Learning to Live in a Pluralistic Society
ArchbishopThomas Menamparampil, SDB
Guwahati
Due to global commerce, mass migration of people, and the expanding reach of the communications media, exposure to pluralism (cultural, ethnic, religious) has become a reality in almost every part of the world. We are compelled to interact continuously with people having other visions of life, other views of the human person, and other perceptions of the world. Our very identity and culture seem under siege. We may feel threatened and make of ourselves cultural fundamentalists, or, on the contrary, we may learn to appreciate diversity and draw profit from the multiple pluralisms that confront us today.
The travel account of Marco Polo (1254-1324), the Venetian explorer and merchant, describing the cultures of the diverse communities that he visited, was received with astonishment and disbelief in Europe. When further reports verified much of the account, interest was awakened in the Western world about the peoples of other continents and civilizations. Daring persons like Christopher Columbus were urged on to their ventures. Today the amazing diversity existing among human societies appears less of a surprise for us. Due to the globalisation of the economy, mass migration of communities, intense travelling habits of people, expansion of communications network, not only are we increasingly aware of human diversity, but we constantly interact with people of immensely various ethnic identities and cultures. Time has come for us not only to learn to cope with differences, but even to draw profit from the resources that cultural and human differences offer us.
The minimum we can do is to tolerate differences. The Greeks not only tolerated differences, but tapped the resource of diversity. And they made impressive advances in every field. Athenian democracy lasted only 140 years. Though it excluded women and slaves, it remained an inspiration for the Western world in its search for freedom. The Athenians developed the art of rhetoric and introduced the practice of public discussions. Buddhism likewise encouraged debates on religious teachings. Both had origin in their tribal ancestry.
The immense progress that the Greeks made was due to the fact they knew how to draw profit from the general distribution of talent in their vastly varied society. Martin West writes, “Early Greek philosophy was not a singe vessel which a succession of pilots briefly commanded and tried to steer towards an agreed destination, one tacking one way, the next altering course in the lights of its own perceptions. It was more like a flotilla of small craft whose navigators did not start from the same point or at the same time, nor all aim for the same goal; some went in groups, some were influenced by the movements of others, some travelled out of sight of each other” (Freeman 11).
Europe that had gone through the shared experience of belonging to the Roman Empire and being under Christian spiritual guidance for a long period of time had attained a measure of homogenisation, like imperial China. But ever since Treaty of Westphalia (1648) sovereign states decided to go their own way, asserting their national and cultural differences with other nations. Curiously, at the same time, they set about suppressing cultural minorities within their own territories (1). Even as these nations moved apart and clashed, Enlightenment thinkers proposed the idea of the ‘Universal Man’, explored his nature, defined his rights, probed his destiny. Ideologues of the Right and Left propagated theories that were considered valid for this Universal Man, quite independently of civilizational and cultural differences in the world. Thus, politically moving apart, in the world of thought the Western world came closer to each other, bound together by the concepts provided by their Christian ancestry, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and Scientific and Technological revolution.
But their political and economic interests did not coincide. It was only when the colliding goals of ambitious nations led them into two great World Wars and eventual disaster that some new thinking was found welcome. Far-sighted leaders began gradually accepting the idea of a united Europe, beginning with the proposal of the French statesman Jean Monnet. Even though Europe has gone a long way towards integration since those days, European diversity asserts itself again and again in Britain, France and other countries. Moreover, migrations are continuously changing the demographic patterns of Europe and the rest of the world.
Someone has asked how countries like Belgium with 500 brands of beer, France and Spain with equal number of wines, and France and Holland with as many brands of cheese could think alike! Indeed, it is difficult. The Romans had said, “Quot capita tot sententiae”—as many opinions as there are persons. The Jain tale of 6 blind men of Hindustan arguing over what an elephant really looked like shows how people have always perceived things quite differently. And, thank God! Jesus himself said, “He who is not against me is with me”. He allowed people the space to be different. Dr. Richard Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, concluded a prolonged study in 2000 that Asians tended to be more ‘holistic’ than Westerners, showing attention to the context, tolerant of contradiction, less dependent on logic; he found the Westerners more ‘analytic’, avoiding contradiction, focusing on objects removed from their context, and more reliant on logic (Mahbubani 8). The Bhagavadgita presents a debate between two contrary moral positions. Taking together the above instances, we notice pluralism in tastes, thoughts, worldviews, religious loyalties, psychological outlooks, moral views.
Over 3% of the population of the world is already living in another country. Over 60% of the migrants are living in the developed world (Santerini 51). Cultural pluralism is a compelling reality to which we cannot close an eye.
People are Different
“The ways of the Orientals are not our ways, nor their thoughts our
thoughts” (Lord Curzon 1892)
With the weakening of universalizing ideologies like Communism, there is the new phenomenon of ethnic self-assertions throughout the world. “When all of a sudden clashes took place on a big scale at the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, when the Letts, Lithuanians, Estonians and Ukrainians claimed their own separate identities, when Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia and Bosnia went up in flames, when the Azerbaijan tensions with Armenia increased, when the Slovaks parted ways from the Czechs, when inter-ethnic brutalities in Rwanda hit the headlines, when the claims of the Basques, Welsh, Catalans and French Canadians grew louder, the world began to take note of the force of ethnicity and culture” (Menamparampil 14-5).
It is amazing that even though so many years have passed since the fall of the Berlin wall, there remains a perceptible cultural divide between East and West Germans. Cultures separate people more sharply than political boundaries. For, it is a division from within, not mere separation of people by rules imposed from outside. The hold of cultures on people is stronger than one imagines. It would be interesting to speculate as some anthropologists have done, why for example, when Europe accepted Christianity, it took three different forms: Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, corresponding to the three major ethnic divisions of the continent, Latin, Germanic and Slav. Unplanned, unreflected, yet curiously true. It might be interesting to search why most of the heresies in early Christianity arose at the periphery of the Roman Empire, and why those who definitively broke away belonged to groups that were ethnically distinct from the dominant Christian societies, e.g. Syrians from Byzantines. Islamic heresies, like medieval Christian heresies, had social and political roots (Braudel 76).
There is increasing attention being given today to cultural differences and to reflection on their implications. Differences are noticeable in every area of human life. Let us take just one example. We generally use the Gregorian Calendar. But we know that societies keep 40 or more calendars worldwide. Communities hold on to different traditions, festivals, spiritualities, rituals, symbols, belief-systems, philosophical perspectives; they are used to different styles of relationships with other human beings, living species, environment and cosmos. Curzon wrote in 1892, “The ways of the Orientals are not our ways, nor their thoughts our thoughts. Often when we think of them backward and stupid, they think of us meddlesome and absurd. Our system may be good for us, but it is neither equally nor altogether good for them”. A perceptive statement more than a century ago.
Contrary to what people think, globalisation does not wipe out this natural tendency to hold on to our distinct identity and culture. The more our economy globalises, the more importance do we give to our language, culture and cuisine (John Naisbitt). We know, for example, that the MacDonald’s will not drive our idli, dosai, chapati or rosgulas out of the market; mania for jeans will not threaten our sari, salwar kameez or kurta. It is because business enterprises recognise this evident fact that food items and clothes are multiplying in world-markets to cater to ethnic tastes. Our cultural identities will remain, no matter how much we come in contact with communities that are technologically more advanced.
