Hindu. Who? Part Five

Meenakshi Srinivasan

19 May 2008, 16:42

Continued from “Hindu. Who?” Part Four

The Sanatana Dharma (the closest to a “religious” term found in the Vedic literature) or Universal/ timeless way of living, where the footprints of the human species is but light on this earth will continue to flourish as long as human beings exist on this planet as it has few prescriptions. I have always wondered why we get so stuck in our metaphors. If I lived in India and was conversant with the Banyan tree and the Mango, I will use them in my texts. If I lived in Arabia, I would use the Date Palm and Olive tree as my metaphors. Here, in California, had I come before the Spanish, I would have written about the Californian Oak and the California Buckeye! We get stuck on the imagery of the Mango vs. Olive that we forget what these texts truly convey. We fight that the mango is superior to the olive or vice versa. How childish! We forget that the Mango has its place and beauty and use just as the Olive.

Many an American has asked me how come there is so much wisdom from India? I tell them it is simply the geography! When we live in a tropical land where food is plenty (as it was before over-population and monoculture-growing one kind of crop vs. several), there is no need to FIND food. It is just there for the taking- hanging low from a tree or hedge. This availability creates a sense of abundance mentality where there is no need to “store” or protect your “store”. That frees us to sit and reflect on how the mind works and what is the relationship between me and this world. However, when I come from a temperate land or an extremely hot clime (like the desert), survival is key. Finding food and storing it to tide us over harsh conditions is priority. I also need to protect it from being snatched away from me by force.

While researching the word Indica, I found the following information about a Greek, Arrian who was a historian after Alexander’s period. (Courtesy, Wikipedia) Until then I only knew about Megasthenes’ account in his Indica. (Today, the only Indica anyone knows is the Tata’s!)


This is but a glimpse of what several other historians and biographers have written about their direct or indirect “observations” of this land. Until the turn of the previous century, my ancestors lived in villages in South India, on both sides of our family. All their experiences had poverty in common. They had no material goods to speak of. However, all their women and men were literate, could read and write in Tamizh and some in Telugu or Malayalam. All of them also knew Samskritham.

Apparently, even in the late 19th century, many of the village schools (in South India) had a brahmin teacher who would teach all his students some Samskritham along with Math, local language and basic Science. When I was conducting a teachers’ workshop in Thanjavur in 1999, I had many senior principals from Government schools participate. Some of them shared interesting anecdotes in small village schools where they had this extremely strict brahmin teacher in the earlier part of the 20th century. Evidently, the Madras presidency had a high rate of literacy even before Independence.

The very same workshop in Madhya Pradesh with government school teachers was very different. There, most of them were first generation learners themselves and they shared many interesting anecdotes about how they do house visits to get their students to school! Their commitment and enthusiasm towards learning was palpable. One of them wrote a poem that described what it felt like to be literate – he compared it to having got sight after being blind for long! In Rajasthan, the story was more to do with the merchants’ and farmers’ kids who went to school just to be done with it! Most of them already had a family business or agriculture or trade that they did not feel the need to learn English or Science!

I enquired from my grandfather (many years back) who else went to school with him, in the earlier part of the 20th century. He said ALL the village kids would go to the same school, which was up to 8th standard – girls and boys. After that, only those who could go to “town” could pursue their high school followed by a college degree if possible. Our former president Dr. Abdul Kalam shares similar stories in his autobiography.

All these above anecdotes show a wide range of life experiences from different parts of the country on the issue of primary education (just taking one parameter to make it simpler). So what is “Indian” about any of this? (A rant: Today, it is tragic that millions of children in the primary school age do not have access to literacy in our country as there is a paucity of teachers. India needs over a million teachers, to teach kids in the ratio of 1:100.)

The common element in all that we have seen in anything to do with “Hindu” or India is the fact that there IS NO COMMONALITY! It is as diverse as it can get. Diverse gods, diverse life experiences, diverse beliefs, diverse languages, diverse thinking… And we want to tame it into a mono-culture of something nobody is clear what it should be.

The Congress believes in a secularism that continues the divide and rule philosophy of the British. The Hindutva group believes that it should be a ‘national, Hindu’ identity. The communists believe that it should be capitalism subsidized by the government, to have an economically equal nation (where some animals are more equal than others). The Karunanidhis and Mayawathis believe that every ‘caste’ (associated with them) documented in the Indian Gazette should be given security through reservation in education and jobs. All of them have a kernel of truth to them- unfortunately every one of them comes with certain limitations – None is willing to give up his perspective nor willing to foster harmony.

