DIPLOMATIC LEADERS AND DIFFERING DOCTRINES

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 DIPLOMATIC LEADERS  AND  DIFFERING DOCTRINES

We normally expect people in authority to speak the truth, and stick to facts, especially in serious matters. Opinions do differ- educated people hardly agree on anything these days. But they are not expected to whitewash facts. Yet this is what Obama's White House has done, not for the first time.

On 14 February 2015, the Islamic State beheaded 21 Coptic Christians of Egypt in Libya. The White House issued an official statement on 15 February. While it condemned the unrestrained barbarity, it did not reveal  the reason  given by the killers. - that the victims were Christians!   But there is nothing to be surprised about here: America and the entire West are multicultural societies and the leaders have to be diplomatic, whatever people may think.Truth is often the casualty of diplomacy.

Most of us Indians have been led to believe that all religions are true, that all religions are equal, that we reach the same goal in the end. They take the name of Sri Ramakrishna, Mahatma Gandhi etc in support. What they don't realise is that Saints like Sri Ramakrishna lived at a different level of consciousness. He felt gold and a clod of earth were the same. He saw divinity even in a prostitute.Unless we reach that level, there is no sense in our repeating what he said in these matters. While the ultimate goal may be the same, it is a matter of personal experience, not its verbal expression.

 Our Veda says that 'Truth is one, but sages call it by various names.' But other religions of the world do not accept that.The Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam) believe that there is only one God, which is their God, and that there is only one way to reach him, which is their way. This surely is not the Hindu view or way.

If we study the major religions of the world, we notice major differences in their approach.

 Christianity believes that man is born in sin. Their solution is 'Salvation', which is possible only through Christ. There is no scope for any argument. And they quote Christ as saying that he is the truth and he is the way. So, the people of the world have to be converted to the way of Christ. Which is what they have been doing for the last 2000 years.

Islam believes that man's problem is pride and the solution is submission. The very word Islam means submission to the will of God. But the will of God is what the Prophet Mohammad had revealed. Those who do not believe in their God and their prophet are infidels-kaffirs- and they have to be converted. This is official Islamic doctrine. And they have been enforcing this on other people for the last 1400 years.

Buddism believes that the major problem of mankind is suffering- dukhkha- and the solution is Awakening through right knowledge and right conduct. The Buddha is there to help people on the path- he has refused Nirvana till the last sentient being in the world gets it!

The Buddha departing from the palace, renouncing the life of luxury!
Gandhara art, 1-2nd Century. Guimet Museum
"The Great Departure" Licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Judaism believes that they were the chosen people of God but they have been exiled. So they have to return to God. They are still awaiting their prophet to achieve this. Since they are alone the chosen people, they do not believe in admitting others into their charmed circle- they do not believe in conversion.

Jews praying in Synagogue on Yom Kippur
Maurycy Gottlieb. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.


Confucianism believes that the world is in a state of chaos. The solution is to restore social order.

Seated Confucius, from Japan.
By John Hill (Own Work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 http::// Creative Commons  Wikimedia.

As against all this, Hinduism believes that man suffers from Ignorance- forgetfulness of his own real,divine nature. Right knowledge alone can remove this ignorance, as light alone can remove darkness. So we speak of Enlightenment- Liberation from ignorance and all associated problems. We say Ego is the problem leading to ignorance and ego has to be worked out through  right works, right consciousness , right inquiry and knowledge , or devotion  or any combination of any or all of these. God may be worshipped in any form, any name; we may believe any philosophy, any theology. What matters is removal of Ignorance-Ajnana. The greatest and most universal, non-denominational prayer of the Hindus- the Gayatri- just prayers for Enlightenment! No claptrap, no doctrine, no theology!

We can thus easily see that all religions are not equal in what they perceive as the human problem or what they prescribe for the solution. Ramakrishna used to say that we can enter a house either through the main door or through the rear door. 

We Hindus have no problem with any one following any path. We never preach to others or seek to convert any one. We sincerely respect all religions,and venerate all saints and sages. But the religious problem in the world was  first created by the Christians  and then by the Muslims. Today, the whole world is engulfed by this Christian -Islamic conflagration.

