– Prabhu RajagopalPROLOGUE: Degradation and Reform
Since the beginning of reform movements in the early nineteenth century – motivated by a contempt for Hinduism and rooted in the uprooting influence of English education – we Hindus have agonized at the degradation that has crept into our society. Time was not far off when nearly two hundred students of Calcutta Presidency College in British-India left Hinduism, under its ‘modernising influence.’ Young Bengal paraded the streets of Calcutta with bottles of brandy and baskets of beef shouting slogans against Hinduism.
Over the past century, and more so in the last fifty years, we have made more serious and genuine attempts at social reform, but the results have neither been widespread nor substantial. There seems no end in sight even after these sustained efforts and a widespread pessimism has taken root in the minds of many a would be reformer. Economic progress seems to aggravate rather than eliminate the ills, the decay seems to be worsening and a sense of rootlessness seems to be gripping the society. A lack of collective consciousness has been hampering the resolution of these social issues. Rather than giving up, we would do well to examine the reasons for this failure and begin afresh. Addressing the question of social reform is therefore of crucial importance to the proponents of a grassroots renaissance in Hinduism.
An Unexpected Culprit?
While lack of sincerity in our attempts at reform, and inefficiency in implementing our plans are strong contenders, there are reasons to suspect an unexpected factor. The culprit probably was our very approach to the whole problem; a fundamental flaw that neutralised social reform movements and exploited them to perpetuate those evils, which they set out to counter!
This trend gained further ground in the post-Independence era as we blindly followed the postulates of what we may call the ‘Euro-reform’ – the western idea that traces all the evils of the society to the characteristics of the native religion and culture, thus calling for a clean displacement of the indigenous culture with western ideals. Society, it declares, must be based and ordered on human rights and economic principles. We did not bother to ask ourselves whether this approach which evolved in a different social and cultural context – mainly in opposition to the theology and social norms of Semitic religions – is suitable for the Hindu society.
Commenting on the penury of our postmodernist social reformers, which showed up in the divisive politics of the 90s; sociologist Meenakshi Jain says:
…[casteist politics] is based on a stereotype image of the caste system and Hindu society that our colonial masters popularised with devastating effect in the 19th century. It is not generally known that the India of rigid social stratification and hierarchical ranking was largely a British creation and that in their attempt to comprehend, and control the Indian social order; the British set in motion forces that transformed the older system in a fundamental way.
Hindu Reforms
Compared to the western notion, the Hindu idea of reform is a study in contrast, linked as it is, to the concept of dharma, which is the quest to attune oneself to the harmonious cosmic order in everyday life. The understanding of the roles of the sruti and the smriti is ingrained in the Hindu mind. While the former strives to elucidate timeless metaphysical principles to emancipate the individual soul from spiritual ignorance, the latter lays down time-bound laws and customs to facilitate the reign of dharma and aid the realisation of the knowledge contained in the sruti. Thus dharma is supported by the twin pillars of sruthi and smriti.
A decline in dharma may arise either out of people’s ignorance of the meaning of the sruti and / or the outmoding of the smriti. Therefore, reform in the Hindu conception involves correcting such a decline by addressing one or both of these causes. Knowing that prevailing socio-political factors invariably influence the conduct of the individuals in a society, our tradition has sanctioned a periodical revision of the smriti. Our sastras repeatedly declare the superiority of the sruti, and demand that the smriti be continuously upgraded according to the age.
New Lamps for the Old
From this perspective, we find that the Western idea of reform falls flat when applied to the Hindu society. The reasons for the failure of our attempts at reform also become clear to us. In fact, the call for a complete withdrawal of religion from society is more suited to the Western society rooted in Abrahamic faiths, which do not make any such distinction between sruti and smriti. Instead, an outdated smriti with a semblance of spirituality is sought to be imposed on all societies, in order to materialise a global monoculture.
Thus, our earlier attempts at reform, based as they were, on incorrect diagnosis and ineffective medicine, ended in a larger fiasco. It is apt to recall Swami Vivekananda’s warning to such zealous reformers; speaking to a gathering of young men in Madras who had internalised the Western approach to reform, he thundered:
… I would tell them with a brother’s love that their method is not right; it has been tried a hundred years and failed. Let us try some new method.
Did India ever stand in want of reformers? Do you read the history of India? Who was Ramanuja? Who was Shankara? Who was Nanak? Who was Chaitanya? Who was Kabir? Who was Dadu? Who were all these great preachers, one following the other, a galaxy of stars of the first magnitude? Did not Ramanuja feel for the lower classes? Did he not try all his life to admit even the Pariah to his community?… They had not the fanfaronade of the reformers of today; they had no curses on their lips as modern reformers have; their lips pronounced only blessings. They never condemned… They looked back and they said, “O Hindus, what you have done is good, but, my brothers, let us do better.” They did not say, “You have been wicked, now let us be good.” They said, “You have been good, but let us now be better.” That makes a whole world of difference.
We must grow according to our nature. Vain is it to attempt the lines of action that foreign societies have engrafted upon us; it is impossible. Glory unto God that it is impossible, that we cannot be twisted and tortured into the shape of other nations. I do not condemn the institutions of other races; they are good for them, but not for us. What is meat for them may be poison for us. This is the first lesson to learn…
Indeed, the saga does not end there. And who was Swami Dayananda? Who was Narayana Guru? Who was Vallalar? Who was Ramakrishna? Who was Vivekananda? Were they all not Hindu reformers of the highest order? And 21st century Hindus also can ask, who was Eknath Ranade? Who was Golwalkar? Who is Amritanandamayi Amma? Who is Kiran Bedi? Not to mention the work of hundreds of unsung individuals and voluntary groups working tirelessly and silently, inspired by the same vision of a new India, of a dynamic Hindu samaj. Krishna, as though, has kept his promise through all of them:
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanirbhavati bharata ~
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srujamyaham ~~
‘Whenever of dharma There is a decline O Arjuna, And an uprising of Adharma, At that time, certainly I manifest myself.’
paritranay sadhunam
vinashay cha dushkrutam ~
dharma-sansthapanarthay
sambhavami yuge yuge ~~
‘For the protection of the good Destruction of the wicked, And to re-establish Dharma, I manifest Myself age after age’ (Bhagavad Gita IV. 7-8)
M. N. Srinivas, the doyen of Indian sociology, recorded the contribution of the Bhakti movement in propelling Hindu samaj towards an egalitarian future, in the following words:
It was a powerful movement which surfaced in various parts of the subcontinent over several centuries. It was anti-caste, pro-poor, pro-women, anti-elitist, anti-Sanskrit, and it affirmed that genuine love of God was sufficient to achieve salvation… The Bhakti movement attracted large numbers of the lower castes, and the poor and lowly, including women.
In spite of the question as to why these anti-caste Bhakti movements failed to institutionalise egalitarianism, many of us will agree that our task is greatly simplified by this fund of historical experience. Let us gain some useful insights from the history of Hindu reform through a study of the lives of these pioneering Hindus saints cum social reformers. In their lives, we have the basis for our future work. Therein lies the true genesis of Hindu reform; this is the ideal we must translate into further action now, on a nationwide scale. It is time to propose and implement a Hindu line of reform for the Hindu society.
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