Subscribe
The Indic civilisation
Ishtiaq Ahmed writing here
Today’s article coincides with India’s declaration as a republic in 1950. The civilisational roots of modern India are always worth discussing, because despite all the odds against it — the caste system, poverty and hunger, illiteracy and other such debilitating factors — it became a democracy and has remained so.
Civilisation denotes a complex society with distinct cultural and ideational features that takes shape in the long, historical process through the division of labour and a concomitant social hierarchy. Therefore, civilisations cannot be understood only in contemporaneous terms; historical antecedents and legacy weigh heavily in forming the present. On the other hand, civilisations are also dynamic and change, adjust and transform, while retaining links with the past.
Studying civilisations is a daunting task. I admire the courage of the veteran journalist and writer, Reginald Massey, born in Lahore to a Punjabi Christian family of Sikh Jatt origin, educated at the St. Anthony’s High School in Lahore and later in India, and who now lives in an idyllic village in Wales. He has taken up the challenge and acquitted himself admirably.
His book, India: Definitions and Clarification (Hertford: Hansib, 2007) is a tour de force of truly encyclopaedic proportions. The book, however, is not exclusively about the current geographical entity called the Republic of India; it is about the historical, cultural and civilisational entity: the Indic civilisation. It includes not only India but also Pakistan and other states in this region. The Indic civilisation bears influence of not only Hinduism but also Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and indeed the modern period of secular rationalism and scepticism. It is pluralistic in its deepest ethos.
The author makes the interesting observation that the Aryans called the main river they confronted when they entered the plains of the subcontinent, Sindhu, which is known as River Sindh and is the lifeblood of today’s Pakistan. However, in Persian and Greek usage it began to be pronounced without the “s” at the beginning and over time the people who lived in the valley of the Indus River and east of it began to be called Hindus.
The Aryans crossed into the Indo-Gangetic Plain where they established their stronghold, but the whole region from Afghanistan to the lower Ganges was named by them as Aryavarta. That name, however, did not get established. Rather this region became famous as Hindustan.
The central thesis Massey sets forth is that the caste system has been the ultimate organising principle of the social, political and economic life in the subcontinent. The author condemns it in the strongest terms as it compartmentalised, society and established strict hierarchy. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, himself a Kashmiri Brahmin and thus belonging to the highest place in the caste hierarchy, made no secret of his abhorrence for the caste system.
Therefore, Nehru saw to it that Dr Ambedkar, the leader of the so-called Untouchables, who prefer to be called Dalits, was made chairperson of the committee that prepared the Indian Constitution. The constitution gives equal rights to all citizens, irrespective of caste. That has been the basis for India becoming a democracy, though in the wider society prejudices against the Dalits and lower castes still abound. The author narrates many anecdotes that highlight the continuing humiliation faced by the Dalits in contemporary India.
He observes that the caste system continued to fashion social hierarchy even among the followers of Islam and Christianity. Thus, among Muslims the distinction between the ashraf (superior) and the ajlaf (low-born) meant that they existed as two separate communities, while Christians who converted from Brahmin or other superior castes avoided contact with low-caste Christians.
The author examines northern and southern Indian societies over the historical period. We learn about important dynasties that came to power and what legacy they have left behind. Some Hindu dynasties were founded by men of humble origin who had themselves promoted to the second highest caste of the Kshatriyas through bribery and coercion.
The book compares the three leading personalities of the freedom struggle — Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru. Each is treated with fairness. The author thinks that Jinnah was a brilliant leader, without whom Pakistan would most probably never have come into being, and it is Nehruvian secularism which he believes has helped India remain a democratic polity.
He reserves scathing criticism for the ruling classes of both India and Pakistan. He writes: “The corrupt ruling classes of both India and Pakistan have done an excellent job in that they have succeeded in fooling the masses of their respective countries. Their success in this enterprise was, of course, assured since the majority of the people on both sides of the border are poor, superstitious, gullible, illiterate and an easy prey to state propaganda and the poisonous rantings of religious bigots”
Reginald Massey is currently writing a follow-up volume, in which he wants to probe the directions the South Asian region could take in the future. He is optimistic about the youths of this region, which he believes want to move on, rather than remain hostage to past conflicts and rivalries.
In this regard, it would be interesting to examine more closely if the Laws of Manu or the Constitution of Ambedkar is winning. Also, I hope he visits Lahore where he was born and about which he is so very proud. It would be interesting to know what he thinks happened to Jinnah’s Pakistan.
