Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Ram’s political triumph // Purushottam Agrawal: Being Hindu in a Hindu Rashtra
... does this judgment deepen the fusing of religion and politics?... the institutional fusion has been deepening for a while - the political, legal and religious movements have all intermingled. But with a central government trust now in charge of effectively building a temple, the state is the medium through which Hindu sovereignty is now being exercised.
No one disputed Ram. But making the fate of 2.77 acres of land a litmus test of respect for Ram, and for the fate of a civilisation, was an act of vandalism on Hinduism as well.. The political reconfiguration of Hinduism, where political rather than spiritual forces now represent it, is now complete.
The birth of the
Ramayana, as we know it, is in an act of grief. A nishada hunter strikes down
the male of a pair of krauncha birds. The unslain female bird utters a mournful
cry. Unable to bear the separation, she too dies. This primal scene of crime, and
the anguish it generates, prompts Valmiki to compose the Ramayana. But the deep
sorrow of that crime haunts the story. Ram has his triumphal moments - vanquishing Ravana, establishing Ram Rajya. Ram always sides with duty, some
exalted high ideal that makes his own desires irrelevant. That is his
greatness.
But there is also no escaping the fact that Ram himself never finds
inner repose. His deepest moments of anguish arise precisely when he acts as a
sovereign, overcoming his natural karuna, sidelining it for some kingly duty.
It is almost as if his most political of acts, the banishment of Sita, is
contrary to his own nature. It is when Ram acts as a political agent, that his
torment is most pronounced. His political acts, sometimes, make him guilty of wrongdoing.
He is saved, if at all, only by the forgiveness of Sita as Bhavabhuti
perceptively noted. It is Ram in the end who is most in need of karuna. The
fact that Ram politically triumphs is not always the moment that he is morally
redeemed, or made whole...
read more:
read more:
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/ayodhya-verdict-supreme-court-ramjanam-bhoomi-babri-masjid-case-6112164/
'Before the Law' - a parable by Franz Kafka
The Almond Trees by Albert Camus
'Before the Law' - a parable by Franz Kafka
The Almond Trees by Albert Camus
Purushottam Agrawal: Being Hindu in a Hindu Rashtra
For Hindutva, which
is not a spiritual or religious world view but a doctrinaire, authoritarian
political programme, Hinduism is a mere prop.
On the face of it,
being Hindu in a 'Hindu rashtra' might sound good to Hindu ears. You might
think you are in a rashtra (nation) that is in sync with your faith, values and
way of life. However, closer examination and some reflection on the nature of
Hinduism as it is lived by hundreds of millions of Hindus will present a very
different picture. To put it bluntly, for the sahaj Hindu, being Hindu in a
Hindu rashtra is more likely going to be a nightmare. Etymologically, the word
sahaj means something one is 'born with'.
In usage, it connotes
something done 'with ease', which is to say unburdened by diffidence or false
pride, self-deprecation or arrogance. Hinduism, as it has grown organically
over the centuries, is not a doctrinaire system. For sahaj Hindus, their faith
and world view flow from epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata-in their
myriad versions, none of them a simple translation from the classical Sanskrit,
with their variations, texture and colour shaped by a million local stories-and
the puranic narratives. The human agony, moral conflicts, anguished queries
contained in these narratives-and the wisdom that follows their
resolution-deeply impact the Hindu mind.
A sahaj Hindu learns
from these lively narratives, not from abstract commandments. In these
narratives, not even gods escape the logic of kaal (meaning: both time and
death) and karma (both action and its consequences). After the fratricidal war
of the Mahabharata, Krishna is cursed by a bitterly lamenting Gandhari for not
having done enough to prevent the calamity. Krishna reminds Gandhari of her own
indulgence of Duryodhana (her son), but he has to suffer her curse nonetheless,
and witness a disastrous fratricidal conflict in his own Yadava clan. Folklore
never spared Rama either for his deeply unjust treatment of Sita. Contrast this
robust tradition of criticism, where even gods are fair game, with the
proclivity among proponents of a Hindu rashtra to label dissenters as
'anti-national' heretics.
The Hindu tradition is
inherently inclusive, so much so that its critics have often accused it of
appropriating dissenting or breakaway traditions. The accusation stems from an
inability to value Hinduism's capacity to learn from criticism and to
mainstream critical ideas-a capacity most vital for the longevity of a
tradition. It's this very civilisational genius for constant refinement that
made someone wax lyrical in these famous words: Kuchh baat hai ki hasti mitati
nahin hamari (It must be something about us that makes us indestructible)'.
Go look him up-he
wrote what is easily the best known nazm celebrating the greatness of India.
Another kind of mistrust of Hinduism has to do with the failure to see the
distinction between so-called 'Brahmanism' and sahaj Hinduism or the lived
reality of Hindus. The adherents of this prejudice believe that the gods of
marginalised people have no place in the Hindu pantheon. That's not true,
though: to cite just one example, in the Chambal region of northern Madhya
Pradesh, there are numerous little shrines and temples dedicated to Hira Bhumia,
a 16th century folk hero of the Gujjar caste.
