37 Modern Hinduism

Glyn Richards

Any attempt to give an account of Hinduism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries within the compass of a short article must of necessity be selective. What I propose to do in the following essay is to select those leaders of thought who may be regarded as both inheritors of the Hindu religious and social traditions and contributors to the renewal of Hinduism and the development of modern India.

It is not without justification that Rammohan Roy (1772-1833) has been described as the father of modern India. His enthusiasm for reform may be attributed in part to the influence of Islamic thought and Western ideas, but, as his Vedanta grantha shows, he is also indebted to Vedantic teaching concerning the unity and supremacy of Brahman as Eternal Being and One without a second. His defence of Hinduism against the attacks of Christian missionaries is an indication of the influence of his Brahminic upbringing and the part it played in moulding his desire to restore the religious purity of Hinduism. He endeavoured to do this through his jour­nalistic and literary activities and through the formation of the Brahtno Satnaj, a society he founded in 1828 to promote the worship of the one eternal, immutable God and the rejection of image worship so characteristic of popular devotion. If the intellectual bent of the Brahtno Satnaj deprived it of popular appeal, it nevertheless succeeded in creating an atmosphere of liberal­ism and rationality in which a reinterpretation of the Hindu tradition could take place.

Roy’s emphasis on logic and reason is reputed to have characterised one of his earliest Persian works entitled Tuhfatul-ul- Muwahhiddin (Gift to Deists), in which belief in a Creator, the existence of the soul and life after death, are claimed to be the basic tenets of all religions (though such tenets could hardly be attributed either logically or reasonably, e.g.

His opposition to idolatry is matched by his rejection of some of the social customs of Hinduism, especially suttee, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. His advocacy of the provision of education for his fellow-countrymen, particularly in mathema­tics, natural philosophy, chemistry and other useful sciences, was aimed at the elimination of such customs, the cultural improvement of the native popu­lation and the harmonisation of Westem science and Eastern spirituality for the benefit of mankind. His pursuit of this goal justly earned him a place of emin­ence as one of the most creative personalities of nineteenth-century India.

A fellow member of the Brdhmo Samdj, whose opposition to idolatry matched that of Roy, was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905). It was his firm belief that the ultimate good of India would derive from the rejection of tantric and puranic myths and legends and the acceptance of Brahman as revealed in the Upanisads. He showed great enthusiasm for the purification of the Hindu religion and joined the campaign to provide free education for Hindu children. A man of sensitive spirit, Tagore in his later years inclined to mysticism and his piety earned him the title Maharishi, ‘great sage’. He attracted many able young men to the Samdj, including Keshab Chunder Sen (1838-84), who became equally committed to religious and social reform.

Sen’s enthusiasm to propagate the message of the society led him to found the Indian Mirror and the Dharmatattva, journals of religion and philosophy, and to establish branches of the Samdj in many parts of India.

Sen’s close acquaintance with Christian teaching provided him with the terminology he needed to express the principles of his New Dispensation. This he refers to as equivalent to the Jewish and Christian Dispensations; as the fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy; as the harmonisation of all scriptures and all religions; and as proclaiming the message of love which prohibits all distinctions between Brahmins and Sudras, Asiatics and Euro­peans. Its uniqueness for him lay in its insistence on the direct, unmediated worship of God. His acceptance of the divinity of Christ and the title of Jesudas, the servant of Jesus, suggests that he completely embraced the Christian faith. In fact he considered Christ to be an Asiatic and his concept of the Incarnation is not ‘once and for all’ but the manifestation of God in history through great men and prophets. Christ, he claims, held the doctrine of divine humanity, which is essentially a Hindu doctrine and at one with the Vedantic notion of man’s unity with the Absolute.

Sen’s belief in the providential nature of British rule would not have been shared by Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-83), whose promotion of Hindi as a national language was not unrelated to the develop­ment of national self-consciousness. He was fully aware of the intimate relation that pertained between language, religion and nationalism, and was convinced that political independence was the natural corollary of the restora­tion of Vedic ideals.

