India's Search for National Spirit

What is India? Is it an Idea, an Imagination or a Spirited Nation?

Debates are raging currently among the intelligentsia about the national identity of India. Opinion writers repeatedly refer to it as the idea of India. The question of equating India to an idea or somebody's idea is misplaced and completely misunderstands the nature of nationhood in India. It also completely misses the notion of spirit of India that pervades every national action known in the history of India. Western notions of idea or imagination of nationhood is not suitable to understand the spirit of India.

The spirit of India rests in its cultural and religious heritage, which the colonial regimes and post-colonial socialist governments tried to shatter by writing history suitable to their purpose of perpetrating their power and supremacy, while disenfranchising the masses from their traditional culture and history.

Constitutional Day

National government recently introduced a new national holiday, the Constitution Day. While constitution day and developing national understanding of constitution may help develop and affirm national unity among the citizens of India, it cannot foster national spirit. National spirit and common values of national affirmation could only be asserted by nurturing its cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage. 

Food, dance, music, language, religion and art are neglected at each stage of education. School education at various stages teaches language only superficially, while dance, music and religion are not part of school curriculum. Publicly funded Universities in India that teach religion, and arts (music, dance and painting) are less than ten across the country. Religious education in Christian and Islamic religions is offered in public universities and wide spread than Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. While numerous state universities host departments of Islamic studies in addition to numerous Madrasas run by Wakf boards across India, which enjoy generous grants of public money from the Government of India, Hinduism does not enjoy such support. Hinduism is the religion of almost 80% of Indians. China even though a communist state without religion teaches Confucianism in schools and supports Confucian studies at university level in China as well as abroad through creation of Confucian Institutes.

Indian Values of Nonviolence and Tolerance

Indian values of nonviolence and tolerance are projected as the responsibility and duty of only Hindus, but no such values are expected from other groups, especially Muslims. The opposition asserts and calls of ‘Hindu terrorism’ at its every public meeting and event, while staying mute in the face of acts of Islamic terrorism. While there is no evidence that any Hindu activist had ever landed in a foreign country akin to Mumbai attacks or Paris attacks to self-detonate a suicide bomb or shoot innocent citizens, opposition party continues to perpetrate blatant misinformation on Hindus in a majority Hindu nation with utter disregard for the sentiments of the majority Hindus of the nation. All citizens of India regardless of their caste must embrace nonviolence and tolerance. Acts of terrorism should be regarded as acts of war on the sovereignty of India and its perpetrators should be prosecuted in military courts not municipal or state courts.

Education Reform and Change in History Education

History of India had been treated as Lego building blocks set for far too long. Pieces of historical evidence were arranged and rearranged with utter disregard for understanding the true history and cultural heritage of India. Any one can obtain a Ph.D. in History without learning Sanskrit, or the language of the historical period they are studying, which compounds the problem of historical study in India and leads to misinterpretation of the historical evidence. India must revise its history education and include methods that require language training and historical methods.

India must begin rewriting its history incorporating new evidence and classical sources. Citizens of India have a right to learn their true history and cultural heritage.

Uniform Civil Code

Every citizen living in India must be subject to the same civil code.  It should not change based on religion, tribe and region. A uniform civil code is the requirement for any nation to foster the spirit of nationhood.

Religious Freedom

Religious freedom must mean the same for all religions in India: not something different for minority religions and majority religion. It should not change based on each religious group. Each minority religion has freedom to maintain its religious places worship and institutions. Hinduism and its practice is restricted by government and Hindu temples are maintained by government through endowment boards. Hindu temples are run as businesses charging for every service right from the time a Hindu devotee enters in to the temple. Resulting money is spent according to the plans of the government implemented by the endowment boards rather than serving the cause of Hinduism. Hindu temples must be freed from government supervision and run by Hindus themselves. State should not have any interest or interference with any religion. Each religion must be free to run its institutions and temples as it deems necessary. For a modern state to promote national spirit it is essential that the government is completely separated from all spheres of religious activity.

