A flawed and wishful thesisMarch 28th, 2010
Chennuru Anjaneya Reddy
Post-Hindu India
by Kancha Ilaiah
Sage Publications, Rs 295
Kancha Ilaiah is well known for his book Why I am not a Hindu which
attracted a lot of attention all over the country as the other view on
contemporary Indian society. The book presents the anguish of those
sections, notably the dalit-bahujan communities, which, according to
him, do not have much in common culturally with the so-called upper
classes, notably the banias and brahmins and perhaps the land-owning
shudra communities. The basic flaw in this view is that the learned
author mistakes Hinduism for brahminism whose cultural practices are
somewhat visible among the so-called upper castes. Hinduism is a
conglomerate of several belief systems and cultural practices, with
each community following its own; Brahminism is but one of them.
Hinduism is neither brahminism nor is it one way of life as is widely
quoted, but several ways of life with some commonality. In rejecting
Hinduism in his contempt for upper castes, Ilaiah is disowning his own
culture which is part of it.
In his present work, Post-Hindu India — A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan,
Socio-spiritual and Scientific Revolution, the author examines the
situation emerging in what he calls the "post-Hindu India". The author
says that Hinduism is now a dying phenomenon in the face of the
dalit-bahujan resurgence. According to him "people who identify most
with religion (i.e. Hinduism) are the brahmins, banias and kshatriyas,
constituting 10 or 12 per cent of the population. The shudras, who
fall below these castes in social hierarchy, have ambiguous
relationship with Hinduism. Once they realise that the religion is
dying, they will abandon it as mice abandon a sinking ship". This is
wishful thinking at its wildest. While the author's assumption may be
true of some, it's certainly not true for all sections of dalits;
there is no visible evidence of this among those whom the author calls
"bahujan communities". It is unfortunate but true that it is these
communities that have sustained the Hindu society, not so much out of
love for it but to secure their own subculture or, if possible, to
move up the social hierarchy.
The larger framework called the Hindu society created a stake for each
one of them in the "graded inequality" as Ambedkar called it; the
drive among them has been only to claim a status equal to a brahmin or
a kshatriya and not to question the hierarchy itself. This is clearly
seen in the anxiety of many ruling communities of agricultural or
bahujan background assuming the status of kshatriyas and in the effort
of many lower communities among shudras claiming the status of "upper
caste shudras". The struggle of one of our prominent social
revolutionaries of the last century, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Choudhury,
in coastal Andhra Pradesh ended with creating a priestly class within
his own community rather than rejecting the caste system itself!
According to the author, the main reasons for the decline of science
in India and consequent dependence on the "borrowed" Western science
are that "brahminical Hinduism" has kept the scientific knowledge of
our productive communities out of modern science; the belief that
Vedas are the ultimate repositories of all wisdom has killed the
spirit of enquiry; and the stratified society that the brahminical
culture has created prevented cross-fertilisation of ideas between
communities.
The author holds the Hindu culture responsible for the situation where
we have come to survive on borrowed science rather than build on the
scientific skill available among the productive communities of our
society.
While we can accept that there is an element of truth in this
assertion, we cannot take it for the whole truth as the author does.
If the author's contention was entirely true, all those magnificent
monuments with wondrous sculptural embellishment would not have been
built or the fine textiles for which this country is known would not
have been woven. Nor would it have been possible to bring such
sophistication to our performing or fine arts. It was the colonial
status of this country at the time of the Industrial Revolution rather
than the Hindu culture that is responsible for the decline of
"scientific knowledge".
The author also says that excessive dependence on Sanskrit and
over-sanskritisation of languages like Telugu have only contributed to
carrying forward the "casteist cultural essence" resulting in the
perpetuation of old inequities. According to him, the remedy lies in
putting the dalit-bahujan children through English education as that
would help them escape this cultural tyranny. The author believes that
even our business suffers seriously from the Hindu ethos. The evil
practice of accumulation of black money by our bania class flows from
the age-old practice of "guptadhana" or "hidden money" usually tucked
away from the society by the banias in ancient India.
The book goes on in this strain for over 300 closely-printed pages,
blaming the Hindu culture for all the ills of this country.
In a poignant citation the author dedicates the book to his parents
"who were born unequal, lived unequal and died unequal". While one can
understand the anguish of the author who has suffered the inequities
of an unjust society, many of his thesis seem to stem from a
fragmented view of matters and most of his inferences seem to be
little more than wishful thinking. Books like this only add a few more
prejudices to the already prejudice-ridden Indian society.
Notwithstanding all the invectives of Ilaiah, Hinduism will survive.
It may not be in the present form and may adapt itself to the new
challenges from within and without — because it is flexible and will
put up not only with dissent but abuse!
No one holds a brief for a discriminatory culture like brahminism. But
Hinduism is not mere brahminism; it is much more than that. That is
where Ilaiah should do some re-thinking before he lambasts it again in
his next book.
Chennuru Anjaneya Reddy is a former IPS officer
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