That is why it is increasingly being recognised that a cross-cultural acquaintance with the social institutions, worldviews, and communication styles of other people are important for persons engaged in business, education, science, medicine or religious work. A recent research conducted by the University of Michigan concluded that the North Americans, the Chinese, and the Japanese look at the same things in different ways. To us in India this does not come as a surprise; we know that a Punjabi, a Bengali, an Andhrite, a Nishi from Arunachal Pradesh a Yadav from Bihar would look at things quite differently.
There are different versions of the same religion in different parts of the world: for example Buddhism in Tibet differs from Buddhism in Thailand and Japan; Christianity in Scotland, Carribean, Romania, SW and NE India; Islam in West Africa, Bosnia, Hyderabad and Indonesia. In the US, Afro-American Christianity, Italian, Hispanic, Irish, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Congregational, Mennonite, Baptist, Mormons; Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Pentecostal; churches holding a mystic and other-worldly understanding of Christianity, and those holding a world-transforming and prophetic understanding of Christianity….all different among themselves (Lott 157).
We in India belong to a country with over 4000 distinct communities. We are being urged forward, pushed around or held back by over 42 political parties that derive strength from regional, caste, ethnic, and cultural loyalties. We swear by western notions of democracy, nationalism, and justice, but interpret them according to our own cultural traditions, e.g. combining democracy with feudal elements of hero-worship, patronage and sycophancy. Many other countries outside the Western world do something similar.
Mass migration of communities has only aggravated the situation of cultural tensions. A recent estimate showed the US as having 35 million immigrants, Russia 13.3 million; followed by Germany, Ukraine, France and India in that order. Pluralism is an inescapable reality today. But handling it is not easy. Countries that speak of multi-culturalism like Great Britain are finding it hard to live out that ideal. The problem is not always with the receiving countries. Immigrants to developed countries, e.g. Algerians and Moroccans in France, Turks in Germany, Pakistanis in Britain, despite their exposure to modern education, can come to adopt more radically fundamentalist attitudes than their ethnic brethren in their own countries of origin. What prods them on is the measure of unfairness they “think they experience” in the land where they have chosen to settle. “Plurality is both treasure and tribulation” (May 3).
Prejudices Thrive
“….depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and (the
Indians), but is common to all nations towards each other” (Alberuni)
Every nation and ethnic group had a negative name for those who did not belong to their community. The Greeks called them ‘barbaroi’, the Romans, ‘barbari’, the Jews ‘gentiles’, the Hindus ‘mlecchas’, the Muslims ‘infidels’, the Christians ‘pagans’, the Mizos ‘vais’, the Manipuris ‘mayangs’, the Khasis ‘dkhars’. The list is endless. ‘The other’ is considered uncivilized, impure, inhuman, unholy, or wicked. Brahminic records have ugly names for lower caste communities: dasyus, asuras, rakshasas, kiratas (for Mongoloid tribes); and the lower castes responded in the same way. For the Communists the ‘oppressors’ form an evil race by themselves. The American presidents called the Soviet Union the ‘Evil Empire’, for George Bush the Al-qaida forms an ‘Axis of Evil’, some are ‘rogue states’. When we hastily classify others as ‘Fundamentalists’ or ‘Terrorists’, without fully studying their background, we make the same mistake. ‘The Other’ has a right to be heard, understood and respected. They are human persons, human societies.
Stereotyping persons who belong to another community is a common mistake. For the Hindus the Muslims are aliens, unreliable neighbours, quarrelsome fellow-travellers. For the Muslims Hindus are hypocrites, dishonest dissemblers, clannish and exploitative people. Christians too have strong prejudices: Catholics against the Protestants, and vice versa; against Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, Muslims, Hindus and others. Alberuni (born in Iran in 973) wrote, “…in all manners and usages, (the Indians) differ from us to such a degree as to frighten their children with us, with our dress, and our ways and customs, and as to declare us to be devil’s breed, and our doings as the very opposite of all that is good and proper. By the bye, we must confess, in order to be just, that a similar depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and (the Indians), but is common to all nations towards each other” (Alberuni 246).
Babur (1495-1530) wrote about India, “Although Hindustan is a country full of natural charm, its inhabitants are ungracious, and dealings with them yield no pleasure, no response and no lasting relationship. Without ability, intelligence or cordiality, they know nothing of generosity or manly feeling. In their ideas as in their work they lack method, staying-power, order and principle. They have neither good horses nor tasty meat: they have no grapes, no melons, and no succulent fruit. There is no ice here, and no fresh water. In the markets one can obtain neither sophisticated food nor even good bread. Baths, candles, torches, chandeliers, schools—none of these is known…Country-dwellers and poor people mostly go naked. The only garment they wear is what they call a langota…..” ( as quoted by Braudel 165).
Negative description of other people can hurt. Mahatma Gandhi called Katherine Mayo’s ‘Mother India’ a drain inspector’s report (Sen 150). On the other hand, what looks like an insensitive remark can become an occasion for intelligent self-criticism, e.g. when Rajiv Gandhi called Kolkata a dying city, or Queen Elizabeth commented on the untidiness of New Delhi. But usually negative comments from outsiders are seldom taken well, even when well-intentioned. Swami Vivekananda reacted strongly to the criticism of early missionaries of Indian beliefs and practices. But such criticism set in motion a series of reforms like those introduced by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. However, in general, criticism of other cultures is not helpful. We shall shortly see how it can lead to actual conflict.
While we may complain about Hindu reaction to Christian criticisms of their traditions, it is interesting to note that the Confucian reaction to Indian Buddhist missionary effort in China was not very different. Han Yu wrote in 819, “..the Buddha was of barbarian origin. His language differed from Chinese speech; his clothes were of a different cut; his mouth did not pronounce the prescribed words of the Former Kings; his body was not clad in garments prescribed by the Former Kings. He did not recognize the relationship between prince and subject, nor the sentiments of father and son ….His (Emperor Wu of the Liang’s) dynasty likewise came to an untimely end. In serving the Buddha he was seeking good fortune, but the disaster that overtook him was only the greater. Viewed in the light of this, it is obvious that the Buddha is not worth serving” (as quoted in Sen 170). Hindutva leaders have similar things to say about religions of foreign origin.
Often it happens that it is the strange and the bizarre, not the great and the beautiful in others, that draws our attention. Amartya Sen complains that the Western interest in India, even when it was sympathetic, was largely confined to the exotic. As, centuries ago, Alexander was eager to listen to the gymnosophists in India, Westerners crowded around Maharishi Yogi or Shri Rajneesh to hear their sermons in our times(Sen 151).
Prejudices live on in Collective Memory
“Memory is not what happened, but what people felt what happened”
(Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm).
History is full of instances of mutual dislikes and exclusion. In medieval Europe, Jews were confined to ghettoes. During the colonial period, there were zones for coloured people in Western towns. In America and Australia, indigenous communities were enclosed in reservations. Gypsies were kept marginalized. The ‘Moriscos’ were deported from Spain to Morocco in 1609 (Wheatcroft 34). South Africa believed in keeping the black people apart. Upper caste Indians kept the lower caste people outside the towns.