Equal Opportunity

Every citizen in India must have equal opportunity for jobs, housing, loans, and political positions. The current reservation system has failed to help lower castes and also the poor rural folks of India. Quota based reservation system in India benefits SC/STs (Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes) and creates wage discrimination against other castes of India. There are two issues with this reservation system. Firstly, it still uses and asks persons of lower castes to certify their caste at every stage reinforcing the use of caste instead of helping them proceed beyond the caste system. Secondly, the reservations are currently capped at 50% of all the educational seats in all the educational institutions, public sector jobs, and local bodies, central and state political positions. Certain OBCs (other backward castes) are still left out of the reservation system even though they are living in similar social and economic conditions. This results in periodical discontent and reservation agitations. India should lift its conventional reservation system and replace it with the more efficient affirmative action system that is based on economic status and be restricted only to first time college students.  

For India to move forward in the twenty-first century it is important to develop its national spirit and foster co-operation among its citizens.

Is It Time to Go Beyond Caste?

Is It Time to Go Beyond Caste to Determine Eligibility for Reservations?

India needs to adapt a new way to support economically and socially disadvantaged sections of Indian society than caste based reservation system. Caste based reservations have left millions of people across India helpless although it helped urban and literate sections of the society. India should replace caste based reservation system with class based affirmative action system similar to the United States of America. Affirmative action system adapted by the higher educational institutions in the United States has helped economically disadvantaged students of America, as well as the African-American and Latino students tremendously.

The new affirmative action system can also include preferences for both low-income students and the students who are first in the family to attend college. This system will help economically and socially disadvantaged groups and it might not also cause dissatisfaction among the general population, since first generation-students generally tend come from low-income families and may also be the only ones to attend college in their. Allowing the first generation students attending college to utilize affirmative action also might stop abuse of reservation system commonly noted since generations of the wealthy and successful SC/STs and BCs continue to use reservations, while their less fortunate brethren are left in a position of disadvantage.

Affirmative action program similar to the United States or a class-based action program will be more equitable and may also help rid Indian society of the caste system.

Indian government policies are solely to blame for the survival of caste in India in the twentieth century and for its successful continuation into the twenty-first century. Indian society would have moved away from caste in the last sixty-eight years since independence, if the government had not used it as a parameter to determine eligibility for reservations in education and jobs. At least, after seventy years of Indian independence, hopefully, Indian government would come forward with a policy to help economically and socially weaker sections, but move away from the caste system at the same time.  

Caste is an Outdated Parameter to Determine Backwardness

Caste is an Outdated Parameter to Determine Social Backwardness and Underdevelopment

Government of India used caste as a parameter to assign social programs for almost seventy years after independence. People of lower castes have enjoyed free education, caste based admissions programs favoring lower castes to be admitted in to educational institutions even though they had only sub par merit. The lower castes also enjoyed quotas in jobs, as well as promotions based on their castes. The reservations system has done miracles for peoples who utilized them. However, it has also left numerous people, especially poor landed caste people as farm laborers and workers on the country-side without much help.

Landed castes are left with small landholdings, often very small farms with very small annual per capita yield that does not support their families, let alone their educational advancement. Landed castes should also be allowed to enjoy the fruits of reservation system under the quota system. Landed caste regardless of ownership of land are the modern backward castes since they face discrimination at every level due to their poverty.

Caste should not serve as a parameter to determine the eligibility to quality for government programs. In the modern world every person living in poverty faces the same discrimination from educated and elite classes regardless of caste.

Asking someone for caste is meaningless in this modern world. Castes that have enjoyed admissions to privileged colleges, and jobs might find it hard to let go of the facilities caste provides them. However, it is necessary that caste should no longer matter for those living in poverty. Every farmer holding less than five acres of land or every person with annual income of less than Rs. five lakhs should qualify for quotas in schools and colleges, with no such preference extended in jobs. Providing equal educational opportunity should be the prerogative of the government. The young people should take advantage of the opportunities to perform to the best of their ability to quality for a variety of employment opportunities the modern world offers.  

Caste: Some Questions and Concerns

The Caste Assumptions 

Everything from temple building to beef ban is attributed to caste politics in India. Caste in a society like India is as varied as the accusations of caste are in the modern India. Caste resides and survives on the privileges it offers it members. People that talk about caste system in India miss the basic points of social system in India. I request them to read Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present, which would help them understand the caste system in India, but also help clear some misunderstandings prevalent among the intelligentsia in India. 