Christians started as a splinter group of Jews. For three hundred years, they operated mainly as small, secret groups. They claimed they were persecuted by the Romans but this is not true or is highly exaggerated. The Roman empire gave the fullest freedom to all religious groups, so long as the official Roman religion was not denigrated or dishonoured . The problem with Christianity was that they could not tolerate others, and would not coexist peacefully with others. But in the 4th century, Christianity was accepted and then they started persecuting others. They eliminated all the old religions, calling them Pagan. Then it became the State religion, enjoying enormous wealth and power. It was challenged later by the rising, militant Islam and the two have been uneasy with each other. In course of time, they splintered into different groups and they quarrelled among themselves, sometimes violently. For instancce, the Catholics of France massacred Waldensians, another sect of Christians, in 1545 and 1655, by simply pushing them off rocks. Milton wrote about it in his sonnet On the Massacre at Piedmont:

Avenge,O Lord......
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with Infant down the Rocks.

And we have an old painting depicting this very scene:

Massacre of Waldensians at Merindol, 1545.
19th Century painting by Gustave Dore
Public Domain. Wikimedia commons.

If philosophers like Marx reacted angrily against organised religion, calling it the opium of the people, it is understandable in the light of such incidents. We in India who have never known such persecutions  on religious grounds, before the Muslim invasions, can hardly realise the tragedy of such violence within the same religion.


Note: 
The following books may be seen in this connection:
1. Candida Moss: The Myth of Persecution: HarperOne 2014.
2.James McDonald: Beyond Belief. Ithaca Press,2009.

Following Renaissance and Enlightenment, Humanism has replaced religion as the guiding principle of societies, and the Church has been separated from the State. Most Western govts designate themselves as 'secular' in the sense that they do not follow any authorised religion. People are free to follow any religion or no religion at all, so long as the civil laws are kept.

During the Enlightenment period, Christian dogma became thoroughly discredited in the eyes of educated people as its beliefs were disproved and discredited by science. This position continues even today. More and more educated people leave organised Christianity. They may believe in God or Some Ultimate principle, but not in organised church and its dogma. They call themselves 'spiritual  but not religious'. The number of people not owing allegiance to any religion is the third largest group in the world today- about 1.1 billion= 110 crores!- 16% of the world population.

Islam has so far resisted all attempts at modernisation.They are faithful to their Book. Almost all Muslim states are theocratic. Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk tried to modernise (ie Westernise and secularise) itself and he abolished the Caliphate.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk- president of Turkey: 1923-1938

Turkey has been a strategic point between Asia and Europe., having been part of Alexander's, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. It was the seizure of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 that led to the scramble among the European powers to find a sea route to India, eventually leading to the colonisation of America and India! 

A Greek painting showing the battle inside Constantinople.

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Turkey also harboured more than 10 races and big ethnic groups and many smaller ones from ancient times. But over the years, diversity has been reduced due to the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey and emigration of other ethnic groups. Turkey is surrounded by 8 countries! Between 1914 and 1927, non-Muslims declined from 19% to 2.5% of population and today, 99.8% of the population are Muslim! There is therefore tremendous pressure against secular claims.. On the one hand, Turkey is trying to get integrated into the European Union; on the other, it has to cater to its Muslim majority! This shows how difficult it is for a Muslim country to be 'secular'. The ban on the 'hijab' was removed between 2009 and 2014!

Hagia Sophia:  Christian Cathedral built by Roman Emperor Justinian in 537, it was converted into a Mosque in 1453, and today it is a Museum.
By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada (Turkey 3019-Hagia Sophia uploaded by russavia CCBy-SA 2.0 Creative Commons.via Wikimedia Commons.

Islam enforces uniform Arabisation on all followers.. But the Middle East, like the Balkans, is home to numerous ethnic, religious and cultural groups all of which are not absorbed comfortably by the ethnic or religious majority. This is the reason behind the present violent conflicts in the Muslim countries and ethnic minorities are emigrating across borders. We thus see the wisdom in the observation of Toynbee that more than national boundaries, it is ethnic-cultural-religious factors which are potential forces in civilisations. Political borders may change, but the cultural compact does not disappear except under genocide. The European powers always sided with the majority and let the minorities suffer.

Female Hijab in Islam. We cannot deny that it adds a certain dignity to women. Whether modern women themselves view it like that is a different matter.

It is here that India stands out: it has never interfered with or curtailed or erased the identity of any group in any manner. As Vivekananda pointed out, we can see everything from the grossest fetishism to the loftiest Vedanta in this land, all existing side by side!.