The Arya Samdj, founded by Dayananda in 1875, provided him with the organisation necessary to propagate his religious and social ideals. Among the rules adopted by the society, belief in God, the authority of the Vedas and the rejection of idol worship and incarnational doctrines were paramount. The duty of all members of the Samdj was to promote spiritual monotheism, Vedic authority and social reform. The reforms he advocated related to child marriage, widow remarriage and niyoga. He was aware of the problems of early widowhood and child mar­riage and the relation between the dowry system and female infanticide. The eradication of the practice of child marriage, he believed, would reduce the number of widows and he advocated niyoga, the temporary legal union of widows and widowers, as an interim solution to the problem of early widowhood. He approved of the education of both sexes, insisting that it was the basis of mutual respect between husband and wife. The best form of marriage, in his view, was marriage by choice (sv ay am vara) after the educa­tion of the contracting parties had been completed. Education itself should involve Hindi and Sanskrit and a case should be made for making them the medium of instruction in schools.

Dayananda’s aggressive nationalism and deep desire to lead his fellow-countrymen back to the Vedas earned him the title of the

‘Luther of India’, a description which is not entirely inappropriate.

Of the mystics of modern India pride of place must go to Ramakrishna (1836-86), who from an early age is reputed to have experienced mystical trances. Though lacking formal education he possessed an abundance of native intelligence and for the greater part of his life served God at the Kali temple at Dakshineswar. Through his association with followers of the Tantric and Vedanta schools he acquired an understanding of yogic tech­niques and the ways of bhakti (devotion) andjnana (knowledge) as means of union with the divine. His personal experiences of other religious traditions, especially Islam and Christianity, enabled him to make the claim that differ­ent religions are simply different paths to the same goal. As Kali, the Divine Mother, and Brahman are two aspects of the same reality so the mystical experience of Christ is at one with the mystical experience of Allah. God may be called by different names but he is one and the same. There is no necessity to choose between the formless Absolute and the personal God, for God with form is as real as God without form and the difference between them is no more than that between ice and water. The impediment to spiritual develop­ment is worldliness which is mdyd. It is man’s ignorance of his true self that causes him to become enmeshed in mdyd in the first place, and release is attained through discrimination which recognises God alone as real and eternal. Social reform, including the elimination of caste distinctions, should derive naturally from the love and worship of God.

Ramakrishna’s disciples, of whom Vivekananda was the most prominent, proclaimed his teaching throughout India but were more explicitly committed to social reform than their master, establishing schools, orphanages and hospitals in order to give practical expression to their religious ideals.

Another oflndia’s mystics was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) whose views concerning the interrelation of God, man and nature would classify him as a nature mystic.

Man’s kinship with nature is coupled with his iden­tity with his fellow man. God’s immanence in creation implies man’s involvement with social justice and the needs of all God’s creatures. In a world suffused with the spirit of God nothing can be deemed untouchable so the rigidity and exclusivism of the caste system must be rejected as contrary to the cultivation of spirituality. Similarly, the selfish pursuit of materialistic goals, which intensifies the inequality between those who have and those who have not, undermines the social system and degrades man himself. The same applies on a national level when selfishness takes the form of patriotism devoid of concern for humanity as a whole which resorts to force to achieve its ends. Concern for the nurture of the soul determines Tagore’s attitude to every aspect of life and gives a marked distinctiveness to his social, cultural and religious ideals.

One of the foremost mystical philosophers of India is generally accepted to be Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), who, after a period of political activity in close association with Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), which resulted in his being jailed on a charge of advocating terrorism and violence, withdrew to the French settlement of Pondicherry where he spent forty years in study and contemplation. The fruit of those years is his philosophical system of integral yoga which he describes as Vedantic. The essence of his system is that the Absolute by a process of involution and evolution manifests itself in, and expresses itself through, grades of reality, or levels of being, from matter to spirit. The Absolute is the starting-point of the evolutionary ascent from lower forms of matter through mind to supermind and spirit, and the involutionary descent of the spirit through supermind to mind and matter. For Aurobindo every aspect of reality is permeated by the Absolute and the veil between mind and super­mind is where the higher and lower levels of reality meet. The development of divine consciousness depends on rending the veil through involution and evolution and the divine life produced manifests that fullness of spirituality which can be described as gnostic being. Because of their divine cosmic consciousness gnostic beings are able to effect the transformation of lower levels of being and the whole of nature.