Origins of Caste: Misguided Constructions from Purushasukta

One of the most common misconceptions is equating caste with class. Vedas describe four social classes among the people of the Vedic society. They frequently quote the Rigvedic verse, the Purushasukta, to substantiate their claim that caste has Vedic origins. This is a completely misguided reading out of context and wrought with problems. It is a symbolic verse, discussing cosmic being and his sacrifice noting the sacred origins of society. It is a theological verse. It is mistakenly interpreted to represent caste. Some historians are selective classicists, they embrace textual verses when it suits them and at other times they interpret Vedas as not representing truth. 

Remember caste and class is not the same. In fact, Rigvedic society has only three classes. Four classes were a feature of later Vedic society. There are thousands of castes and only four classes in classical India, and a fifth class was added even later. Indian society has thousands of castes and only five classes. Caste is hereditary based on jati (birth), but class is not hereditary. History has evidence of groups changing professions and changing classes. I urge the historians to study south Indian History. 

Manudharma sastra and various other later dharma texts may have sections on jati, and jati dharma (rules of caste), but there is no evidence that it was uniform in India or that a uniform civil code suppressing the great masses of India. Numerous texts existed, but not many studied Sanskrit or followed the interpretations of Brahmins. In fact, it was British who tried to translate Manudharma sastra to use it in jurisprudence. 

Not all Professional Castes are Poor or Untouchable

In India professional castes were wealthier and has more upward mobility than landed farmers until eighteenth century. Leather workers as well as cotton weavers became poor and disenfranchised from their professions as machine production and machine made goods became available for sale in India since the eighteen hundreds, but not before it. I urge any one interested to consult Vijayanagara inscriptions and other inscriptions of southern Indian dynasties such as the Chalukyas and Cholas to gain a better understanding of the caste system in India. Caste is not frozen in time, and was not always similar. Many professional castes castes are mentioned in south Indian Inscriptions that paid substantial taxes to the emperors and owned villages. They also supported construction of temples. Caste operated in different ways during different times and different geographical regions. 

Varna is not Just Color, and It Is Definitely not Caste

Equating varna with caste is one of the colonial vestiges of British education system in India. Class system in India is referred to as Varna, which is interpreted by colonial historians as color, which is only partially applicable  to class. One of the meanings of Varna is color, but it also has other meanings. Varna is a style of dance, and music. Varna is also alphabet. In fact, alphabet is referred to as 'varnamala,' in south India. Historians steeped in colonial historical learning still interpret it as color, which does not make sense, since the dark and light colored skin dichotomy of colonial class system was not part of Vedic understanding of society. Varna simply was a division of society as the alphabet divides the sounds for convenience, as a, b, c, d...

Caste Needs Hinduism, but Hinduism Does not Need Caste

Hinduism is practiced without caste outside its borders, and with varied or lighter versions of caste system in its frontiers such as Kashmir, southern borders of India as well as eastern India. Caste system is not endemic to Hinduism, but India. All religions that are practiced in India, including western religions such as Islam and Christianity also embrace caste system in India. This in itself is evidence that caste is a social practice common to all religions in India. Hinduism in Guyana, Surinam, Fiji, Cambodia and also Hinduism in Thailand, Indonesia does not have a strong caste system associated with it. 

To Banish Caste, Stop Asking for It

Poor people in India are asked for caste to receive their social welfare schemes. Educational and employment opportunities are based on quotas assigned to poor and backward castes. But caste based reservations are only perpetrating the caste system further rather than getting rid of it. A lower caste person has no chance of escaping his caste for the danger of loosing his reservations. Numerous countries in the world had social discrimination in one form or other based on classe. But they all moved forward by abolishing their use in official records and official settings. Japan moved away from social discrimination of the group 'burakumin' by adopting name changes and banishing any identification that would identify a person as burakumin. Burakumin lived under similar circumstances as the untouchables of India. But within fifty years Japan has successfully eradicated the discrimination. India should adopt similar methods and progress beyond caste based society to embrace modernity. Caste is an outdated parameter to decide the availability of social welfare programs. 

