Hindu Rashtra & Liberalism.
A political Science teacher in a Delhi college, Rajshree Chandra, in an article, ‘Saffron Blind’, in the Indian Express, argues that Hindutva and liberalism are incompatible. It is a rebuttal of another article, Developmental Hindutva by Sanjay Baru a few days ago.
It is most unfortunate that our academia is ignorant of Indian tradition of not just of tolerance but respect for other faiths and ideas. This tradition was well-explained by Swami Vivekananda in his speech in Chicago more than 100 years ago. He mentioned that Hindus believe that all roads (faiths) to the same goal (God), all rivers go to the ocean and all prayers go to the same God who is called by different names by different people ( Ekam sat bahuda vadanti, say Upanishads). Swami also mentions that Hindus have provided refuge to all persecuted people of the world - Jews, Parsees, and in Independent India. to the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism.
Pluralism and tolerance have been the hallmark of Hindu Civilization. They are also the values of democracy - liberty, equality and fraternity. Debates, discussions and disputations were part of all part of Hindu discourse - Upanishads, for example. Many centuries before Greek civilization. This fact has not found a place in the book, Argumentative Indians by Amartya Sen, not by accident.
Mahatma Gandhi envisaged Ram Raj, a civilised life for all Indians in an Independent India. His concept of Sarvodaya ( welfare of all) and the concept of ‘Antyodaya’ ( reaching out to the last man) that Deen Dayal Upadhyaya proposed are based on the eternal values of Truth and Reverence for Life. This is based on ‘ekatmatawad’ - we are all one. The whole universe is pervaded by the Supreme Being which manifests in many forms and many shapes.
In our schools, colleges and universities, Indian literature on polity ( Shanti Parva in Mahabharata), Arthashastra ( Economics of the state) and many other sources have no place.The colonial mind-set formed by the British goes on which only highlights the British and the European theory and practise. This has been called Orientalism by Edward Said in his book with the same title. Orientalism is looking at the orient - Arab World, Hindu World - from the European lense. The West sets the standards, the West interprets our scriptures, and the West judges. In India, Western colonial mind-set has been supplemented by the Communist nihilism - both want all countries to follow the Western model of development. Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation has contributed immensely to highlight the Hindu civilizational perspective in his book, Being Different, which challenges the western construct of India.
Indians have been slaves for centuries but now we are a free nation. But the slavish mentality persists even after 70 years of freedom. Now the time has come to break the chains of mental slavery. A civilization which contributed the concept of zero and numerals, astronomy, architecture, art, science has to rediscover its soul - its innovative self. Somewhere in our history we lost the spring of creativity which sustained us all these centuries. We have become the pale imitators of the west - in art, architecture, books, films. We are good in re-engineering, we can do generic drugs cheaply, we can send our man-power to slog in the deserts of Arabia, What a fall, my countrymen ?
April, 27,2017.
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