Identifying habitus
The sense of identity and habitus (IH) is one of the since 1996 at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg working indologists Axel Michaels for Hinduism postulated form of thought. Michaels sees in the IH a cultural force with which he tries to explain the phenomenon of Hinduism, which from a Western point of view is not a uniform religion, but a conglomerate of different doctrines and worldviews. The question is therefore why Hinduism still exists as a self-contained whole. In his monograph The Hinduism. Past and present (Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44103-3 ) Michaels writes:
"The cohesive force that holds the Hindu religions together and makes them resistant to foreign influences is what I call the 'identifying habitus'. I attribute outstanding value to it because it is particularly tied to the descent , the descent of the individual which itself has the decisive salvation reference in India. Identifying habitus, descent and salvation reference or immortality are therefore key concepts in my understanding of the Hindu religions. " (P. 19)
The IH is: " the establishment of an identity by equating it with something else. A habitus that is found in the philosophical non- dualism of the Vedānta as well as in the method of substitution in sacrificial rituals or asceticism with which the caste system 'works' and multiplicity the gods alike einleuchtet as the monotheism of India "(p 21). Michaels borrows the term habitus from sociology , as it is first used by Max Weber and then succinctly by Pierre Bourdieu , namely as the objective and subjective conditioning and practice of members of certain social classes. Michaels explains that "habitus" means: " culturally acquired attitudes and attitudes towards life, habits and dispositions as well as conscious, purposeful actions or mythological, theological or philosophical artifacts and mentifacts " (loc.cit.). Bourdieu tied in with Émile Durkheim's concept of total social fact . Michaels writes about IH as a code of Hindu religious identity :
"Because Hindu religions are based on such an identifying principle of equality, they also 'disturb' less oppositions and dichotomies . To a certain extent, they do not need to be ostracized because the other is always their own. Since they start from the principle of unity, they can be separated and harmony mean: the maintenance of a tension that is basically none. The other god can remain the other god because he is basically also his own. " (P. 22)
Michael's term is a contribution to the discussion about what actually characterizes historically positive Hinduism in its peculiarity. As a form of thought that has shaped the most varied of traditions in Indian religious history , parallels must be drawn with the term inclusivism , here above all according to the definition of the Bonn Indologist Paul Hacker .