language), Ānvīkṣakī (hard science), Vārtā (practical work or commercial knowledge), Daṇḍa-nītī (government)
Śāstra: following the injunctions in the Dharmaṣāstras (moral literature) and Arthaṣāstra (economic/political literature)
Indriyajaya: Practising restraint over sensual pleasures, "conquering your inner enemies" as something instrumentally valuable for your other goals
The prohibition on cow and calf slaughter

This also doesn't pin things too precisely. The Dharmaśāstras are various, and neither they nor the Arthaśāstra can be regarded as timeless; similarly on the primary point there are multiple conflicting philosophies. The enumerations differ: some texts include mokṣa as a Puruṣārtha; some include more obligations. The "materialist" school of Bṛhaspati lists only Vārtā (work knowledge) and Daṇḍa-nītī (government) as the sciences, while the school of Śukra (which in many ways is a "dark" version of Bṛhaspati) lists only Daṇḍa-nītī in a "only power matters" kind of way.

Nonetheless it sheds light on what "type" of thing is universal, and what is subject to change with region, tribe and time period.

Although the excerpt from Kautilya is about an Ārya conqueror ruling a mleccha land, the same pattern is observed with foreign invading tribes that assimilated into the Hindu fold, e.g. here are some inscriptions from the Western Satraps (admittedly, they may not have been so foreign—assuming they decended from the Apracas, their origins seem to have be paternally Kamboja Hindus and only maternally Scythian, nonetheless they were culturally the latter and identified as such before they established their empire)

Rudradaman, who is the lord of the whole of Malwa, Gujarat, Marwar, Sindh, Sauvira (Multan), Kukura (East Rajasthan), Aparanta (Northern Konkan), Nishada (tribals) and other territories gained by his own valour, the cities, marts and rural parts of which are never troubled by robbers, snakes, wild beasts, diseases and the like, where all subjects are attached to him, and where through his might the goals of Dharma, Artha, Kāma are duly attained.
—Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman.
He who by the right raising of his hand [possibly the Chakravarti Royal Gesture] has caused the strong attachment of Dharma, who has attained wide fame by studying and recalling, by the knowledge and practice of grammar, music, logic, and other great sciences, who is proficient in the management of horses, elephants and chariots, the wielding of sword and shield, pugilistic combat, in acts of quickness and skill in opposing forces ... who has been wreathed with many garlands at the /swayamvaras/ of princesses.
—Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman.
Rudradaman, who obtained good report because he, in spite of having twice in fair fight completely defeated Satakarni, the lord of Dakshinapatha, on account of the nearness of their connection did not destroy him.
—Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman.
The meritorious gift of Ayama of the Vachhasagotra, prime minister of the King Mahakshatrapa the lord Nahapana.
—Junnar inscription of Nahapana, 26.
Success! By Ushabadata, the son of Dinaka and the son-in-law of the king, the Kshaharata, the Kshatrapa Nahapana, who gave three hundred thousand cows, who made gifts of gold and a tirtha on the river Banasa, who gave to the Devas and Brahmanas sixteen villages, who at the pure tirtha Prabhasa gave eight wives to the Brahmanas, and who also fed annually a hundred thousand Brahmanas- there has been given the village of Karajika for the support of the ascetics living in the caves at Valuraka without any distinction of sect or origin, for all who would keep the varsha.
—Karla Caves inscription of Nahapana.
Success! Ushavadata, son of Dinika, son-in-law of king Nahapana, the Kshaharata Kshatrapa, inspired by true religion, in the Trirasmi hills at Govardhana, has caused this cave to be made and these cisterns.
—Nashik Caves inscription of Nahapana, 10.10.
Of the queen of the illustrious Satakarni Vasishthiputra, descended from the race of Kardamaka kings, daughter of the Mahakshatrapa Rudradaman, of the confidential minister Sateraka, a water-cistern, the meritorious gift.
—Kanheri Caves inscription by Rudradaman's daughter/Vashishtiputra Satakarni's wife.

They repeatedly proclaim their acceptance of Hindu philosophy and the sciences, and a knowledgeable reader may spot many nods to Artha/Dharma-śāstric prescriptions for governance: building hydraulic infrastructure, hunting down robbers and wild beasts, grants of land and cows to Brāhmaṇas, establishment of non-sectarian monasteries etc.

Hindu attitude towards science

The above addresses the question about the Hindu attitude to syncretizing foreign cultural elements. We may similarly ask: what is the Hindu attitude to accepting foreign or new ideas on /objective/ or scientific matters?

The crispest answer to this is given by Kumarila Bhaṭṭa, who says: we are free to admit the superior authority of mlecchas on any given wordly science. The Ārya have superior authority in religion, not necessarily in anything else, where we are free to learn from anyone. The Manusmṛti also famously states:

श्रद्दधानः शुभां विद्यामाददीतावरादपि ।
अन्यादपि परं धर्मं स्त्रीरत्नं दुष्कुलादपि
śraddadhānaḥ śubhāṃ vidyāmādadītāvarādapi |
anyādapi paraṃ dharmaṃ strīratnaṃ duṣkulādapi
One imbued with faith may acquire excellent learning even from a lowly person, special law even from the lowest, and the gem of a wife even from a base family.
(2.238)

Similar attitudes are expressed by Vācaspati Miśra and Vātsyāyana of the Nyāya school.

Pramāṇa, or epistemology

More fundamentally when it comes to scientific matters, Hindu epistemology rests on the concept of Pramāṇa, meaning "proof" or "way of knowing". The six Pramāṇas described in the literature are:

pratyakṣa (sense perception/observation)
anumāna (logical inference)
śabda (word)
upamāna (analogy)
arthāpatti (called "postulation", but in practice not different from anumāna)
anupalabdhi (absence)

Only the first three are "fundamental" and universally enumerated in most Hindu literature (though some Vaiśeṣika literature does not mention śabda, perhaps subsuming it as a form of pratyakṣa), while the rest may be regarded as specific forms of argument popular in Hindu philosophy.

The first two are fundamental to science of course ("logical positivism" in the terms of modern philosophy). Śabda is mainly a nod to the authority of the Vedas—so the materialist Bārhaspatyas reject it, as do Buddhist logicians (who mostly derived from the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika schools of Hinduism) though in practice the Buddhists relied heavily on the word of Siddhārtha Gautama.

Much of the epistemological literature centers on discussing which pramāṇas are more reliable, and which take precedence over which. Interestingly, it is universally acknowledged that pratyakṣa and anumāna take precedence over all others. Rāmānuja writes:

For it is an acknowledged principle that Scripture has meaning only with regard to what is not established by other sources of knowledge.
In cases of Scripture conflicting with Perception, Scripture is not stronger. The True cannot be known through the Untrue.

Ādi Śaṅkara writes:

Surely, even a hundred Vedic texts cannot become valid if they assert that fire is cold or non-luminous! Should a Vedic text say that fire is cold or non-luminous, even then one has to assume that the intended meaning of the text is different, for otherwise (its) validity cannot be maintained; but one should not assume its meaning in a way that might contradict some other valid means of knowledge or contradict its own statement.
The validity of the Vedas holds good only with regard to matters concerning the relation between ends and means of Agnihotra etc., which are not known through such valid means of knowledge as direct perception; but not with regard to objects of direct perception etc., because the validity of the Vedas lies in revealing what is beyond direct perception.

This is not considered a rejection of the authority of the Vedas, rather it pins down its domain to the realm of philosophy and ritual --- any other claim made in passing does not hold authority.