Balkans - another area of ethnic-religious conflict

Even in Europe, where the Christian Church extinguished  all old religions, they are making a come back- even in the very name of Paganism which has many modern adherents!

A modern Pagan beating a drum during a ceremony in England.

From: www.bpnews. Thanks.

God has not abandoned any people anywhere on earth. The whole earth is a great garden with infinite array of flowers and plants. Why should any one seek to make it a farm of monoculture- or land of one religion?  Even Christ reportedly said that " In my Father's house are many mansions". (John 14.2) Non-Christians and some Christians take it to imply the presence of many religions, most Christians do not accept that interpretation!

NOTE:

It cannot be stressed too strongly or too often that Hindus have no problem with any religion. In their long history, they have welcomed and given shelter to people of all religions. Their scriptures do not ask them to hate or convert others. They have never fought to force their religion on others. The problem of  conversion is due to the Abrahamic. Those who claim a right to convert, cannot deny the right of resistance to the targeted group!

. ARE HINDU MUTTS RELEVANT?

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 ARE HINDU MUTTS RELEVANT?

Every sect of Hindus has its own Mutts, presided over by a Pontiff or Acharya. Their main job is to keep the flame of knowledge and practice of their traditions alive.  Our Hindu system is such that none of them has the power to alter anything, so they keep repeating the old teaching and assume everything is just fine. 

Mutts and modern times

If one observes carefully, thinks deeply and reflects honestly,  one cannot fail to notice that  traditional practices have been given up substantially-  Consider for instance:

•  Upanayanam is not performed at the right age and it is not followed by Vedic learning. Middle and upper class children, who attend regular schools, have no exposure to Vedic learning at all. 
• Marriage is not conducted at the right age, especially for girls
• The marriage ceremony is conducted routinely, perfunctorily and  all ceremonies compressed into about 3 hours.There is much ostentation not connected to the religious injunctions.
• Married people do not follow the so called grihasta dharma.
• Girls routinely take up jobs and careers after education, married or not.
• Brahmin youngsters routinely go abroad for job, if they can.
• Youngsters after marriage do not live with parents, not do they take care of them in old age; in some cases, they  may be useful as baby-sitters; otherwise they are not an integral part of the family.
• Youngsters, boys or girls, do not even wear traditional Hindu dress, even at home.

I am keeping mainly Brahmin families in mind, as it is they who mainly claim to follow the Mutts..

All these are against the traditional instructions. Kanchi Paramacharya was the last big Acharya to talk about these matters openly, but even he gave up such talks after he gave up administration of the Mutt.  Mutts have been unable  improve matters.

My purpose here is not to imply that people are wrong. It is just to show that the spirit of the times has overpowered and overtaken us. A time has come when it is impossible for a Brahmin to live  in the prescribed way. For example, he has to take up jobs or occupations which are not proper for him, if one goes strictly by the sastra. Role of women in  families is fast changing.

Times have changed, but not the sastra; in our system, the sastra cannot change! So, the Mutts are powerless: the cat has closed its eyes ! They simply have to acquiesce. This is a problem faced by all traditional religious organisations like the Catholic Church in a fast-changing social milieu.I have friends from pious Catholic families who too feel the change of times. They say attending the 'mass' does not have the same effect on them as it did say, 20 years ago.

It is not that Hinduism has not understood or anticipated this and prescribed a solution. It is just that the traditional Mutts have not integrated it in their teaching.

Muslim Rule and the Mutts

 Kashi Vishvanath Temple destroyed and converted into a mosque 

The big change in India occurred after the Muslim invasion, when the small , independent Hindu kingdoms in Rajasthan , Punjab, Kannauj, etc fell . Though the Muslims could not conquer and hold all of India at any one time, they did establish pockets of power and under the Mughals controlled most of India. Lot of conversions took place during the Muslim rule. What could the Mutts do in those times? 

Kutub Minar was constructed out of materials from  destroyed Hindu and Jain temples from Pithorgadh, the capital of Prithviraj Chauhan, the last Hindu king of Delhi.

Pictures taken from various Web sites.