India's Problem with Remembering Difficult Past

India's Amnesia with Difficult Past

India is categorized as a country with rich cultural heritage and past, but India also has memory vacuums in its past. India has a problem with remembering its difficult past: It either brushes it off, or slowly forgets it. India is generous about forgetting about the crimes of outsiders than its own people. Numerous terrorist attacks were perpetrated in India, but not even a single memorial marks the dead. Not only that terrorist events are forgotten, this is also true for major historical events such as the first war of independence of 1957. There is a memorial for the British dead in the war in India, but no such memorial for the dead soldiers of India, or its heroes of 1957. Nothing is known about the soldiers dead abroad while serving the British army, in China in the early 19th century, in Europe, and Middle East in the 20th century in the long drawn wars of the first world war. Of course nothing much is known in terms of memorials for soldiers dead in the wars with its neighbors in 1962 war with China or 1972 war with Pakistan.

India won its independence in 1947, but what about the 250,000 people, who died in the skirmishes that resulted during that year. No memorial. One or two films are made with mock characteristics rather than recreating a museum or memorial. India's invaders always inflicted innumerable losses to the life of civilians in India, almost creating a genocidal effect in India. However, all that India does is just forget about the atrocities, and move on, with the hope that such events won't repeat, which is always proven to be a mistake. They always repeat, India never remembers, and hence never adequately prepares, only to succumb to invaders easily.

India moves on with its insolent indifference into the twenty first century. Media discuss the 26/11 attacks, but no memorial for the victims. Everything is whitewashed and forgotten. India should make an effort to remember its past however sad or difficult it is so such events do not happen again.

Colonial Mind, Emigration, and Identity

Twenty-first Century brought forward a new dilemma for Indians. To be or not to be Indian, when one is living in a country away from India, the motherland. The question attracted attention from newspapers, internet portals, and Indian Twitterati. Bobby Jindal aka Piyush Jindal brought this debate to the front, which had been simmering in the back burner for sometime. There are two theories: One side argues that maintaining close connection with one's Indianness is important, the second side argues that an Indians must completely forget one's Indianness and immerse in the culture of the land wherever they may be living.

Both theories are wrought with problems. when one is away living in a different country, the person is not Indian in the full sense of the term, and only belongs to the cultural heritage of India. The middle way to foster this had already been shown by previous immigrants of colonial era now living in the Caribbean Islands, South Africa, and Fiji. The Caribbean Indians are as comfortable with Calypso music as with Bollywood dance numbers.

The second theory of disowning one's cultural heritage to assimilate completely with a culture of the land one is living at any time is also wrought with problems in addition to the point that it may be difficult and may not come easily for some. One serious issue that comes up with such attitude is if one is so uncomfortable with his own background and cannot live comfortably with his own heritage, how can he be expected to be open minded about myriad of other cultures that may exist around him. And what kind of a leader that one make such person. Twenty first century world brought migrations across the world. There are few places in this world that may be considered homogeneous culturally these days. In Bobby Jindal's case his becoming American mean a very narrow definition of  what American means, which comes with English, and converting to Christianity. In his opinion Asian immigrants are lacking in Christianity, while other Latino immigrants are lacking in English. 

His proposal for Americanness, English and Christianity, is matter of simple life for millions of Indians living in India already, almost every educated person in India speaks decent English, and India has sizable number of Christians dating as far back as early centuries of first millennium C.E. There are a number of Indian Christians living in America as well.  Same is true with Latinos in numerous countries, they speak decent English and are Christians by faith. If this is what defines Americanness in Bobby Jindal's mind, then there are legions of others that are better qualified for such honor than him. Is he ready to call everyone of those who speak good English and is Christian an American then?

