'Sanskritisation': Definition or Deflection?

The oft-cited definition of Sanskritisation (Note 1) by the late Dr M N Srinivas, an eminent sociologist, appears to be clearly contrived to obscure a far more insidious process. In fact, Sanskritisation is no less than the (cultural) ’colonization’ of society that entails the imposition of a set of beliefs, social structures and practices (Brahmanism) upon the society, allowing it to take root progressively and in a top-down (NOT bottom-up) manner by first inducting the upper / ruling classes of the native population.

How about describing the British Raj as NOT colonialism but Anglicization, and defining Anglicization as a process by which the natives of India sought upward mobility by emulating the ways and manners of the English / British lords who chose to spend some time in India as part of their global mission to spread civilization (and, incidentally, economic restructuring)?

Labels and definitions serve as templates that shape, direct, deflect and/or blinker our thought processes. Extreme care is, therefore, called for. Otherwise we risk missing the elephant by remaining focused on the ants.

Note 1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskritisation
(last modified 08:56, 17 August 2005)

Sanskritisation is the process by which castes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the upper or dominant castes. It is a term coined by the late M.N.Srinivas, the eminent sociologist from India. He first propounded this theory in the thesis for his D.Phil degree at Oxford University. The thesis was laterbrought out as a book titled Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India. Published in 1952, the book was an ethnographical study of the Coorg Community of south Karnataka, India.

The book challenged the then prevalent idea that caste was a rigid and unchangeable institution. The concept addressed the fluidity of caste relations, and of communities' desires to constantly upgrade and improve themselves. M.N.Srinivas defined sanskritisation as a process by which "a 'low' Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual ideology, and way of life in the direction of a high and frequently 'twice-born' caste. Generally such changes are followed by a claim to a higher position in the caste hierarchy than that traditionally conceded to the claimant class by the local community..."

One clear example of sanskritisation is the acceptance, imitating the practice of twice-born castes, of vegetarianism by people belonging to the so-called low castes, who are traditionally not averse to non-vegetarian food.

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Kautilya’s hidden influence on post-Independence India?

Dr S Kalyanaraman, an indefatigable Hindutva online campaigner, appears to have now stepped into a new role: that of a modern Kautilya seeking to advise the IMF (International Monetary Fund) about what should be borne in mind when dealing with India.

Specifically, Dr Kalyan - in an online message (dtd 20 Feb 2006) distributed to various e-mail groups - advises IMF’s youngest ever Chief Economist Mr Raghuram Rajan as follows: “I suggest that you should read Kautilya's Arthas'astra and study how social capital is sustained in Bharatam and Indian Ocean societies.” (emphasis mine)

The unsought advice was in response to Raghuram’s conversation with Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Indian Express’ (21 Feb 2006), published under the heading “Licence raj creates privileged industrialists, workers while the real work is done by unorganised labour” (click here).

In fact, Mr Raghuram Rajan is doing just fine by himself and will continue to do so without the help of the Arthashastra of Mauryan-era Kautilya (aka Chanakya).

It is indeed with remarkable insight that Raghuram gets to the heart of the matter when he speaks as follows:

QUOTE
......It was long due that we emphasised primary and secondary education, as you know India has over-emphasised tertiary in the past. But that does not mean that we under-emphasise tertiary now because our over-emphasis on tertiary has created an industry which relies on the skill-based tertiary education that we had.

...... We need to invest more in education. It is high priority for a number of reasons, including the fact we can get more political awareness from people when they are educated. We need to increase the quality of our human capital.
UNQUOTE

Raghuram will NOT derive support for his above views from the Arthashastra. But he certainly would from Thirukkural.

In his conception of a government, Kautilya had provided for various departments, which correspond to the government Ministries of today. There are two ministries that the Manu-tainted Kautilya had pointedly left out: Education and Health.

Hence, it is surprising that someone could seriously suggest that Kautilya's Arthas'astra should be read to understand "how social capital is sustained in Bharatam and Indian Ocean societies".

What "social capital" can a country hope to build based on an ancient Hindu S'astra that does NOT provide for public Education and Health in its conception of society and government?

We may have to search for the answer to that question in the current condition of India. It is a country that is marching into the 21st century (i) with a literacy rate worse than that of sub-Sahara Africa, AND (ii) as one of the world's most malnourished nations with every other child growing up malnourished (which means that half of the generation now growing up in India will suffer from varying degrees of physical and mental retardation / disabilities). (Note 1)

This is the result of the gross neglect that both EDUCATION and HEALTH CARE had suffered from since the time of India's Independence in 1947.