Vidyaranya, the Pontiff of the Sringeri Mutt was instrumental in the establishment of Vijaynagar kingdom, which stemmed the further expansion of the Muslim rule in the South for two centuries; after its fall to the Deccan Muslims, Maratha power rose for another century and a half; when it fell, power passed on to the British. During the Muslim rule, all the areas in which our Mutts were operating were under Muslim rule! In fact, the Kanchi Mutt had to shift from Kanchi, where it was not safe under the Nawabs of Arcot, and had to go to Kumbakonam, under the limited protection of the Tanjore kings. So, the orthodox Mutts could not do much for the people, when they were themselves fighting for their existence! The greatest disconnect happened between the common people and Hindu religious leaders at this time. 

Saints Takeover!

But God did not abandon us. Almost right from the days of Muslim invasion, Saints started appearing all over the country especially where Muslim rule was intense and protected the Hindus- especially the common man!. Just see the names and areas of the saints!

Jnaneswar                  1275 -1296        Maratha

Namdev                     1270- 1350

Ramanand                  1299 -1410

Narsinh Mehta            1414- 1481

Purandaradasa           1484- 1564

ChaitanyaMahaprabhu 1486 -1534

Mira Bai                      1498 -1557

Tulsidas                      1497 -1623

Tukaram                     1577 - 1650

Samartha Ramdas        1609 -1681

Bhadrachala Ramdas     1620 -1680

Sadashiva Brahmendra  17th Century

Bodhendra                        d.1692

Sridhara Ayyaval            1635-1720

Narayaana Tirtha            1650-1745

Sri Tyagaraja                  1767-1847

There have been many others like Jayadeva, Pothana, Vemana, Arunagirinatha,etc. I have not taken into account the earlier Saivite and Vaishnavite saints. I have concentrated mainly on the Mulsim period to show how it is these saints,  not connected with any mutts who helped the common man face the conditions  of  Muslim rule.  It will be interesting to know, from their records,what the Mutts did during this period. We simply do not know.

3 Factors saving Hindus

I want to point out 3 important factors which saved Hindus then in the South.

1. The work of the Madhwa  Saints/Acharyas.

2  The work of Samartha Ramdas

3. The work of Bodhendra.

During the period when Muslim rule was disrupting the Hindu dharma, several Saints/Acharyas appeared in the Deccan region. They went round the country and spread Bhakti among the common people through Sankirtana. 

 Sri Vyasarajatirtha
From www,veethi.com

Vyasaraja(1460-1539) the Madhwa seer was close to Krishnadeva Raya (1471-1529). He travelled the country and installed 732 images of Hanuman in the South ( the present states of Andhra, Telengana, Karnataka and Tamil Nad) for the common people to rally round and worship. It may be noted that Hanuman is the darling of all sects of Hindus, and his worship is simple. He entrusted many of these images to the care of non-Brahmins. Thus he found an effective way of uniting people! Why 732? There are some theories, but they are not relevant. Vyasaraya was the guru of Purandaradasa.

Two views of the Hanuman image installed by Vyasatirtha Maharaj.

 

All the images installed by him are of the same type.

By YonMan 33 (Own Work)
CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons.
Most educated Indians today do not have an idea how Vijayanagar empire saved South India from the kind of ravages that the North suffered. But Vijaynagar fell, in 1565 in saving the South.

After the fall of Vijaynagar, the Muslim power intensified. But then rose the Marathas, who under Shivaji checked the Mughals. 

The Marathas flourished from 1674 to 1818.At its peak, it controlled most of India (the yellow portion in the map) The others in the south and other areas were their vassals.

The linguistic states in India have made people totally ignorant of what Vijaynagar and Maratha empires contributed to saving Hinduism from the Muslim rulers. By the time Marathas fell, the English had taken over. Thereafter, the threat to Hinduism was more subtle and indirect,but even more pervasive and powerful than before, the effects of which we still suffer!

The power behind Shivaji (1627-1680)  was Samartha Ramadas (1608-1681). Before Shivaji rose to power, the Muslim rulers had not only destroyed Hindu temples, but also stipulated that no new temples should be built or renovated. Samartha Ramdas outwitted them by establishing his Bhajan centres where he installed Rama and Hanuman and this movement caught on among the common people who rallied behind Shivaji in establishing Swaraj.

Samartha Ramdas Maharaj

Lord Hanuman installed by Samartha Ramdas at Varanasi.

BY Kalyandasdomgaon (Own Work)

CC BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons.