Another issue with such disowning one's culture to claim assimilation into another culture is a remnant of colonialism. Neo-Indian culture of nineteenth and twentieth centuries is characterized by learning English language, dress, manners and customs, which sometimes may include conversion to Christianity. Speaking English and dressing as English gentleman is seen as cultured and civilized self. Colonial life in the continent of America is also known for altering the life of natives and landscape of the region forever. Numerous languages perished along with annihilation of tribes, plants, birds and animals. However, there is a modern quest to discover lost languages and cultures, and protect the animals and plant life of the world. It is common in twenty-first century, for humans to live in different countries, but still be able to live comfortably as one-self. The greatest advantage of twenty-first century global world is multi-culturalism, which represents unity in diversity. If Bobby Jindal had difficulty embracing multi-culturalism then he is living in the past a world of early 19th century rather than the twentieth century.

It enriches a country when multiple cultures exist in a country with uniform civil code. Problem ensues when some cultural groups ask for preferential treatment or separate family courts based on their cultural sentiments. Such preferential treatment should not be meted out to any group. Even though the cultures are different they must all respect the law of the land and abide by it, and work for the progress of the country. That's what the leaders should be asking for from their citizens, not homogeneity. Multiplicity is the feature of the twenty-first century. 

Embracing multi-culturalism and multiple selves is the way to go. Living with narrow definitions and identities is helpful to a certain extent, but learning more than three languages, knowing about world cultures and religions is also important in the 21st century. After all no one is living on self-isolating island.

On This Yoga Day, Lets Focus on True Efforts to Understand Yoga

As India, along with the world, is gearing up to celebrate Yoga, a lot of noise is heard from all sides, but real emphasis on true learning is lacking. There is happy noise from the hundreds of Yoga enthusiasts getting ready for their celebration by organizing public performances of Yoga. In fact, some are expecting to enter the Guinnes book for the largest gathering and performance of Yoga. While there are also some gruntling noises from so called secularists, Muslims announcing that they would not be taking part in the Yoga Day celebrations.

India, as the land of Yoga has a responsibility to preserve and continue the tradition of Yoga through education, research and scholarship. Serious study of Yoga is necessary to pass on the requisite knowledge to the future generations. When I was growing up in India all the Yoga asanas I learned are from my family. School education was helpless in the field of Yoga. Similarly, my higher education in Osmania University and University of Hyderabad similarly provided me no background in Yoga. School or college did not teach Yoga at any time. It was only after coming to the West that I learned how important it is for mind, body unity and focus. It was only here that I discovered the value of Yoga. Most universities, public libraries offer courses on Yoga in the West. There are numerous private schools of Yoga that teach a variety of styles of Yoga, calling it a physical exercise. The Yoga day seems to be doing exactly what the privately run Yoga programs in the gyms across the western world had been doing for a long time. Promoting Yoga as a physical exercise. Yoga is much more than just a physical exercise and understanding it should be at the core of Yoga day activities. It is important to have Yoga day celebrated with performance of Yoga. But it should also be a day where new research and scholarship sheds light on this traditional knowledge.

Yoga postures (asanas) are practiced, but it is also important to read and understand the Yogasutras of Patanjali. More publications discussing the Patanjali Yogasutras and philosophical aspects of Yoga should be made available to the common people of India.

Meditation is an essential part of Yoga which needs long and focussed practice under a learned teacher. Training centers, certifications for different levels of Yoga proficiency is also important. Currently, Yoga institutes, and training centers are independent organizations, which are run without any scrutiny or accreditation. A educational authority to certify and accredit various levels of Yoga programs is necessary. Due to the importance of Yoga for modern life, it is important to establish a Central organization to oversee the licensing and functioning of Institutes as well as the certifications for Yoga training.

Before this turns into another show of mindless numbers and postures it should be taken in the right direction where learning, research and scholarship is encouraged at all levels of Yoga practice. Unless Yoga studies is offered as a subject of study in the universities, Yoga Days like this will not be able to provide real value to the practitioners.

Manthratalk: The First Word : M.F. Husain and His Nudes of Hindu Dieties is Bull...

Manthratalk: The First Word : M.F. Husain and His Nudes of Hindu Dieties is Bull...: M.F. Husain’s Paintings represent bullying; they don’t represent secularism Some misguided people of India painstakingl...