What Aurobindo seeks to do in his philosophy of synthesis is to reconcile matter and mind, mind and spirit, finite and infinite, God and man. Though complex and highly esoteric in terminology his system is marked with spiritual insights which succeeded in inspiring enthusiasm among intellectuals in particular for the cultural heritage of India.

Two of the more systematic philosophers of India are Vivekananda (1863-1902), and Radhakrishnan (1888-1975), an acknow­ledged academic who was elected President of his country. Both were interpreters of Advaita Vedanta. The Vedantic doctrine of the divinity of man is a significant tenet in Vivekananda’s teaching and one aspect of the message he proclaimed at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Another aspect of his message is the essential unity of all religions and the basic oneness of existence. For Vivekananda there is but one life, one world and one existence. God permeates all that exists from stones and plants to human beings, so the difference between one life and another is one of degree and not of kind. It would be contrary to Vedantic teaching to claim that animals were created in order to provide man with food. Similarly, he upholds the ideal of a universal religion not in the sense of a single ritual, mythology or philosophy, but in the sense that every religion proclaims an aspect of the universal truth according to its insights. Each religion is a pearl on a string and no one form of religion will do for everyone. Religion is in essence one but diverse in application, and toleration teaches us not to look for defects in religions other than our own. The Advaitist or qualified Advaitist does not say that dualism is wrong; it is a right view, yet a lower one which is on the way to truth. So the finest pearl on the string after all, for Vivekananda, is Advaita Vedanta!

Radhakrishnan claims that in his philosophical writ­ings he seeks above all to convey his insight into the meaning and purpose of life; to provide a coherent interpretation of the world; and to promote the religion of the spirit. He sees no discontinuity between human fife and spiritual life or between animal life and human life since all forms of life are expressions of the divine spirit. Spiritual existence is the fulfilment of human life and the ultimate goal of the cosmic process. This means that the world is not illusory but a manifestation of the divine spirit. It depends on the immanent creative activity of God without which it would cease to be. So the reality of the world is a dependent not an ultimate reality, which is precisely what the doctrine of may a seeks to convey. Knowledge of the primordial divine spirit is possible through rational analysis of empirical data, but certainty comes through the immediate, intuitive apprehension of the nature of ultimate reality which is the result ofjndna, gnosis, or integral insight. It is a state of ecstasy; it is what is meant by being at one with God. This is an experience common to all religions, hence the importance of learning about the basic principles of all the great religions of the world and recognising the folly of missionary activity. No one religion can claim to be exclusive; religious traditions are imperfect expressions of the essence of religion which is truth. And since all men are bound together in one spirit, a fife of service and sacrifice is inevitable for those who would promote the religion of the spirit and defend the ideals of freedom and justice.

One of the most remarkable men of twentieth-century India was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). Though he resented being called a saint, since he thought it too sacred a term to apply to a simple seeker after truth, there can be no doubt that he was a ‘great soul’ and most worthy of the title Mahatma. Fundamental to his thought is the concept of Truth (Satya), the existential quest for which forms the basis of all aspects of his teaching. He is faithful to the traditions of Hinduism when he affirms the oneness of Truth and Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Saccidananda), and when he describes Truth as the most significant term that can be used for God. Yet his preference for the idea of God as formless Truth does not prevent him from recognising that God is personal to those who need to feel his presence, thereby accepting the anekdntavddin position that reality has many forms. He acknowledges that perfect Truth is beyond man’s empirical grasp and that he must hold on to such relative truth as he is able to apprehend through his understanding of the essential teaching of his own religious tradition. All religions, he claims, possess truth but no single religion can embody the whole truth since it is a human construct and therefore imperfect. This has impheations for missionary activity but it does not prevent those who wish to change their religious affiliation from doing so, or others from making a plea for toleration.