Is there any special reason why Hanuman was chosen by Vyasaraja, a Madhwa saint, and Samartha Ramdas, an Advaita saint? Well , it is that our God is one- it is foolish people who imagine differences! If God does not unite us, is he God, and who else will? Hanuman is dear to all of us! Hanuman symbolises victory over all odds, all obstacles! Both these saints advocated simple devotion for the common man.

This is also what Sri Bodhendra, the 59th pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt (1638-1692) stressed. He had travelled in the North and saw the suffering of Hindus under Muslim rule. He found that it was becoming impossible to observe all the sastric injunctions. But being a Pontiff of a Mutt, he could not take liberties. So he studied our Sastras thoroughly and found out that the Sastras themselves had anticipated the hard days in the Kaliyuga, and prescribed a remedy: that was to chant the names of God.As the popular saying goes:

 Kali kalmasha chittanaam

 Paapadravya jeevinaam

 Vidhi karma viheenaanaam

 Gati: Govinda Kirtanam.

In the Kali age, people's minds are polluted, their means of livelihood are tainted, their rituals do not follow Sastric injunctions; the only way is to chant the names of the Lord (Govinda). 

Sri Bodhendra

Though he was the pontiff of the Mutt, he spent his days in spreading Nama siddhanta, and laid a strong theoretical foundation by writing authoritative texts based entirely on our Scriptures, right from the Veda onwards.

Thus we see that in the days of Muslim trouble, it is not the regular Mutts which helped the people in general, but only the  saints who advocated devotion, not rituals!

Mutts ineffective during British rule

As I have shown earlier, the British approach to destroy Hinduism was subtle and cunning: through administration, education and encouragement to the Christian missionary work. Outwardly, they did not interfere with our religion, but in all other possible ways, they made deviation from our religion both attractive and profitable! Since we had lost economic independence , and had to depend on  paid employment, our religion gradually lost hold. We are still Hindus, but not in the old way. 

This was recognised by Sri Ramakrishna! He clearly said that conditions were not suitable for the way of Karma  ( which meant Vedic karma); people were not fit for the path of Jnana; so devotion was the only possible solution. 'The path of Bhakti as shown by Narada is the only suitable path for our age' was his prescription.

 Sri Ramakrishna in Bhava Samadhi in the house of Brahmo Samaj leader Keshab Chandra Sen- 1879.

Though all our Mutts accept devotion as one of the ways, they do not yet advocate it as the main means.

Sri Narada, the divine Sage, supreme advocate of Bhakti.

The mutts  are seen mainly as the mouthpiece of the Brahmins, especially in the south.I see the Mutts have failed in the following ways:

• they are still divided into sects,each talking of its own glory in splendid isolation; have no overarching arrangement to make Hindus realise their basic unity
• they have not made any effort to promote education among Hindus, combining Indian genius with the western elements, which cannot be ignored now.
• they have not understood the global threat to Hinduism and made efforts to counter them.
• they have ignored the organised action from Islam  and Christianity and have done nothing to counter them among the targeted groups.

At the same time, the modern gurus with their magnificent ashrams have damaged the Hindu cause by 1. Talking indiscriminately about Vedanta, as if it is easy for every one and 2. By talking things like 'all religions are true' etc- even when no other religion has accepted that stand. Even Ramakrishna Math is guilty of this blunder. After all, they have their eyes on international following! They have all global vision, and what happens to Hindus in India is not their concern!

The Mutts will have to reinvent themselves to acquire contemporary relevance. But the problem is that Hindu life is not organised around or integrated with the Mutts! We venerate gurus and acharyas, but there is no sastric injunction about compulsory affiliation to Mutts. It only seems to be a convention! Let us think about it.


Note:

The Mutts face a basic irreconcilable problem: how to face modernity, which they cannot avoid, with traditional teachings- sastra- which they cannot alter!

This has resulted in absurd situations. People have given up many aspects of Achara/dharma. The Mutts cannot stem this rot. They merely witness. The traditional view is that the Veda/Upanishad cannot be printed, but many foreigners are freely translating them and publishing them with their own strange interpretations which get very wide circulation in the world, and the Mutts cannot counter this! No Mutt has even published an authoritative version of our scriptures and other sacred books.