We are sensitive to Christian-hate. Of late, Muslim-hate has become widespread. But it has a history. Prejudiced people in Christian Europe referred to them as children of Ismael, anti-Christs, children of Cain (Wheatcroft 5). When the news of the victory of the Catholic forces against the Muslims at Lepanto (1571) reached Europe, even Protestant Germany and England rejoiced. If that indicated Christian solidarity, Islamic solidarity was equally impressive. When Saladin called for a Jihad against Richard II, response came as far away as India (Akbar 266). Prejudices kept growing on both sides. Words like ‘street Arab’ and ‘mad mullah’ that have gone into daily vocabulary witness to the collective prejudice of many communities against Muslims.
In India, Bal Keshav Thackeray, who admired Hitler and spewed venom against all non-Maharashtrians, got the pitches dug up against Pakistani Cricketers, because they were Muslims, and had the paintings of the famous painter M.F.Hussain destroyed. The demolition of the Babri Masjid is fresh in our minds. However, anger can be in many directions. Islamic anger too was violent against ‘Buddhist idolatry’ when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Valley Buddhas in Afghanistan. The story of the twin towers need not be retold.
Historic memories linger on and find their way into textbooks. Mongolians complain that Genghis Khan who is their national hero, and who upheld a code of law that granted religious freedom to all communities, equal rights to all citizens including women, and banned slave trade, has been negatively presented in world history. Most textbooks describe him as a tyrant who killed 40 million people in Asia and Europe. The B.J.P. Government wanted to re-write Indian history showing the minorities in bad light. Pakistani textbooks describe Jews as tight-fisted money-lenders, Christians as vengeful conquerors, Hindus as a devious and cowardly people. In China, more than 20,000 people gathered in Shanghai to protest against Japanese textbooks whitewashing their atrocities of 1935-45. In response, the Japanese foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura criticized Chinese history education. Shiv Sena protested against James Lane’s book ‘Shivaji: Hindu Kingdom in Islamic India’.
History comes to life again from time to time. “History repeats itself, it has to, because nobody listens” (Steve Turner). Slobadan Milosevic of Serbia was waging a holy war inspired by his people’s unhealed memory. The Orthodox Serbian army had been defeated by the Ottoman Turks in Kosovo in 1389. Milosevic had the body of the Serbian king Lazar who had been killed by the Muslims dug up from its 700-year old grave, his exhumed remains carried in a coffin round the land to be buried and resurrected in each place, manufacturing hatred out of a diabolical use of history. Due to the anger arising out of this, more than a 100,000 ethnic minorities were killed. As the Serbs hated the Muslims, they loathed the Croats, who had cooperated with the invading German army during World War II in committing atrocities against the Serbs. The Croatian Tito’s Communist regime had kept the Serbs marginalized. A time came when the pent up anger of the Serbs exploded. In the same way, the Babri Mazjid was destroyed, for the alleged violence of Babur against a Hindu temple centuries earlier. The Sioux Indians have a saying, “Everything we do affects the next seven generations” (2). We know from history that it affects hundreds of generations.
For the Muslims, the rapid advance of early Islam is a matter of great pride. It entered India (Sind) in the same year (711) that it entered Spain (Akbar 146). As it moved south, the kingdom of Vijayanagar put one million soldiers against the Muslim cavalry, but Islam won the day (Braudel 161). As its pride thrives on its historic achievements in the past, its anger feeds on the memory of the battles it lost: the storming of Jerusalem in 1099, the capture of Constantinople in 1453; the surrender of Granada in 1492, the battle of Lepanto in 1517 (Wheatcroft xxx). The destruction the Twin Towers in 2001 has something to do with the accumulated anger built around these earlier events. And this anger grows more intense every day. Yeats once said, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. The history of our times is just that.
We can learn from Others
“I remember, therefore I am” (Milan Kundera)
We live by our historic memories. If they are positive, we develop a positive attitude to the future. Milan Kundera once said, “I remember, therefore I am”. Our collective existence is greatly conditioned by our historic perceptions. Our collective self-esteem has been built up by the positive strokes we have received down the centuries. Visitors to India have left flattering accounts of what they saw here. We have a similar obligation to others. Historians with a positive outlook do a great service. Though Herodotus and Ktesias were (5th cent B.C) not totally free from prejudices, they have left us an interesting account of people who differed from their society. Appolonius of Tyana was considered an early Indian expert in the West (Sen 328).
Nalanda University drew thousands of foreign students to India, people were happy to come and learn here. Megathenes (4th cent) described with keen interest the social situation in the India of Chandragupta Maurya. Fa-Hien (399-414) and Hsuen-Tsang (7th cent) wrote with admiration about what they saw in the land of Buddha. Alberuni wrote in glowing terms about Indian mathematics and science. Marco Polo praised Indians probably beyond their deserts. He said, “They (Indians) would not tell a lie for anything in the world and do not utter a word that is not true” (Latham 250-1). William Jones, the Schlegel brothers, Schelling, Herder, Max Muller, Schopenauer and others felt that the West had something to learn from the East. They attempted to build bridges across civilizations(3). We in turn need to learn from others.
The writings of Fr.Krick, MEP, (+1854) on the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh are considered extremely useful accounts by anthropologists because he wrote with sympathy and interest.
Ideas respect no borders. “Words have wings”, said Homer (Iliad I.1.201). Good things and bad spread alike. French revolutionary ideas crossed borders to neighbouring countries and shook the whole of Europe. Russian revolutionary thought shook the world. Protestantism is fast spreading into Latin America. Pentecostals have successfully made their way into Russia and other impossible places. Christian groups are breaking new ground in China in spite of persecutions. Today with the expansion of the use of the e-mail and the internet, information and ideas move faster. So many ideas are floating today, and there are so many movements that are propagating themselves: related to justice issues, liberation, development, nation-building, anti-globalization, poverty-relief, peace initiative, environment, feminine causes, youth needs, indigenous medicines, vegetarianism. The primal vision of tribal communities, their skills and their practices are a special attraction.
Civilizations on the valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus and Yellow River have been continuously borrowing from each other. Innovations like printing presses and paper currency were first introduced in China, but they found their way to the West. If the West had felt satisfied with itself and had refused to learn from the East during an earlier period of history, it would have stagnated. If, today, the East remains closed in upon itself, it will fall behind. Every society learns from the experience of others, and tries to make its way forward. It was the practice of Aristotle to study carefully everything that was said on a topic before him, criticize ideas he found inadequate, and explore further (Freeman 18). Wise people build on what has already been achieved by others. One society’s progress is not a threat to another. It should not be. “It is time for us to adopt prosper-thy-neighbour policies”, said the Malaysian leader Mahathir in 1994 (Naisbitt 132).
Having undergone the painful experience of foreign domination, we Indians may have developed a negative attitude to other nations, particularly to the stronger ones, e.g. the Western Powers. However, we notice a change of late. India that used to cry to hoarse about a foreign hand and CIA interference gave 71% approval to America in a recent survey. It was only 54% three years earlier. There is growing mutual admiration between the East and the West. The East admires the technological advance that the West has achieved, and the West recognises that the East has something to offer in the spiritual realm and in other areas. American business has been admiring Japanese style of team work, the Chinese emphasis on quality, and Indian skills in Information Technology. Every civilization has something to offer to the others. Benedict XVI said soon after he took over as Pope, “I will spare no effort and commitment to continue the promising dialogue with civilizations”.
