A fine blend of religion and culture
By V. Sundaram
The Hindu
Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Freedom of worship is one of the fundamental rights our
democracy offers. It is postulated in the preamble to our
Constitution and several Articles define the scope and
extent of the right. We are a people with deep religious
moorings. At the same time, we have a living tradition of
religious tolerance -- result of the broad outlook of
Hinduism that all religions lead to the same God. It was
this tradition that brought about a happy co-existence of
the different religious groups in the country.
True, the forces of secularism, socialism and science in
post-independent India have released the people from the
clutches of meaningless tradition of superstitions, but
at the same time they have created in them a certain
moral and spiritual vacuum that has not been filled by
any substitute.
The violent disturbances that take place at the slightest
provocation bear ample testimony to this trend. The
remedy lies in the proper understanding of our religion
and culture. Religion brings about a certain discipline
which touches our conscience and helps us tackle evil and
sordidness, saves us from greed, lust and hatred,
releases moral power and imparts to us courage in the
enterprise of fighting for a better social order. This
discipline implies the surrendering of our thinking and
conduct to the truths of the spirit and the generation of
a binding force that strengthens the solidarity of human
society.
Religion is not to be associated with meaningless dogmas
and creeds, rights and ceremonies but with the deepest
wisdom of the ancient seers of the Sanathana Dharma which
can safely guide us through the bewildering chaos of
modern thought. Religion is to be associated with that
ancient wisdom of ours which is universal in feeling and
intention and which, by virtue of its vitality, has
affected men of all races and has been able to survive
political and social changes through the ages, and which
must remain forever even while other achievements of man
change or perish.
One should remember that religion is not in any way
opposed to secularism. On the other hand they are closely
inter-related. Indian secularism is not alien to Indian
culture, despite the mischievous and vicious attempts of
several politicians and irresponsible journalists in
recent years to prove it to the contrary. Secularism is
part and parcel of Indian culture.
In modern India, ''secularism'' has been converted into a
mischievous slogan by unscrupulous politicians and their
journalistic cohorts. Secularism as the concept is
commonly understood today is a force contrary to moral
and spiritual values. Secularism is capable of three
distinct meanings, spiritual, rational and materialistic.
There is a common ground for all these interpretations.
It is that in the political and economic life of India,
parties and policies and loyalties should not be based on
religion but should cut across religions and be based on
the objective of national welfare. While this may appear
to be satisfactory for practical purposes, the more
fundamental attitude towards secularism will have in the
long run a decisive impact on national outlook and
behaviour.
The spiritual interpretation of secularism is that all
religions spring from the primary human craving to
understand and feel God or the Infinite in which the
entire universe in general and man in particular has his
being. Therefore, it is far more important that one
should recognise and feel its presence than the manner in
which it should be named, described and worshipped. Hence
the truly spiritual human being will respect all
religions while clinging to his own. He will not allow
differences of religion to come in the way of fullest
cooperation in those fields where reason and science
should prevail. This in essence was Gandhiji's view on
secularism. According to the rationalistic view of
secularism, religion is essentially irrational and
superstitious and it should be progressively eliminated
through scientific education. Till then it should be
prevented by all possible means from intruding into the
social, political, economic and cultural life of the
people. It should be strictly relegated to the home for
the present and ultimately expelled from that refuge
also. In trying to prevent the intrusion of religion in
national and public affairs, coercion and physical force
should be avoided to the extent possible, but wherever
necessary the help of coercive legislation may be taken.
This was the policy of the Congress(I) under the
leadership of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
According to the materialistic interpretation of
secularism (Karl Marx), religion is essentially an evil
and has been instrumental in enslaving the masses by the
classes. Therefore it is necessary to suppress it by
organised propaganda if possible and by force if
necessary. In India, except for the small number of
communists the general public opinion is vaguely divided
between the first two interpretations.
Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, the rationalist
meaning of secularism come to prevail generally among the
politicians and the Central and State Governments have
during the past 50 years tried to function as if
religions did not exist in India or at least they should
not be given any quarter or recognition unless they came
under the category and label of 'minority faiths', such
as Christianity and Islam. Any religion or faith coming
under the category of ''Minority faith/religion'' becomes
automatically 'secular' and 'cosmopolitan'. Applying this
thumb rule, 'Hinduism', by virtue of the fact that it is
the faith of the majority, automatically becomes a
'communal and non-secular' faith.
Nehru's agnostic and rationalistic thinking had a
disastrous impact on the philosophy and working of
several academic institutions established by the
Government of India, for instance the Indian Council of
Historical Research (ICHR), the Institute of Advanced
Studies in Shimla and the National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT). All these institutions
were packed with intellectuals who were all inducted as
part of ''Jawahar Employment Programme''. As Arun Shourie
brilliantly puts it: ''These intellectuals and their
patrons have worked a diabolic inversion: the inclusive
religion, the pluralist spiritual search of our people
and land, they have projected as intolerant, narrow-
minded, obscurantist; and the exclusivist, totalitarian,
revelatory religions and ideologies -- Islam,
Christianity, Marxism-Leninism -- they have made out to
be the epitomes of tolerance, open-mindedness, democracy
and secularism.''