Kanchi Paramacharya is the one who, over a period of 60 years, explained all aspects of our traditional religion, compiled into 8 volumes.. But the basic theme running through it all is that  Brahmins abandoned their traditional dharma and therefore society has deteriorated. (This idea is reflected in the Tirukkural 134) We can understand if a  few families here and there abandon their dharma; but how to account for the wholesale displacement  and disappearance of Agraharas, especially in Tamil Nadu? Village after village has been vacated, most temples in the villages are without regular worship and patronage. People can contribute money and renovate it; but who will maintain it thereafter, in the absence of a regular  local community?

This is a universal phenomenon: in the West we see churches getting abandoned. Our ideas about life and the traditional support base have changed. Till about 70 years ago ( the first tenancy reforms in the old Madras state), the brahmin community was mainly rural, surviving on the basis of an age-old system of mutual obligations. Since then large scale, drastic and simultaneous changes in political, economic and social systems have completely altered the contours of modern life. No one can be singled out for blame. Are the brahmins the cause, or the victims?

The Acharya also stressed simple living,austerity, reducing material wants, etc.- something stressed by Gandhiji too. These are fine, and necessary. But none today can escape the sweep of modern technology which is making life complicated. Some powerful universal force is at work. None has understood it so far.

However, there are many thinking persons, not Hindus, who advocate a return to simplicity- as in such movements as 'Voluntary Simplicity'.

What the Hindu religion advocated has become an economic necessity today. But the world is not listening.

     

     

. THE MINDLESS INDIAN

A WIDE CANVAS

 THE MINDLESS INDIAN

In 1958, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote a book titled 'The Ugly American' which became a best seller and was made into a film in 1963 with Marlon Brando. It was a sort of political novel, showing the loud, arrogant, ethnocentric behaviour of Americans abroad, while being basically ignorant. It was said to be based on real characters, though given fictional names. Earlier, American tourists were actually photographed in Cuba behaving in such manner. See a 1948 photo:

Later, this term was applied even at home. It has stuck, and the book is still read.

I do not know how the learned people  look at Indians. But I tend to think of us as 'mindless'.

If we take the history of India since Independence, we can easily see that we , as  a nation, have not tackled even a single issue promptly, fully or even satisfactorily. Every attempted solution was partial, and led to more problems. Kashmir, border dispute with China, the way Indians and Hindus are treated abroad- our govt does not seem to think or move at all- unless forced by others; but the initiative is always with the others, and we seem to be reacting, late and usually ineffectively.

This is so even in domestic matters. A commission was set up in 56 to reorganise states on linguistic basis; but there are still disputes, after 60 years. In the meantime, states having the same language have been divided, making the whole exercise ridiculous. Sharing river waters is disputed by states and for over 40 years no solution has been found. So many plans and so many lakhs of crores spent- but poverty is still with us. Simple things like what should be the medium of instruction in schools- a matter that should be left to the people in a democracy- become the subject of hot  political debate and local chauvinism, in spite of clear Supreme Court directions. It seems Indian politics can move only on small issues. Where then is the time to focus on bigger issues?

There is another , broader and deeper, reason why we Indians, especially Hindus, can be called 'mindless'. All our ideas and ideals are borrowed. We do not seem to be having a mind of our own on any issue. Even regarding our religion, we defer to what others say or expect.We can never say: we are Indians.

India- a Nation and a Civilisation

Academic historians, politicians and the press and the media treat  India as a mere geographical and political entity- as a nation state. In fact this is how things are looked at by most people- so called learned and laymen alike everywhere.

But true, great historians never look at nations like that- as mere political entities. Arnold Toynbee states:

 "the intelligible unit of historical study is neither a nation state nor mankind as a whole but a certain grouping of humanity which we have called a society"

and he regards history as the study of

"why and how societies have come into existence in the process of civilisation."

He identifies 5 such societies or civilisations:

• Western Christendom
• Orthodox Christian Society in Eastern Europe and Russia
• Islamic Society
• HINDU Society in the tropical subcontinent of India
• A Far-Eastern society in the subtropical  and temperate regions between the arid zone and the pacific.

He makes a profound observation: if we look at the scene at 775 AD and now

we find that the number and identity of the societies on the world map are nearly the same at the present time.

( Toynbee studies a total of 19 major civilisations, 4  abortive civilisations and 5 arrested civilisations) He says civilisations are born out of more primitive conditions, not due to race or environment, but due to response to challenges, and they decay due to the decline of the 'creative minority'.)