Differences wrongly handled can lead to Conflict
The Mahabharata War is said to have lasted only 18 days. But it wiped out entire races.
Differences can offer occasions for mutual borrowing and mutual learning. But people have not always profited by such occasions. Religious differences partitioned India in two, keep Ireland divided, made Timor secede. Cultural differences divided East and West Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Ideological differences broke Korea into North and South Korea. Ethnic differences separated Yugoslavia into a number of different states, broke the Soviet Union in pieces, Assam into different political units. Linguistic differences divided many states of India that were together in earlier times, threaten to break Quebec from Canada. Colour differences kept the Whites and Blacks apart in South Africa.
There are any number of religious conflicts around the world: Indonesia (Muslims and Christians), Philippines (Christians and Muslims), Kashmir (Muslims and Hindus), Gujarat (Hindus and Muslims), Sri Lanka (Buddhists and Hindus), Belfast (Catholics and Protestants), Chechnya (Christians and Muslims). There are strong feelings between Sunnis and Shias. Likewise, there are cases of ethnic conflicts in different places: Israel (Israelis and Arabs), Rwanda (Hutus and Tutsis), Balkans (Serbs and Croatians), Iraq (Arabs and Kurds), Tibet (Tibetans and Han Chinese), Cambodia (Khmers and Vietnamese), Indonesia (Indonesians and Chinese), Manipur (Nagas and Kukis), Haflong (Dimasas and Hmars), Diphu (Karbis and Dimasas). In Russian Ossetia there have been reports of slaughter of children. Among the Ingush people in Chechnya also over 20,000 children are reported killed (Lott 20-21). There are ethnicity related tensions in many other parts of the world even when they stop short of violence: Belgium (Flemish and Waloons), U.K.(English, Welsh, Scots), Spain (Spaniards, Catalans, Basques), Italy (Italians and Tyrolese). The unresolved ethno-racial conflicts related to Khalistan movement led to the Kanishka tragedy. Tens of thousands of Chinese have been killed in Indonesia (Naisbitt 32). Such conflicts can lead to disastrous consequences. The Mahabharata war is said to have lasted only 18 days. But it wiped out entire races.
Other instances of colour-culture-ethnicity-religion related tensions: the French ban on headscarves by Muslim women (Sen 20), Turks harassed in Germany, Algerians in France, Pakistanis in England, Blacks in the US. It is true, many of these countries profess multiculturalism. But the ideal has not always been reflected in their national life. England swears by multiculturalism, but there are frequent instances of violence against people of alien origin. The limit was reached when Lord Tebbit said that one could not be considered settled in England unless one supported the English Cricket team in test matches! (Sen 35). In any case, people have to learn to live together in that country. Even before Asians and Africans crowded into England, English society was a composite society into which the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Romans and Normans had merged. At the same time, we cannot deny that new settlers have their own obligations too. V.S.Naipaul once said, “I think if a man picks himself and comes to a new country, he must meet it half way”. He should know. His people were Indian settlers in Trinidad.
Since demographic changes mean power-shift, they can lead to inter-community problems. Bal Thackeray showed from the telephone directory that the Maharashtrians were nowhere in Mumbai. He breathed fire against aliens. Christian-Muslim tensions have arisen in certain areas due to demographic changes in favour of the Muslims: Lebanon, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Philippines. In spite of the fact that Indonesian Islam is more relaxed in its relationships with other communities, there were problems with Christians in Aceh.
The weak Fight back
The era of wars are not over. Over 50,000 warheads have been produced
since Hiroshima (Alvin Toffler)
Tensions mount when communities feel threatened. Smaller communities are jealous of their identity and their cultural heritage. Anything that seems to threaten their treasured values invites resistance. Open mockery of Jewish customs used to lead to revolts in the Roman Empire (Freeman 76). China has 55 recognised minority communities. Many of them are up in arms against the domination of the Han Chinese, who form 90% of the population: Hui Muslims in Henan Province, numbering about 10 million people, Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, Tibetans, and other minorities in Yunnan province. There are similar rebellions of religious minorities in Uzbekistan, Chechens in Russia, of ethnic minorities in Georgia. The Kurds who form 20% of the population of Iraq refuse to be absorbed into the majority Arab community. Though India is known for its skill in handling diversity, an internal security document indicated that 45% of India is terror prone, e.g. from Naxalites, communal extremists, ethnic minorities.
There are about 400 groups that have a separate identity of their own who are indigenous to North-East India. Many are seeking a separate homeland of their own: greater political autonomy, statehood, or independent sovereign status. Subash Ghisingh has been claiming the provisions of the 6th schedule for Darjeeling area and the recognition of the Nepali language. The Communist Government in Kolkata is totally helpless before this ethnic problem. Their economy-based ideology does not equip them to analyse and address ethnicity-related issues.
Every community is jealous of its identity and its distinct culture. They see red when their culture is threatened. The People’s Revolutionary Army in Manipur announced a ban on Hindi movies. They said these films had a negative influence on indigenous values. The ULFA banned Hindi films in Assam for the same reason, and exploded bombs in cinema-houses. Cable operators in Bhutan boycotted the telecast of some Indian films which, they said, posed a threat to the Kingdom’s culture. Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia too was unhappy about the Indian films for its negative influence. Often minorities express their dissent in the form of a peaceful protest, e.g., when Manipuri women called for a boycott of “India-made” goods. But other times anger explodes into extreme violence. And the Government comes heavily on the dissenters. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Suppression of dissent can take the form of officially sanctioned terrorism. Kashmir and the North-East have seen much of that. “There have been many crimes committed in the name of duty and obedience—many more than in the name of dissent”, said C.P.Snow.
It is true that ambitious politicians fan the flame of discontent based on ethnic and cultural differences in order to retain their leadership over the masses. We can see that such leaders are, in fact, men of limited vision, little acquainted with world affairs. But with their demagoguery and skilful handling of cultural symbolisms, they cast a spell on the masses and hold the party over which they preside to ransom. They become cult-figures. They are the descendents of erstwhile dictators who held their nations in slavery, playing on the emotions of national pride, ideological enthusiasm, cultural loyalty, anti-Westernism, ethnic hatred, or Islamic fundamentalism. Even as they seem to reach their unrealistic goals, they collapse. They are like Napoleon who was defeated at Waterloo three years after his furthest advance to the East; or like Hitler who destroyed himself and his people when he seemed nearest to his goal of world conquest. History repeats itself; it can again. The era of wars is not over. Over 50,000 warheads have been produced since Hiroshima (Toffler 333).
