There is a photo above (which did not post) which mentions a Hindu chaplain and swearing on the Bhagavad Gita. There also is a photo showing a Gurkha as he decapitates a goat.
It is my understanding that Hindus will not kill any animal nor hurt another human. Are Gurkhas practicing Hindus, and if so, how do they reconcile Gurkha discipline and training with Hindu tradition?
Yes almost all Gurkhas are Hindus. In fact Nepal is the world's only Hindu country with more than 90% of the people being Hindus (and the remaining Buddhist) and in general Nepalese Hindus are more devout Hindus then their Indian co religionists. Infact Nepalese Hinduism is more pristine (because of their relative geographical isolation) while Indian Hindusim was subjected to a lot of external influences. So the form of Hinduism followed by Nepalese Hindus is more puritanical.
Animal slaughter did exist in Hinduism in certain places and at certain times in history and those were considered as offerings to God (or more often to the Goddess Kali and the Gurkhas are also worshipers of Kali who is a war Goddess) to bring victory in war. In fact animal slaughter existed more among warrior communities/casts of Hindus. It very interesting that the war Gods of Hindus are always feminine forms like "Kali" and "Durga" and violence and destruction is often revered as a prelude to creation in the cycle of "Creation and Destruction".
Today animal slaughter (as offerings to God) is banned in India but that doesn't mean there are no slaughter houses in India (People need to eat). And I suppose many working there in those slaughter houses would be Hindus.
Since I am a Hindu, I can say this that, the practice of Hinduism often varies from place to place and time to time. Hinduism is not a monolith but many different cultures and belief systems were given a single terminology called "Hinduism". The only thing that connect all forms of Hinduism together is our common roots in the ancient civilization of which there were several offshoots as of today.
It is my understanding that Hindus will not kill any animal nor hurt another human.
While that may be true as a matter of faith but in practice Hindus were not always "non-vilolent". Not even with their fellow human beings let alone animals. I am not sure today's Hindus are any different from people of other religions when I comes to hurting animals or another human. By and large historically, Hindus were less violent than many other religions but many things have change. Today's Hindus arnt as non-violent as they used to be. One reason for this maybe because of the cruel history Hindus have had to face for ages. And Hinduism to had to adapt and change a lot in order to survive the onslaught of Christianity and Islam. It is one of the world's oldest living civilization.