Writing in the 1930s, Toynbee said :

In the struggle for existence, the West has driven its contemporaries to the wall and entangled them in the meshes of its economic and political ascendancy, but it has not yet disarmed them of their distinctive cultures. Hard pressed though they are, they can still call their souls their own.

In modern times our own Western Civilization has cast the net of its economic system all round the World, and this economic unification on a Western basis has been followed by a political unification on the same basis.

 While the economic and political maps have now been Westernized, the cultural map remains substantially what it was before..

Based on its success in the material sphere , the West in its hubris assumed that its history was THE history and imposed a uniform view on the whole world,  " the   unity of history", 

involving the assumption that there is only one river of civilization, our own, and that all others are either tributary to it or else lost in the desert sands.

Toynbee traces it to three roots:

• the egocentric illusion
• the illusion of the 'unchanging East'
• the illusion of progress as a movement that proceeds in a straight line.
• 
  

Arnold Toynbee

National Portraits Gallery, London.

These were written 80 years ago! Toynbee believed that the main bases of civilisations were culture and religion, unlike others who stressed political factors. 

Western political dominance has since formally ended, in the sense that many colonies have become independent, but the ideological dominance- the Euro centric view- has not ended. The economic dominance of the West has deepened and intensified, not only due to the international agencies like World Bank, IMF and WTO under the hegemony of the US, but due to the fact that all economies are now modelled on the Western pattern, killing all indigenous and heterogeneous technologies. Westernisation on material lines is taken as modernisation.

But in the cultural sphere, the struggle has intensified. Toynbee wrote:

It is the easiest thing in the world for commerce to export a new Western technique. It is infinitely harder for a Western poet or saint to kindle in a non-Western soul the spiritual flame that is alight in his own. While giving diffusion its due, it is necessary to emphasize the part that has been played in human history by original creation.

All these extracts from Toynbee are taken from vol.1 of the two volume abridgement by D.C.Somervell, OUP, 1987.These do not appear in this order in the book.

 80 years ago, Toynbee could write that the West could not touch our souls. But it is our souls which are now targeted by both Islam and Christianity! Pope John Paul II said in 1999 in Delhi that in the new millennium, they had to harvest Asian souls- and specifically mentioned Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs!

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS!

Soon after Toynbee expressed his thesis, the West was plunged into the Second World War and thereafter into the cold war. Public attention was riveted on ideological clashes, military hegemony, debates about capitalism, cold war, etc. But this era ended with the collapse of the USSR. What would happen in the post-cold war era?

In the 90s, Samuel Huntington, a political theorist, came with the idea that the world would thereafter undergo  clashes among the nations mainly on cultural-religious basis. For this, he divided the world into 10  major civilizational  groups:

• The Western civilization ( including  US, Western Europe,Canada, Austalia, New Zealand)
• Latin America
• The Orthodox countries of the former USSR
• Eastern Buddhist World
• Sinic ( China dominating Singapore, Koreas, Vietnam, Taiwan)
• Hindu Civilization (India, Nepal, Bhutan)
• Japan
• The Muslim World
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Israel

The following map will make it clear:

Kyle Cronan at the English language Wikepedia

[GFDL(http:://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

It can be noticed that India, like Japan, stands all ALONE in the world.

Huntington pointed out that both Christianity and Islam believed in the same basic things, which were bound to clash:

• Both are missionary in nature and spirit, seeking conversion of the others
• Both are Universal- that they alone are True, others are nothing
• Their religious values alone represent the final goal human existence
• Those who do not subscribe to this view are infidels or leading purposeless lives, resulting in violent clashes.

Huntington also noted:

• Resurgence in Islam
• Explosion in Muslim population all over the world.
• 
  
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Samuel P.Huntington, By Copyright World Economic Forum

(www.weforum.org)swiss-image.ch/Photo by Peter Lauth

[CC-BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons.

Points here are extracted from the book: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, Penguin India, 2000. This is a fascinating book, and no extract can do justice to its details and arguments.

Ever since the book was published, armchair experts and vain academics have been debating; what has happened may not be exactly as Huntington wrote but broadly, the end of the cold war has  not brought an end of clashes, and  we on the ground notice that there is no area of the world which is free from clashes on religious and cultural grounds.  