Fanatical Secularism provokes Fundamentalism
Imposing secular solutions on religion-inspired communities is both
‘moral arrogance and political folly’ (T.N.Madan)
When powerful nations today want to impose their worldviews and values on societies that have another experience of history and live by another culture, even the weakest communities rebel (4). Robert Kaplan wrote in the ‘Atlantic Monthly’ (December 1997) that the eagerness to “export democracy” has not been useful: it is not right to put a gun to the head so someone and say, accept democracy, ‘Behave as if you had experienced Western Enlightenment….Behave as if 95% of your population were literate. Behave as if you had no bloody ethnic and regional disputes’ (as quoted by Mahbubani 12). The weaker nations hit back with bomb-explosions, like they did in Madrid and London. They smuggle drugs into threatening nations and try to ruin their youth; they earn foreign exchange by such sales, buy arms, and fight back. Tony Blair said, “The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives of young British people buying their drugs in British streets” (Robinson 179).
The secularist’s exclusion of religion from the public sphere, research, studies, politics, economics, is the main cause of the alienation of believers in the postmodern world. While the secularist condemns ardent believers as exclusivists, he clearly shows himself to be exclusive of other beliefs; he becomes dogmatic about his own secular vision of reality. Indian intellectuals are unconsciously moving in this direction. When the potency of religion for common good is ignored, it turns out to be a denial to humanity of something beneficial, especially when moral considerations are excluded from political judgements (Lott 153). Imposing secular solutions upon religion-inspired communities like Muslims or Hindus is both “moral arrogance and political folly” as T.N. Madan says, and it drives believers into fundamentalism.
Hard secularism imprisons one is sterile homogeneity, seeks to impose a monolithic culture, allows no room for diversity of tastes or views. Their proposal is as harsh as the homogenizing Hindutva philosophy. Experience shows that neither liberal capitalism nor state capitalism in their secularised forms has had any respect for environment, culture or human diversity. “The commercial monoculture of the West has killed classical music, art, literature and philosophy” (Frawley 98). It is gradually being realised that the secular philosophies that propagated the belief in the perfectibility of the human person, unlimited progress and world domination, were too masculine, too deceptive and self-defeating. The capitalist culture, dominant today, that seems to acclaim the freedom of the individual, has enslaved him/her to the interests business corporations; he/she is a victim to the business-controlled media, enticing commercial advertisements, to a dull, passionless, secular faith. The rapidly expanding and enslaving power of the globalized materialistic culture is the main cause of various forms of fundamentalisms arising in Asia today.
India Celebrates Diversity
“In our heterogeneity and in our openness lies our pride, not our
disgrace” (Shashi Taroor)
India is the land of immense diversity. Her “pluralism emerges from its geography, is reflected in its history and is confirmed by its ethnography. Indian culture is therefore by definition a culture of multiplicities, a culture of differences” (Taroor 17). It may be said that India not only tolerates differences, but protects, fosters and celebrates diversity. Visitors are amazed at the number of communities (more 4000 distinct communities ) that live in India. And this diversity extends to religions, languages, cultural practices, dresses, cuisine, levels of economic development. What is most ancient and most modern are to be found in India side by side. Every thought or philosophy that emerges anywhere in the world wins some adherents in India. The Indian society is daily faced not only with multiple realities, but multiple interpretations of these multiple realities.
Someone has said that all Indians belong to one or other of the minority communities. Even if he is a Hindu, he belongs to a caste that forms a minority community within the Hindu fold. Multiplicity is visible from every point of view. Moreover, Indian secularism does not mean an absence of religion, but a profusion of religions. And yet inter-religious and inter-cultural amity has been found possible. Pluralism prospers. Constantine’s goal was to ensure peaceful co-existence between Christians and non-Christians (Freeman 157). Asoka and Akbar tried to promote mutual respect among religious groups and succeeded to a great extent. Edict XII of Asoka said, “For he who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own sect, in reality inflicts, by such conduct, the severest injury on his own sect”.
Variety is a blessing. Americans say “E pluribus unum” (one out of many). Indians could say, “E pluribus plures” (many more out of many): an amazing variety of ethnic groups, castes, faiths, tastes, traditions, ideologies and parties; for some maddeningly chaotic, inefficient, and unpurposeful; for others excitingly various, colourful; a veritable feast of viewpoints. Shashi Taroor says, if America is a melting pot, India is a thali with clearly distinct dishes that provides a satisfying repast (Taroor 107). India can be called a ‘federation of cultures’ (Sen 355). And yet there is a happy harmony.
Whatever is told of India, the opposite is also true. It is said that India oppresses women. It is an undeniable fact. But there were more women involved in India’s freedom struggle than in the Russian or Chinese Revolution. Sarojini Naidu was elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1925, fifty years before Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of a major political party in Britain in 1975 (Sen 6-7). And this did not happen by mere chance. It corresponds to an ancient tradition according to which women took an active part in public debates. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads we read of Gargi discussing with Yajnavalkya and other venerable Brahmins on deep issues of philosophy. The daring of the Rani of Jhansi belies the belief that Indian women are necessarily shy and timid.
Amartya Sen takes enormous pains in his recent ‘The Argumentative Indian’ to establish that it was the long tradition of public argument, interactive reasoning, and toleration of intellectual heterodoxy, that has made democracy take root in India with ease (Sen 12). Contrary to the usual belief that the ancient Indian was an unquestioning believer, he points out that the world’s first agnostic was in India, the one who wondered, “Who knows….Whence this creation has arisen….the one who looks down on it in the highest heaven, only he knows—or perhaps he does not know” (Rig Veda 10:129). This is a 3500 years old doubt! Sen believes that the Indians always had a questioning mind.
Buddhist councils were aimed at settling disputes between the different points of view of loquacious Indians. Asoka laid rules for debates prescribing that the opponents be “duly hounoured in every way on all occasions” (Sen xiii). Akbar invited for public dialogue Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsees, Jains, Jews, and atheists (Sen 18). Tagore and Gandhi admired each other but differed on their understanding of nationalism, patriotism, importance of cultural exchange, the role of rationality and of science, and the nature of economic a social development (Sen 92). Tagore was most unwilling to accept the idea of the ‘spinning wheel’ that Gandhi introduced with missionary zeal.
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Amartya Sen insists that the image of India being steeped in religion has been built up by Orientalists. There are enough atheistic writings in India, e.g. of the Charvakas to disprove this contention, who said “there is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world….it is only a means of livelihood that Brahmins have established here, all the ceremonies of the dead—there is no other fruit anywhere” (Review of Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy, Madhava Acharya, New Delhi, Cosmo Pulbications, 1976, pg.10). In Ramayana, Javali tells Rama, “Follow what is within your experience and do not trouble yourself with what lies beyond the province of human experience” (Ramayana: from the original Valmiki, Calcutta, Rupa, 1989, pf 174-5). Sounds like the argument of a modern secularist!
Hajime Nakamura thinks that defining Asian civilization as merely antithetical to the Western, is a new form of Euro-centrism. And it is often self-imposed: e.g. considering the West as active, rational, secular; and the East as passive, intuitive, offering resistance to change (Nakamura 16-17).
In order to prove that Indians were not mere otherworldly spiritualists, Sen reminds us of Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Vatsyana’s Kamasutra. A vast variety of thoughts found their origin in India. Such diversity is hardly to be found anywhere, whether in the East or in the West. “In our heterogeneity and in our openness lies our pride, not our disgrace” (Sen 138).