The reverse side of the coin to Truth is ahimsa, non­violence, and as far as Gandhi is concerned the attainment of one involves the realisation of the other. Ends and means are convertible terms in his phil­osophy, but it does not mean that he is unable to conceive of situations when violent action might be justified. Like perfect Truth, perfect non­violence is beyond man’s grasp and in situations of moral dilemma one must do what it is morally possible for one to do while remaining informed by the spirit ofahimsa. The same applies to Satydgraha, or holding firm to Truth, which is the technique of ahimsa. Its method is conversion rather than coercion, and although it involves civil disobedience and non-co­operation it seeks to establish social justice by the power of love and gentle persuasion.

In Gandhi’s thought no distinction is drawn between Truth, Reality and the Self or Atman which all men share. Belief in the indivisibility of Truth and the oneness of God involves belief in the oneness of humanity. We may have many bodies but we have but one soul. These metaphysical presuppositions point clearly to the interrelation of morality and religion and imply that we have an inescapable moral obligation towards our fellow men. This is illustrated in Gandhi’s emphasis on sarvodaya, the welfare of all, which is revealed in his concern for the status of Harijans (Untouchables) and women in Indian society. He proclaims the need for the abolition of the caste system, child marriages, enforced widowhood and purdah which were harmful to the moral and spiritual growth of the nation. Radical social changes were required to improve the lot of the outcastes and the status of women and only the restoration of the purity of the Hindu way of life would suffice to effect the changes needed.

The social, economic and political implications of Gandhi’s emphasis on sarvodaya are far reaching. His economic policy is people-oriented and rejects developments that dehumanise and degrade people’s lives, including unbridled industrialisation; his alternative educa­tional system fosters rather than undermines the cultural heritage of the nation; and his political goal of Svardj, self-rule, promotes Indian self-respect and the determination of his people to accept responsibility for managing their own affairs.

It is not without significance that Gandhi subtitles his autobiography ‘the story of my experiments with Truth’. He sought to live his life in the spirit of Truth and in accordance with the religious and ethical ideals of the Hindu way of life.

One of Gandhi’s most ardent admirers and enthusiastic followers was Vinoba Bhave (1895-1983). He was impressed by Gandhi’s views on the importance of indigenous languages, the plight of the poor and the need for purity in personal and public life. In the ashram at Wardha he laboured diligently to prove himself a true disciple and became one of the first satydgrahis when the civil disobedience movement began. After Gandhi’s death he inaugurated the bhudan movement designed to encourage wealthy landowners to donate land voluntarily to those who had none and succeeded over a period of six years in acquiring four million acres for distribution. The method he adopted was persuasion rather than coercion in accordance with the principle of ahimsd.

Another of Vinoba Bhave’s activities involved the decentralisation of government and the development of self-sufficient, self­governing village units. Gramrdj, village government, was an extension of svardj with each village having the power to manage its own affairs. This meant the progressive abolition of government control, (raj-niti), and the establishment of government by the people (lok-niti). For Vinoba the best form of government is freedom from government and this is what he means by sarvodaya.

With the decentralisation of government and the development ofgramrdj goes the responsibility for educating people to man­age their own affairs. Vinoba’s concept ofnai talim (new education) meant the introduction of a programme directed towards establishing a vidydpith, a seat of knowledge or university, in each village. It involved also the establishment of village industries and the recognition of the principle of social equality. In short, his new education programme was education for the whole of life.

Many parallels exist between Vinoba and Gandhi but the former developed his theories in his own way and the bhuddn movement was his distinctive contribution to resolving the problem of the poverty of India.

Further Reading

de Âàãó, Wm. Theodore (ed.) Sources of the Indian Tradition, vol. II (Columbia University Press, New York/London, 1958)

Embree, Ainslie T. (ed.) The Hindu Tradition: Readings in Oriental Thought (Vintage Books, New York, 1972)

Naravane, V.S. Modern Indian Thought: A Philosophical Survey (Asia Publishing House, Delhi, 1964)

Richards, Glyn (ed.) A Source-Book of Modern Hinduism (Curzon Press, London/ Dublin, 1985)

----- The Philosophy of Gandhi (Curzon Press, London/Dublin; Barnes & Noble Books, New Jersey, 1982)