The irony is that both Christians and Muslims, and also all scholars and thinkers look at us Hindus as a distinct civilization. Both Islam and Christianity are trying to browbeat and overwhelm us. They are openly aiming to convert and destroy our civilisation and culture. But many Hindus themselves, and our leftists, so called intellectuals, self-styled secularists, the English Press and Media and  politicians are telling us that all are  true and  alike and equal! Hindus not only do not have a deep understanding of either their country and its history and culture or that of Islam  and Christianity, they do not have any awareness of themselves as bearers of a distinct civilisation!

This is the greatest sign of their utter mindlessness!

ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY ARE UNINDIAN- Involves De-Indianisation.

 Indians generally feel that people are free to follow any faith -religion- of their choice. This is actually followed in their own lives and land: just the number of sects and divisions among Hindus is mindboggling. Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh- there is a certain basic unity among them- we call them Dharma based Indic religions. All of them regard India as their Motherland. All of them are attached to this soil, as the child is attached to the mother. All their holy places are here. All their saints and sages have been here. It is their home- only home. 

But what about the Muslim? While politicians argue endlessly, while academics twist and turn, here is Sir V.S.Naipaul stating the matter straight:

Islam is in its origins an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert's world view alters. His holy places are in Arab lands; his sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own; he becomes, whether he likes it or not, a part of the Arab story. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance  for societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved; the turning away has to be done again and again. People develop fantasies about who and what they are; and in the Islam of converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily  set on the boil.

Taken from:  Prologue to 'Beyond Belief'; Picador, 2010.
This book is based on his travels in four Islamic countries- Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia, all with converted Muslim populations, following up on his visit 17 years earlier!

Well, these views are not from the pen of any Hindutva agent but from a Nobel Laureate, who, the Nobel foundation , in awarding him the prize in 2001 said, "combined perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny ....that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

Sir V.S.Naipaul

"The Nobel prize in Literature, 2001."

Nobel Prize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014 Web. 25 Feb 2015.

If islam appears to be an open enemy of all non-Islamic civilisations, Christianity's approach is more subtle, though it too is a self-professed enemy of other faiths. After 1965, it has incorporated many local practices in its liturgy and translated the Bible in many local languages,but the spirit still remains alien: the converted Christian sits in India or Sri Lanka and thinks of or imagines Palestine, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Mount Sinai etc. ie all his holy lands are un-Indian. He becomes imbued with the Western notion of history and culture. 

But the real problem with Islam and Christianity has deeper sources. For a Hindu, religious merit lies in leading a pious and holy life- personal austerity and enquiry and reflection.. Islam and Christianity also accept this- outwardly. But what is a pious or holy or Christian life? It is not only about fasting or prayer or charity. For a Muslim, conversion of or killing the infidel is a religious duty! For a Christian, bringing the word of God ie the Bible , and making others see the light of Christ- ie conversion is a religious duty! So, when they say they are only practising their religion, it means they are converting! For them, freedom of religion means freedom to convert. This is the history of Christianity for the last 2000 years; this is the history of Islam for the last 1300 years. And the whole world bears witness to their conversion! India is the only civilisation still left unconquered. That is why there is so much hue and cry now. But the Hindus do not seem to mind!

But if Hindus leave their timidity, think and look around, we can easily tackle these conversion zealots. Surveys show that less than 1% of young adults in the US have what is called a "biblical" world view; less than one half of one percent of people between the ages of 18 and 23 have such biblical world view. Nearly 75% leave the church after High school? Why? Because, they have found that the Bible is just bullshit. It does contain some wisdom- even as Carpetbaggers or other novels of Harold Robbins contain wisdom. But what is the over all teaching of the Bible or Christianity? That every man is born sinner, that he is condemned to eternal hell for mistakes in this one lifetime etc. No sane mind will accept such fantasies. Religion is not just faith in doctrine; that doctrine must stand rational scrutiny.Christianity failed this test since Enlightenment. Christianity cannot stand the light of reason. Hindus must study their books and raise such issues- right from virgin birth, the very fact of birth and historicity of Christ, etc instead of simply saying that all religions are true. There is enormous amount of literature on the absurdity of Christianity. 

As Hindus, we are not bothered what blessed religion or  blighted philosophy others follow. Whether they go to hell, heaven or elsewhere is their business, not ours! But when others bother us, we have to engage them and deal with them. We cannot pretend that everything is all right.

Gandhiji prayed for Sanmati. We need it, right now!

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