The story goes that
Hira died trying to save a cow from a tiger. In the rainy season of bhado
(August/ September), he is ritually invoked to 'possess' the most suitable
devotee (often a Dalit/ OBC man) and through this devotee (called ghulla for
this period) he is believed to heal all manner of ailments (snake bites are
common) and resolve various crises in the life of the householder. His grace makes no
distinction between Hindu and Muslim, or between Dalit and Brahmin. So, those
who think Hinduism has no spiritual or symbolic space for the marginalised are
in the grip of a category mistake. The modern-day understanding of Hinduism has
been done a great disservice by scholars who have reduced it to a 19th century
construct as imagined by British scholars, census commissioners and their
Indian assistants. This construct betrays its utter ignorance of vernacular
sources.
Hinduism was a
well-recognised religion/practice and Hindu an identity distinct from the
geographical one centuries before the English reached Indian shores. Early
modern poets like Vidyapati (1352-1448) and Kabir, Anantdas and Eknath (15-16th
century) knew this well, as did European Christian missionaries like Giuseppe
Maria da Gargnano (18th C.), who wrote tellingly about this in an imagined dialogue
between a Christian missionary and a Hindu in the early 1750s.
The Hindu tradition is
so inclusive that its critics have often accused it of appropriating breakaway
traditions. Unfortunately, many
contemporary scholars continue to perpetuate the colonial-era misconceptions
about Hinduism, unmindful of the historical record contained in pre-British
deshbhasha sources (I've argued in my academic work that the word 'vernacular'
should be dropped in favour of deshbhasha, the class of living languages of the
common people). Writing the history of early modern India, including that of
Hindu traditions, solely on the basis of Sanskrit/ Persian sources is a deeply
flawed enterprise; it's akin to writing the history of the Renaissance and
modern Europe exclusively on the basis of Latin sources.
The genius of sahaj
Hinduism is that it folds in local legends (like Hira Bhumia's story), evolving
practices (like the now ubiquitous kanwar yatra) and even emerging gods and
goddesses (for example, Santoshi Ma). Also, it has a rather unique relationship
with scripture. A sahaj Hindu hardly ever interacts with the foundational
scripture of his/ her faith-the Vedas. S/he relates to the stories contained in
the epics, which render the scriptural wisdom in everyday life situations.
These renderings and
meandering elaborations are characterised by fascinating innovation and
departures, resulting in autonomous moral and ethical explorations.
Intriguingly, the adjective 'vedic', in Hindu terminology, is not confined to
the four Vedas; it oftener refers to an intellectual and reflective tradition,
to knowledge systems-hence Ayur-veda (the knowledge of medicine), Natya-veda
(the knowledge of theatre/ dance) and so on.
The historical arc of
Hinduism is characterised by diversity, dialogue and dynamic symbolism (or
should I say DDD-S or the 3Ds, given the current propensity for banal,
alliterative catchwords?). Even idol worship or the notion of avatar
(incarnation) are illustrations of this dynamic symbolism-on a philosophical
plane, a way of imagining the degree to which divinity is realised in an
individual, and on a cultural level, a way of creating an artefact, an aid to
civilisational memory.
Contrary to this
avatar of Hinduism, confident in its diversity and dynamism, the idea of a
Hindu rashtra or Hindutva is rooted in diffidence masquerading as a brash,
hyper-assertive confidence. For the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh),
ekchalakanuvartitva (follow the one supreme leader) is an article of faith and
a key organisational principle. The source of this cult of personality is
European fascism-not Hinduism, where deities and avatars abound, and even the
notionally ultimate source of wisdom is not singular but the four Vedas.
The Hindu rashtra is
not a natural extension of Hinduism. For Hindutva, which is not a spiritual or
religious world view but a doctrinaire, authoritarian political programme,
Hinduism is a mere prop. Savarkar candidly admits this in his opus, Hindutva:
Who is a Hindu? (1923), the foundational text of the Hindu rashtra. He says:
'Hindutva is not identical identical with what is vaguely indicated by the term
Hinduism.'
At the core of what
Savarkar calls Hindutva or 'Hinduness' is the fear and hatred of the
constructed other-mainly the Muslim. As an idea of India, the Hindu rashtra is
false, simply because it is historically inauthentic and culturally alien to
the Indian ethos in general and Hinduism in particular. The ideologues of the
Hindu rashtra see the richness and complexity of the Hindu tradition as a
liability. Hindutva is, by its nature and purpose, insensitive to Hinduism's
evolution, its historical content and texture.
Hence the obsession
with One leader, One language, One way of life, One food culture and so on.
Motivated by contemporary political concerns, the guardians of Hindutva have
been trying desperately to pour the rich matrix of Hinduism into a monolithic
mould. This project has attained great success in recent times, and the
widespread ignorance in Left-liberal intellectual and political circles of the
inner dynamics of the Hindu tradition has contributed to the success of
Hindutva in no small measure.
If the Left liberals
have failed to grasp Hinduism, it is mainly due to their failure to seriously
engage with deshbhasha sources; a certain indifference to the cultural concerns
of Hindus may also have played a bit role. If you are a sahaj Hindu and
consider your tradition more important than power games and political contests,
then be in no doubt that incidents like mob lynching, the cynical tugs at your
emotions invoking your religious identity, and the demonisation of
intellectuals and scholarship and the dissenting view are not aberrations or
fringe activities in the Hindutva project but devious strategems of a political
programme that cannot succeed without distorting Hinduism to its very core.
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20191118-being-hindu-in-a-hindu-rashtra-1616599-2019-11-08