The Hindutva drive for Homogeneity Un-Indian
“We cannot surpass contemporary civilization merely by boasting about our civilization” (Ataturk)
If we look at the present Hindutva movement as a mode of self-assertion of the Hindu civilization long overdue, it is to be appreciated. “Development will not occur without the re-assertion of identity: that this is what we are, this is what has made us, this is what we are proud of, this is what we want to be” (Taroor 29). Indeed, there is ample room for legitimate pride in India’s past: e.g.the mathematics of Aryabhata (5th cent), Varahamihira (6th), Brahmagupta (7th). Arabs and Iranians generously acknowledged the Indian contribution to Mathematics and astronomy (Sen 28). Aryabhata’s work, completed in 499 A.D, argued for the diurnal motion of the earth and the force of gravity during rotation (Sen 78). Indian decimal system, reaching Europe through the Arabs, caused a scientific revolution there (Sen 144). The first ever printed book in China in 868 was an Indian book, ‘Diamond Sutra’. With so many things to be proud of, Indians need not adopt the unscientific Hindutva way of re-writing history based on fables and legends, or making untruthful claims for Vedic mathematics, or introducing astrology into the university curriculum. Vivekananda was highly critical of astrology.
The Hindutva drive for an imposed homogeneous culture is totally un-Indian. It is not in our tradition. We do not say that everything was always peaceful between the Hindus and Buddhists, Vaishnavites and Sivites, or other groups. Even the Jain kings could be violent (Lott 140). There were tussles between communities all through Indian history. But that is not the whole story. Buddhists, Jains, agnostics, atheists, and all sorts of heterodox groups flourished in India side by side. Nor is it true that Hinduism was the most important religion during much of our history. We should not forget that the Buddhism was the dominant religion of India for a thousand years. The Chinese for the first millennium referred to India as the ‘Buddhist Kingdom’ (Sen xii). Hindu culture in its broad diversity can give a shared sense of common identity to Indians, because there is infinite variety in the Hindu society itself. In fact, there is no room for fundamentalism in Hinduism, if the word is used with its original meaning: Hinduism has no fundamentals of belief, practice or worship. In Hinduism there is no possibility of apostasy or heresy (Taroor 104).
As we said earlier, Hindutva intolerance of minorities is not in our tradition. Religious freedom is deeply rooted in the Indian heritage. Asoka’s edict called for respect for all religious leaders: Brahmanas and Sramanas. Akbar decreed that “no man should be interfered with on account of religion, anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him” (Smith 257). Amartya Sen finds great satisfaction in reminding us that Akbar was holding inter-religious dialogue in India while Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Rome for heresy in the Campo dei Fiori (Sen 76). In India there was mutual respect and keen interest in each other’s religion, e.g. though Aurangazeb was a bigot, his elder brother Dara Shikoh had learned Sanskrit and studied Hindu philosophy extensively, and had translated Hindu Scriptures into Persian (Sen 66).
We do not deny the Brahminic imposition of barriers and exclusions on different communities after Brahminism asserted itself over Buddhism. Foreign travels were forbidden to caste Hindus, and immigrants were forced to accommodate to the rigidities of the caste-system. Due to Muslim and British domination, this inward-looking attitude strengthened itself further during the last millennium. It was this form of Hinduism that the Orientalists studied whose only source of information were Brahmin scholars and the interpretation of sacred texts and traditions they provided.
Just as Renaissance and Enlightenment awakened the Western society during the previous centuries, exposure to the West brought a new awakening to Indian intellectuals. Some, like the Arya Samaj, stood for caution. Others like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru insisted on a return to the ancient Indian tradition of openness to all that is good. India has benefited to the extent that she has been open.
It is puerile to foster the fear that outside influences, like the Western one today, will weaken the Indian civilizational identity. The ancient Indian society continuously interacted with the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, SE Asia and China. Talent flowed to the Indian subcontinent from every side. Panini (4th cent.), the great Sanskrit grammarian, for example, was an Afghan (Sen 84). Tagore did not think that Indian civilization was so fragile as to break down before Western impact. He wrote, “Therefore it hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that Western education can only injure us” (Sen 119). He thought it was a parochial approach. It is not by boasting about our past that we come to be able to catch up with the present. Ataturk, the Turkish reformer, had said in an earlier age, “We cannot surpass contemporary civilization merely by boasting about our civilization”. That is just what the VHP is trying to do. In fact, it is a sign of inferiority complex.
The Dialogue of Civilizations
“Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly
becomes ours, whatever may be their origin” (Tagore)
In this pluralistic world, time has come for every person and every society in the world to welcome good ideas coming from elsewhere. The ancient Indian had said, “Let noble thoughts come to us from every side” (Rigveda I-89-i ). Mahatma Gandhi echoed the same sentiment when he said, “Let the winds from all over sweep into my room”. But he immediately added that he would refuse to be swept off his feet. While we welcome new trends of thought, we should not lose our identity or fail our heritage. The BJP protesters against the American preacher Benny Hinn in Bangalore and Communist demonstrators against foreign investment banning the sale of Coca Cola in university campuses, may be yielding to a form xenophobia which manifests a lack of confidence in our proud heritage. Tagore once said, “Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, whatever may be their origin”. Indians have always thought so. We have always thought new ideas interesting. “There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or East that is not active in some Indian mind”, said E.P. Thompson.
Cultural interaction even in a world of inequalities, lead to creative innovations. It is not a question, therefore, of the upper caste elite alone providing all the answers. Even the dalits and the tribals have something to teach. In fact, they reflect a more indigenous point of view in the Indian context (5). Abraham Ayrookuzhiel, a pro-dalit writer, suggests that we make the ‘religion-cultural dimension’ of the human experience as the starting point for dalit self-reflection, and that we do not excessively depend on the imported tools of social analysis that bases itself on the economy (Lott 338). Dalit people have been cautious about the hegemonising tendencies in the prevalent Indian Christian theologies produced by high caste communities. Authentic interpretation of the dalit and tribal experience of Christianity too has something valuable to contribute (Lott 348).
In the same way, it is not the Western scientific and philosophic search alone that will give all the wisdom. Asia and Africa also have something to offer. The ‘Great Books of the West’ alone are incomplete. Wisdom of the Asian people, the experience of African societies, the histories and imaginative tales of different nations and civilizations are needed for a complete human self-understanding. And the time is coming for such interactions. “If my intuition is proven right, we will begin to see, for the first time in five hundred years, a two-way flow in the passage of ideas between the East and the West early this century. The world will be a richer place when Western minds stop assuming that Western civilization represents the only civilization” (Mahbubani 9).
Max Weber was sure that the Western rational thought would ultimately triumph all over the world. He felt certain that religion would gradually lose its force. It is enough for us to be present at a Kumbha Mela event, or visit Tirupati or Varanasi to come to the opposite conclusion. Mono-civilizational predictions have no future. Sociological and psychological conclusions arrived at in the context of one civilization should be subjected to the scrutiny of other civilizations before they can be applied. Westerners find it hard to understand why their economic theories do not always seem to apply in Japan. A culture or a civilization can be understood only within its own context.