The writer is a professor of political science and a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore. Email: isasia@nus.edu.sg
January 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Mr. Massey is right about the corrupt ways of Indian politicians. I live in New Delhi and today (it is Republic Day) as I was watching the annual parade on television, it struck me that most of the ‘VIPs’ sitting on VIP seats on Rajpath have been tainted with accusations ranging from money scams to mass murders.
The President herself has been accused of minting money through her controversial NGOs. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the most powerful Indian politician at present, has yet to explain why she was so cozy with an Italian contractor who earned kickbacks from an infamous gun deal. The opposition politician L K Advani, another of our great VIPs, must credit his poisnous politics that has directly been responsible for the murder of thousands of Indians, notably Muslims. He is primarily responsible for destroying the ethos of India for ever. Another politician whom I spotted happened to be Lalu Yadav who too is believed to be corrupt.
I shudder when eminent columnists like Mr. Ahmed praises this country for the durability of its democracy. This is rash talk. Under the guise of democracy, we Indians happily vote mass murderers to power. In 1984, we gave majority to Rajiv Gandhi who had the shamelessness to portray Sikhs as terrorists in his campaign posters. We have voted Shive Sena to power who killed Muslims in Bombay. In communist West Bengal, we kill farmers to build one-lakh cars on their rich farmlands. In Gujarat, ah Gujarat, we wear Narendra Modi masks. Thank God, Nazi Germany had no real democracy. There Hitler’s fans never had the guts to put on Hitler masks. But we are democracy and on pleasant-weather evenings, if you are lucky, you could see dozens of Narendra Modis bobbling around in Ahmedabad avenues. These are the charms of democracy–India style.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Here are a few observations I would like to make in the 59th year of the republic of India, as one of its citizens:
First of all, Nehruvian socialism also spawned huge amounts of corruption on account of disproportionate levels of control being retained with the government sector and giving rise to an inefficient public sector that led to huge amounts of money going down the drain, rather than helping the less fortunates sections of society. Reforms have been underway over the past few years, in terms of increasing privatisation and legislation like the Right to Information Act, but the rot that has set in the system, in the form of graft, is still quite deep-rooted.
A view that may actually be rather extreme, is that had a free-market system been adopted since independence, India might actually have overtaken countries like Japan and Korea, in terms of economic progress by now.
Secondly, the ruling elite have been very successful in following the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy and society has schisms running through it on the basis of caste and, more importantly, religion, as is evident from the communal violence that flares up with alarming frequency. The killing is generally sponsored by ruling parties and they cause the government machinery responsible for the maintenance of law and order, including the police, inactive, while their goons loot and kill. In return for this, they are rewarded with electoral victories with huge margins, as has happened in the state of Gujrat where the BJP is still reaping the harvests of the state-sponsored pogrom that it organised in 2002 and as was seen in 1984, when the Congress (I) gained an unprecedented majority in parliamentary elections.
Caste has been used by the politicians to suit their own ends, not only to build exclusive vote-banks comprising people of whichever caste they belong to, but also through the establishment of a farcical system of reservations in government jobs and in educational institutions, which benefits only those who were born of lower-caste parents, but are rather well-to-do economically.
This is, obviously, not in line with the idea of the ‘Secular, Socialist, Democratic Republic’ (as stated in the preamble of the constitution) that was conceived by those who wrote the constitution.
Thirdly, I am not sure about how much to expect from the youth of the country regarding progress on eliminating the age-old divisions, since many of even those among them who have obtained the highest of educational qualifications continue to observe the caste-system, as well as to nurture deep-rooted hatred for people who follow a religion different from their own.
Things may be changing, but I am not sure as to how fast and how much. The kind of resistance that society offers to inter-religion marital alliances, for instance, is evident from the recent, well-publicised Rizwanur-Priyanka case, among others.
Finally, I sincerely hope that with the relative prosperity that is being enjoyed by certain sections of the population on account of economic growth will have a positive effect on their thinking as well and that politicians who practise communal and casteist politics will steadily lose support, so that the republic comes closer to being the way the constitution makers wanted it to be, peaceful, prosperous and sharing a good relationship with all its neighbours.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Mayank and Sidhu-ji
You guys have added many dimensions to the arguments of the author under discussion. Mayank, thanks for the rare candour coming from the other side of the border. Usually, Pakistanis are asked to shut up because they don’t have democracy..
Sidhu-ji: you analysis is most profound as you cover the schisms and divisions within India that the ruling classes have nurtured over the years..
Please elaborate further on how things are changing and how about a post that we can also publish here
cheers
Raza
January 28th, 2008 at 3:10 am
[...] bookmarks tagged concomitant The Indic civilisation saved by 3 others otchacha bookmarked on 01/27/08 | [...]
January 28th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Any idea as to where this book can be found?