In India today, in the name of ''secularism'', anti-
religious forces sponsored by the so-called 'secular'
humanism or communism, condemn religious piety,
particularly in the majority community. Privileged
minorities are immune from such attention and have
succeeded in getting their demands, however unreasonable,
accepted. In its name again, politicians in power adopt a
strange attitude. They condone the susceptibilities,
religious and social, of the minorities but are too eager
to brand similar susceptibilities in the majority
community as communal and reactionary. These unfortunate
postures have created a sense of nihilistic frustration
in the majority community. If, however, the misuse of
this word ''secularism'' continues; if Sanskrit, the bond
of unity, is not given its due place in our language
formula, if every time there is inter-communal conflict,
the majority is blamed, regardless of the merits of the
question; if our places of pilgrimage such as Benaras,
Mathura, Dwaraka, Haridwar, Rishikesh, etc., continue to
be converted into secular ghettos through mindless
enforcement of pernicious, unimaginative and soulless
Government policies, the springs of traditional tolerance
of the ages will soon dry up.
Distorted view
I am convinced that this distorted view of secularism has
been at the root of deterioration in the standards of
probity, decency, decorum, dignity, integrity and honesty
in all walks of national life in India. I think it is
also at the root of the general frustration and
discontent among all sections of our people and more
particularly the youth. It is certainly possible for a
rational agnostic to be a highly moral and responsible
person. But for a people whose moral life derives its
strength essentially from an ancient religion,
indifference to the latter inevitably means the decay of
the former. The unnatural bifurcation of the spheres of
life into the secular and the spiritual has had its bad
effects on the minds of men in India. It has tended to
slacken moral standards in the name of efficiency and
expediency. It has worked for a colourless anaemic
religion to which men pay lip homage.
We have created a generation of men and women who are
smart, superficial, trim and alert, but have no moral
earnestness or love of the truth. Our knowledge is
diffuse, directionless and we are all distraught in mind
and tired in body and listless in our manner. We have
given up the strife against lusts of the flesh, and
rationalised it with the help of the behaviourist
psychology of Freud and others from the West. In our
behaviour, there is an increased insensibility and a
frightening decrease of civility, decency and sense of
justice. We just shift and drift and erect defence
machines to hide our real nature. All this is the result
of the dethronement of faith and the enthronement of
''sham secularism'' of post-independent India.
The only way out is a call back to religion and the
influence of religion not only on the individual but also
on the public. Mahatma Gandhi in his speeches and
writings preached that politics, to be useful or popular
or true, must be founded on religion. He stood for the
spiritualisation of politics. He had found politics in
the rut of Western materialism and opportunism and he
wanted to save it from the low state into which it had
fallen. ''Back to religion'' was his exhortation. And
India today must listen to his call, if it is to save not
only its soul but its body, that is, its physical well-
being.
According to Sudhanshu Ranade (author of the articles in
The Hindu 'The great betrayal' (February 7, '99)
''Religion and Politics'' (August 1, '99) and ''Religion
and Politics'' (August 15, '99) the linkage between
religion and politics during the Vedic Phase of the Hindu
religion ended in a total disaster 2500-3000 years ago.
Eminent men including Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra
Sen, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Sister
Nivedita, Anne Besant, Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi
(whose academic and other credentials can be considered
equal to that of Mr. Sudhanshu Ranade) have all
passionately underlined the man-making soul-elevating and
nation-building impact of Hinduism through the ages on
the people of India. Mahatma Gandhi had professional
intellectuals like Sudhanshu Ranade in mind when he
observed: ''Rationalists are admirable beings;
rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for
itself omnipotence. Attribution of Omnipotence to reason
is as bad a piece of idolatry as is the worship of stones
believing them to be God. I do not plead for the
suppression of reason but for the recognition of 'that'
in us which sanctifies reason.''
Instrument of integration
Especially as a means and instrument of national
integration, religion will prove more dependable than
'secularism'. Religion holds people together while
secularism is divisive; religion is constructive while
secularism erodes; religion inspires while secularism
criticises; religion builds while secularism dissolves;
religion unites the people while secularism makes people
look at one another with doubt if not suspicion.
True and positive secularism derived from the timeless
culture of India should keep all religions in India at
peace. It should care for religion so intensely as to
validate every pathway to God without any hindrance. In
short it should regard all religions as sacred.
Radhakrishnan dealt a blow to all the self-styled pseudo
practitioners of ''secularism'' (including politicians
and our ill-informed journalists) when he observed: ''The
ideal of secularism means that we abandon the inhumanity
of fanaticism and give up the futile hatred of others and
other faiths. In a secular state, there will be the true
spirit of religion, and the environment necessary for the
development of a gentle and considerate way of life.''
Are we going to be brave enough, wise enough and mature
enough to accept this great challenge of the future?
More at:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/01/18/stories/13180611.htm
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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