But this understanding improves through mutual interaction of civilizations, mutual appreciation, criticism and diverse interpretations. Openness enriches. Both an emic ( an insider’s view) and an etic (outsider’s view) view are important. It occasionally happens that we see ourselves better with the eyes of someone else. In the process of interaction we selectively learn from the other. Satyajit Ray used to speak of “critical openness to new ideas”. Everything new need not be welcome. However, diversity offers beauty and wisdom. Amir Khusrau’s (14th cent) prose and poetry drew from Hindu, Muslim and Sufi traditions. From the West today we may learn dignity of labour, efficiency, punctuality, order, discipline, sense of justice and equality, participation, striving for excellence, rather than fashion freaks, music buffs, drugs, irresponsible sex, senseless consumerism.
Western modernity need not the be ideal towards which all the world moves. The Japanese have decided to be modern in a different way. That is why we speak of ‘multiple modernities’: Western, Japanese, Chinese, Islamic and other societies continuously learning from each other what is missing in one’s own tradition. That is how we move on to becoming fully human. Such an effort should not lead to a relativization of values, underestimation of one’s heritage, lack of commitment to the truth to the point of nihilism in thought. Rather, it should be the continuation of the education process. Paul Ricoeur’s recent suggestions to European Union contained meaningful words like ‘multiple readings of tradition’, ‘exchange of memories’, ‘forgiveness’. These concepts are extremely useful for situations of encounter of civilizations that were in collision….. now in dialogue. Carl Gustav Jung used to say, “We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself”. We need to explore ‘multiple interpretations of human nature’, ‘multiple understanding of the human situation’, ‘healing of collective memories’, and ‘forgiveness’. “When you freely meet the other, the demon in the other disappears. You begin discovering yourself in the other”.
In these efforts, two kinds of conclusions are not helpful: a) Sociological, philosophical or theological conclusions that arise from the sense of guilt of the West for its colonial past, or those that reflect the its present attitude of dominance, b) those conclusions that arise from the unhealed memories of people in the ex-colonies, i.e. of those who suffer excessively from post-colonial complexes and live on grievances. Their conclusions are not likely to correspond to precise reality. There is bound to be a blind spot somewhere. They can only be partially objective. Such conclusions need to be sifted and re-interpreted before they can be found useful for actual life. Objectivity can spring only from serene reflection, with an enormous amount of confidence in one’s own heritage, and respect for ‘the other’, with no guilt feelings on the one hand, nor grievances or anger on the other.
The wrong way of responding to pluralism is to reach arbitrary conclusions like: all are right, everything is OK, truth is relative, there is no possibility of attaining the truth. Thus Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s prediction comes true, “Since there is no confidence in truth, the place of truth is usurped by sophistic propaganda. Since there is no confidence in justice, whatever is useful is declared to be just” (Bonhoeffer 107-8).
Religious Pluralism
“Religions have much to gain from conversation with each other”
(Gillis)
Harvard’s Wilfred Cantwell Smith has argued that to be fully religious today means being inter-religious. He feels that there is a ‘global continuum’ of religious histories, incorporating others’ vision of realities (Lott 171). However, the respect due to other religions does not oblige us to hold that all religions are the same. In fact there are as many differences between the central teachings of different religions as there are similarities. For every believer, his own religion is unique. It is most legitimate to believe so (6). It is for the secular student of comparative religion that all religions are just the same, for a firm believer they are not so. Our profound respect for other religious persuasions does not prevent us from challenging what we find dehumanising or inauthentic in any tradition, e.g. sati, caste-unfairness, exploitation, gender inequality, debasing relationships, superstition. It is an extension of challenging what is inauthentic in our own.
But there is a way of exercising this prophetic mission. The most effective one is not self-righteous denunciation of the other, whether ‘the other’ is a person of another religion, ideology, worldview, or class. We exercise our prophetic ministry best when we get people to think, when we help them like a friend and a fellow-traveller ( not as though dealing with a foe or acting as a self-appointed judge) to take note of an evil present in their society, and join hands together with them in trying to uproot that evil, or, similarly, launch a remedial action together with them. That is what a genuine missionary would try to do. It may be more of an Asian way of doing things. Mahatma Gandhi reveals to us by his example the power of sturdy but respectful ‘intellectual dissent’. Only gradually did the British begin to understand the potency of an ‘intellectual dissent’ in a brahminic society. The non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements that the Indian National Congress launched were more powerful than the American War of Independence, with no loss of lives. Mao was intelligent enough to understand that the resistance of the harmless god-king (Dalai Lama) was mightier than that of armed Tibetan insurgents.
Some anthropologists have suggested that the aggressiveness to be found in modern prophetism among Christian social activists is an expression of the ‘Semitic’ instinct in the community of Christian believers. We need not indulge in such forms of anti-Semitism. But if we wish to search for the most fruitful way of exercising our prophetic ministry today, we may find from experience that it consists in moving to the core concerns of our religious faith and living out with absolute sincerity our deepest convictions according to the most authentic values of our own religious tradition. It is in this context that interactions with other traditions, e.g. cooperation for common good, dialogue, borrowing of valuable elements, and sharing with all zeal what we consider most precious in our heritage and ‘the other’ considers the most acceptable, become useful. There is something wanting in the way each religion is lived out. Mutual interaction will suggest possibilities of mutual enrichment. “Religions have much to gain from conversation with each other…..For our own enrichment and growth, as well as for the promotion of others and all of humanity, we need each other. Religions must strive for mutual understanding and cooperation” (Gillis 173).
Growing in esteem for each other
Those who believe in the clash of civilizations will wonder why Muslim
Bangladesh chose Hindu Tagore’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ as their
National anthem (Amartya Sen )
The motto of India is ‘Satyam Eva Jayate”. But we know from experience that the search for truth calls for intense effort. When we are truly interested, we study a topic from every point of view, even from the point of the opponent. Irenaeus was eager to know what the adversary thought. John Paul II, as a young man, was eager to know what the opponent taught. He read Marx with interest. The Bhagavadgita encourages intense effort, even when the results seem out of reach; it shows the path of intellectual discussion even in the field of action.
Other points of view are fast emerging in the world than we were used to. Voices that we had never heard before are beginning to speak up. The voiceless are acquiring voice. There is an interesting instance not long ago. Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling ‘Gone with the Wind’ had romanticised the White plantations in the South of the United States. Alice Randall wanted to write a sequel to the story from the perspective of the enslaved Blacks who made the planters’ prosperity possible. The manuscript had for its name ‘The Wind done gone’. The publication was halted only at the final stage by the Federal Court. But it was good for the White Americans to know that there was another way of looking at the Black-White encounter. Nevertheless, hate ought to be conquered. Churchill wrote to Nehru after India had won Independence, “You, sir, have conquered two great human infirmities; you have conquered fear and you have conquered hate”. May be India has done that. That was why it was possible for Manmohan to compliment the British during his recent visit to Oxford. Compromise too is possible. Mahatma Gandhi used to speak of the ‘beauty of compromise’. That is what made Ariel Sharon to decide to pull out 8000 Israelis from Gaza strip.