M.F. Husain and His Nudes of Hindu Dieties is Bullying

M.F. Husain’s Paintings represent bullying; they don’t represent secularism

Some misguided people of India painstakingly portrayed paintings of Husain as representing secularism and secularist interests. However, Husain’s paintings only demonstrate the selective derision of Hinduism than anything else. The recent issue of Charlie Hebdo killing makes one wonder about Husain. Unfortunately, Charlie Hebdo was not as conniving as Husain. He drew cartoons on many religious figures and his secularism was evident in all of his work. Husain only drew mocking paintings of Hindu deities, but not others. Husain’s followers (many were Hindus) and coreligionists have praised him for his mocking paintings of Hindu deities. However, Husain’s coreligionists were not as tolerant when it comes to their own religion. They are only tolerant when it comes to other religions than their own. They never bothered to condemn Husain’s caricatures of Hindu deities but did so with Charlie Hebdo cartoons, and some even went so far as to kill Charlie Hebdo. Maybe one should be crafty like Husain to receive international fame and acclaim at the expense of other religions, but not their own. 

One should not banish cartoons or drawings on any subjects including religious subjects. However one should be mindful of the choice, and question if one were to single out and draw discriminatory paintings or cartoons on a single religion. Targeting a single religion would constitute bullying rather than secularism. On that note, it can be said that Husain's paintings are a bullying tactic.

Husain’s nudes of Hindu deities

I suppose, we could assume that Husain is doing a great favor to Hindus by drawing these images trying to open them up for secularism and be open to taking any critique (even if it is silly) in stride. But why not render the same favor to other religions- may be his own religion? Why not draw Fatima or Aisha or Mohammad, if not nude at least in the loving embrace of each other? He shows quite a restraint when it comes to Islamic subjects, but goes berserk when it comes to Hindu subjects. What is wrong? For Husain Hinduism seems to be an easy target, a religion that could be mocked and made fun of with a couple of free and easy brush strokes. The paintings don’t even have to look good. He even won the highest civilian award for being so reckless with his drawings of Hindu deities. It even won him international acclaim and sympathy from anti-Hindu elements worldwide. He is even seen as a protector of Muslim sentiments and welcomed with open arms to immigrate to Khatar. Would the followers of other religions be as tolerant if he were to draw similar paintings of their revered deities? He did not even draw nudes of Hindu deities, he went even further; he drew caricatures of them. Would he similarly dare to draw caricatures of deities of other religions? Well, we know the answer, he never dared to do it; in fact, he never even contemplated doing such a thing: One of the reasons he is regarded as the champion of the interests of Islam. His nudes of Hindu deities clearly show that he harbored animosity towards Hinduism, which came out in the form of his paintings.

Caricatures of Hindu deities

What has Sita ever done to anyone? Her life was so lonely and so sad. She loved Rama, and suffered her whole life for being loyal to Rama, who cared more about his prestige and kingly duties than his wife. How can anyone be so mean to Sita as to draw her nude riding on the shoulders of Hanuman? Hindus have always revered Sita as the most loyal wife of Rama. Stories of her faithfulness to Rama is part of her story. In fact, one of the common stories anyone hears about Sita is that she refused to go home when Hanuman visited her in Lanka and requested her to do so. Sita had told Hanuman to just convey her message to Rama. Why is it that Husain cannot be sympathetic to Sita and had to draw her nude riding on the shoulders of Hanuman? Was he such a misogynist that he is not interested in understanding feminine sorrows, or was he trying to mock Sita for being loyal to her love in times of intense struggle? Where does his sympathy lay? Does he hate monogamy? Is Husain’s issue with monogamy or Rama or Sita? May be living most of his life single might not have helped him understand the pleasures of monogamous love. At least he should respect the sentiments of others who understand it and still practice monogamy. 

There can be only one reason to do these paintings, either fame or to prove his superior intellect by bullying others by proving other's beliefs as silly. It seems likely that towards the end of his life he became a megalomaniac and probably not sure what he had to do to fulfill his desire. If not, then it is only probable that he  had harbored such animosity towards his fellow countrymen who are Hindus that he had to express it in such a way as to bully them and prove his superiority. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how or why he would resort to drawing such images, which he had never done before during his long career. The government of India should politely withdraw the civilian award Padmasri bestowed on him for his reckless drawings that hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindus worldwide.