Earlier, people were fine with diversity and lived with it, secure in their own identity of what they chose to do and be. There was no threat to being “different”. Today, that freedom is threatened and the fear is acting out as anger, hatred and intolerance towards anyone who is “different” from ourselves. I do not wish to point fingers at the “Greeks” or the “Muslims” or the “Christian missionaries” or even modern consumerism for causing this loss of freedom. It is plainly a deviation from the path of Dharma that has brought this moment upon us – as a civilization. When a potter was proud of his pots and the teacher proud of his student, there was no issues of personal freedom. When the potter felt exploited and/or lost his market and the teacher wanted to copyright his knowledge, that was when we lost our freedom.

These past few months, we subscribed to a Tamil channel owing to parent visits. The News was most illuminating on this score. People stopping trains, blocking roads, shouting slogans, breaking office furniture – all forms of protests for all kinds of issues. Most of these issues spoke of poor governance and absence of infrastructure. In some, it was plainly political: If my opposing party said up, to maintain opposition, I will say down.

Poor governance especially in a democracy manifests when the democratic process has not been followed through at every step. Basic citizenship skills which are primordial in a democracy are not taught at any school or home. I am reminded of the old story of the two monkeys and a cat (pick your own favorite or not-so-favorite animal or plant species). One monkey found a pancake when the other monkey spotted it. Both argue that it belonged to them. Along came a cat who was willing to moderate the case. He was willing to split the pancake into two equal halves and give one to each monkey. The monkeys agreed. The first split was unequal. So the cat said that he will eat the smaller piece and split the larger piece for the monkeys. This went on until the entire pancake was eaten by the cat. This story illustrates how the cat (the politician) is succeeding in keeping the monkeys (electorate) divided.

The above news stories are but the reactions of an electorate that is slowly awakening, thanks to mass media tools. Unfortunately, they do not have citizenship skills that can make them express their dissatisfaction in a more “educated” way. It goes back to the two main words – honour and respect. We need to nurture these two qualities in everyone and understand the simple social idea of being part of a whole; of an individual living in a society with a contract that needs to be honoured where personal aggrandizement at the expense of another member of the same society is unjust.

This is not an issue of India, but of the world right now where there is intolerance breeding in the form of terrorism. Children who are naturally respectful, find this intolerance intolerable and we find many a youth taking drugs to numb it all or even committing suicide. Depression of the mind is but a manifestation of this deep angst that has set in where the “other” becomes obscure. Reaching out, serving society is a proven antidote to end depression.

Recent archaeological discoveries of the Mehergarh (Saraswati) civilization have dug deep holes at the generally accepted idea of the “Aryan Invasion Theory” (called AIT for short by historians). Once the mythological stories of Agasthya and Rama are unravelled in their true timelines, the Vedic vision of a creation infused with divinity will be manifest. That should end the divide between the “Aryans and the Dravidians”. I am positive that proper scholarship should result in the deciphering of the Harappan Seals very soon.

Ishavasyam idam sarvam yat kinca jagatyam jagat,
Tena tyaktena bhunjitha ma grdhah kasya svit dhanam (First verse of Ishopanishad) “How can we as humans insist upon ownership and therefore be greedy when all that is here, belongs to The X Factor (called Isha here) that permeates the entire universe?!”

I think the world is ready to return to Dharma as we are getting weary of wars and terrorism. Our experiment as a species with consumerism and materialism couldn’t last even 150 years as we have begun to exhaust our natural resources (watch Story Of Stuff). The Vedas have been around in spite of constant persecution of those who knew it for millennia! This time around, the renewal in Dharma will come from the Global Warming issue where all of the world has to unite in balancing the environment.

Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanthi: There is but One Truth, the wise speak of it in many ways.

The series concludes with the Epilogue

Comment

  1. What a load of crap! Let me quote – “Apparently, even in the late 19th century, many of the village schools (in South India) had a brahmin teacher who would teach all his students some Samskritham along with Math, local language and basic Science.” Yes, all teachers were brahmins. But they taught all student. Brahmins taught the brahmins. The rest languished. Especially the lowest castes! Whatever may be the basis for the caste system, it has remain entrenched for millenia. Let’s not blame the British for this disgusting system. Read this BBC article which is correct and accurate.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7404062.stm

    — Senthil Jaganathan · May 20, 18:27 · #

  2. I am re-posting my comment. One sentence has been rephrased:

    What a load of crap! Let me quote – “Apparently, even in the late 19th century, many of the village schools (in South India) had a brahmin teacher who would teach all his students some Samskritham along with Math, local language and basic Science.” Yes, all teachers were brahmins. But did they teach all students?? No! Brahmins taught brahmin students. The rest languished. Especially the lowest castes! Whatever may be the basis for the caste system, it has remain entrenched for millenia. Let’s not blame the British for this disgusting system. Read this BBC article which is correct and accurate.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7404062.stm

    — Senthil Jaganathan · May 20, 18:30 · #

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