There have been proposals to re-write the Ramayana from Sita’s or Ravana’s point of view, Indian history from the purely the Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim point of view. If the story of World War II were to be written from the German or Japanese point of view, it would differ a great deal from Churchill’s account. Everyone has a right to be heard. Everyone is free to speak up in all fairness. We are all free to listen with “critical openness”. We can change our understanding and our attitudes too. Genuine conversions can take place. There have been some impressive conversions of late: that of Michael Gorbachev from Soviet totalitarianism to Perestroika, of Deng Xiaoping from Communism to Chinese form of capitalism, of Manmohan Singh from planned economy to free enterprise, of Buddhadev Bhattacharjee from Marxism to search for private capital, of L.K.Advani from an anti-Muslim stance to admiration for Jinnah, of India from being anti-American (CIA, foreign hand) to pro-American. “Conversion”, then, need not be a disaster, as the Hindutva leaders argue. That is one way in which we exercise our mind and make our options.
In one of the early chapters of our national history there is the account of a conversion that changed the direction of our civilization. It took place after the Kalinga war which had carried away a 100,000 lives, when Asoka opted for the teaching of the mendicant from Kapilavastu. The carpenter’s son, Jesus of Nazareth may also have a useful message for this civilization.
Prince Shotuku of Japan introduced a liberal constitution in 604 A.D. He said, “nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and each heart has its own leanings. Their right is over wrong, and our right is their wrong” (Moore 144). We need to discuss, debate and learn. Heraclitus considered only that city harmonious where there was constant activity and debate. Kalidasa’s Meghadut (5th cent) moved across the subcontinent admiring the beauty and variety of human customs and behaviour. Variety is not a threat, but an enrichment. Those who believe in the clash of civilizations will wonder why Muslim Bangladesh chose Hindu Tagore’s ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ as their national anthem (Sen 90). Tagore said his family was the product of the confluence of Hindu, Muslim and British cultures.
There is need of an internal openness as an external openness. Sometimes we remain closed to ideas that arise from within our own tradition. For example, there are instances in which Hindu artists’ paintings were attacked by Hindu mobs, Sikh playwrights were threatened by Sikh violence, Muslim novelists and film-makers were menaced by Islamic fanatics. There must be internal attention to each other as well. Criticism from within can lead to self-correction. So a Catholic must listen to a Catholic, a Christian to a Christian, an Indian to another Indian, a democrat to a democrat, as we listen to multiple voices of cultures, civilizations, philosophies, ideologies, and new perspectives.
In April 2005 some 100 Asian and African leaders met at Jakarta and signed a ‘Strategic Partnership’, intending to promote a dialogue of civilizations, peace, respect for religion, culture, languages, racial diversities and gender equality. In the 1950’s Lester Pearson, the Canadian Foreign Minister looked forward to “an age when different civilizations will have to learn to live side by side in peaceful interchange, studying each other’s history and ideals, mutually enriching each others’ lives”
The Search for Abiding Truth
“What should I do with that, by which I do not become immortal?”
Upanishads
Humanity is in search of that truth that is complete and permanent. Aristotle wrote, “The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another way easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed” (Aistotle 30-34).
There have always been an amazing number for truth-seekers this side of the Himalayas. For them, partial answers and transitory achievements did not matter much. They looked on the glamorous and the pompous as trifling things. Alexander asked a group of Jain philosophers why they were paying so little attention to him. This was the reply that he received, “King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the earth’s surface as this we are standing on. You are but human like the rest of us, save that you are always busy and up to no good, travelling so many miles from your home, a nuisance to yourself and to others! …..You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of the earth as will suffice to bury you” (As quoted by Sen 15)
There is a harassing question that tormented the restless minds of millions of truth-seekers in the ancient land of Bharatavarsha. Yajnavalkya’s learned wife phrases the question in this manner, “What should I do with that, by which I do not become immortal?” She was referring to wealth. Amartya Sen says it was this question that set him thinking of not relying only on the GNP and GDP in judging development. He pointed out that there was also the human development to be taken care of. It was for this emphasis that he won the Nobel prize. That ‘human’ dimension is concerned with what is immortal. It is concerned with the truth that abides.
The Indian mind is forever searching. Its thirst for truth is insatiable. Our advance in the Knowledge Industry is merely an external expression of this undying eagerness. May our search move on and on, until it attains Eternal Truth. For, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth”.(Jn 16:13).
The one who seeks to witness to this Truth knows that he / she is responding to a millennial longing. There is no greater motivation than this awareness.
Footnotes
(1) A 19th century English man described a nation as a group of people united in a common lie as to their origin and common hostility to outsiders”—Hassner 250).
(2) V.S.Sukthankar said, “The Mahabharata is the context of our collective unconscious. …We must therefore grasp this book with both hands and face it squarely. Then we shall recognise that it is our past which has prolonged itself into the present. We are it……..Mahabharata is referred to when compromises are made, shady deals struck, promises dishonoured, battles fought, disasters lamented” (Shashi Taroor 19).
(3) Herodotus said the Persian emperor Xerxes was defeated in Greece in 480, because he tried to build a bridge across the Hellespont in defiance of natural order (Freeman 22)! However, what we need today are people who can build bridges across, civilizations, cultures, ideologies, political interests and religious persuasions.
(4) The US that is speaking of “level playing fields” imposes 3000 tariffs and quotas from sweaters, sneakers, ice cream, and orange juice. So does the European Union (Toffler 268).
(5) According to a study conducted by the University of Utah, the lower caste Indians are more Asian than those of higher castes. Michael Bamstad argues that the upper caste Indian male is closer to Europeans than the lower castes. The genetic distance is closest between Europeans and Brahmins (0.1), followed by Kshatriyas (0.12), and Vaishyas (0.16).
(6) Chester Gillis in his “Pluralism: A New Paradigm for Theology” (Peeters Press, Louvain) says, “No matter what formulation inclusivism takes, and there are many, it always concludes with Christ as the universal and only saviour, coopting all independent forms of salvation. This, in my judgement, constitutes a form of imperialism, because it imposes Christ as saviour on all persons regardless of their own beliefs about salvation or their own religious tradition” (Gillis 21). A statement like this calls for some reflection. Certainly if one follows up one’s conviction that Christ is the only saviour of humankind by getting the belief imposed by coercion or deception on others who do not share the same belief, we can see the point of the author. But if it is presented as a proposal which may be voluntarily accepted or rejected, one does see where the dimension of imperialism is found. My firm conviction that democracy is the best form of government does not make it an imperialistic notion. But if I were to get it imposed on people through military intervention, the matter would be different. Instances of getting concepts of democracy and human rights thrust down the throats of sovereign nations are not wanting. But that is another matter.
References
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Aristotle, Metaphysics II, 1 993a30-34, trans. W.D.Ross
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, ed., Bethge E, London and Glasgow, 1955
Akbar, M.J., The Shade of Swords, Roli Books, New Delhi 2002
Braudel, Fernand, A History of Civilizations, Penguin Books, London, 1995
Dotolo, Carmelo, Pluralismo e Missione, Urbaniana University Press, Roma, 2005
Frawley, David, Hinduism and the Clash of civilizations, Voice of India, New Delhi, 2002
Freeman, Charles, The Closing of the Western Mind, Pimlico, London, 2003
Gillis, Chester, Pluralism: A Paradigm for Theology, Peeters Press, Louvain,
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