Is this prolonged neglect to be construed as the hidden influence of Kautilya's Arthas'astra on India's post-Independence political leadership - politicians and bureaucrats - who were supposed to be building up a vibrant democracy through socialism?

IF so, one would have to wonder if it were a case of Brahmanism - lurking behind the shadows along the corridors of power - cunningly subverting the "tryst with destiny" that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had so loudly promised the people of India at the stroke of the first midnight of Independence (15 August 1947).

To hold up Arthas’astra as being relevant to modern India can only be seen to betray dark intentions of continuing the political subversion into the future as well, to the enormous detriment of hundreds of millions of Indians.


“Social capital” versus “Human capital”

This may be a right point to pause for another look at the matter, but from a different angle.

Is there a deeper meaning / intent embedded in Kalyan’s talk of sustaining “social capital” as opposed to Raghuram’s call for increase in “human capital”?

Is the former about preserving (sustaining) the social status quo (i.e. a varnashramic social order dominated by Brahmanism), at least its essential core control structures, whilst the latter is undoubtedly about empowering the individual to break out of the repressive status quo? The latter will certainly lead to the eventual collapse of whatever remains of the age-old casteist social order. And that would be, understandably, a worrisome prospect for Hindutva, which is no more than the modern political face of Brahmanism.

Homo hierarchicus: an endangered species

Hindutva activists should know that Kautilya's Arthas'astra, like the odious Manusmrti, rightly belongs to the rubbish heap of history. It is a S'astra without much artha (meaning) - relevance - for the modern age.

This is an age when scientific formulae matter more than Vedic mantras; fire in the internal combustion engine delivers more power than the flames chanted up in the Vedic yajna (fire sacrificial) pits. This is an age when India is faced with the enormous challenge of quickly transforming its vast breed of homo hierarchicus - the legacy of centuries upon centuries of Varnashramam - for placement in a world that is rapidly flattening out. It is sad to note that India could do no more than merely react to - play catch up with - the emerging new world order with practically no ability to proactively shape the same. This only goes to show how far Varnashramam has hollowed out an ancient civilization.

Raghuram is deservingly acclaimed for his book about "saving capitalism from capitalists". It appears that Indians / Hindus have to make haste to "save India / Hinduism from Hindutva".


Note 1:
see blog: "India's economy & social justice: responding to Ngiam Tong Dow" (24 July 2005)

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Social inequalities: the Varnashramic difference

In the discussion about socio-economic inequalities prevailing in countries around the world, what continues to be overlooked is the underlying fundamental difference between the varnashrama-ordained inequalities (in India) and the social inequalities seen in (non-varnashramic) societies around the world.

A cobbler, say, in France or Russia would tend to understand his station or condition in life as being the result of the accident of birth (e.g. born into a poor family) OR other life circumstances (e.g. unable to receive education because of impoverished childhood, lack of job opportunities because of prevailing economic depression, unjust economic policies, etc.). The French / Russian cobbler could legitimately aspire to change his condition in life: by finding another job or vocation, by learning new skills or relocating to a place with better opportunities, by seeking a change in the prevailing political / economic arrangements of society, etc.

On the other hand, take the case of an Indian cobbler in his varnashramic society (i.e. Hindu society polluted by Brahmanism / Varnashramam). The cobbler has to accept his station in life as his deserving karmic reward (or penance) for his (mis-)conduct in past lives. Birth is not an accident but a purposeful karmic incident. The varnashramic cobbler cannot legitimately aspire to change his station in life. If he were to leave his vocation, it would be breaking his life's DHARMA, and this would only add to his KARMIC bad debts. He would then miss the chance of being born into a higher caste in his next birth. Isn't this the primary message of the Gita and the rest of the Brahmanist / Sanskritic corpus that have shackled and debilitated the Hindu body, mind and soul for so long? (Note 1)

Now, let us visit the French / Russian cobblers. They could legitimately aspire to change their individual circumstances in life by self effort: there are no religious injunctions against this. They could also get together - or be rallied together - to change their collective social circumstances. Remember the French and Russian revolutions.

Now, coming back to the holy land of Varnashramam. We can breathe easy! Our people are not like the unruly - excitable - masses of the West. Our people have been conditioned (or brainwashed) into accepting that WHATEVER happens so happens only because GOD has so willed, a God who acts through the Law of Karma-Dharma.

Marx and Mao were amongst those who, without even visiting India, ruled out the possibility of the Indian masses ever rising together in revolt as long as their minds remain arrested by Hinduism. Hitler didn't know enough to pin it down on Hinduism when he was hesitating over whether or not to oblige Subhash Chandra Bose (whom he did eventually meet after some initial foot-dragging)!

It must be admitted that Western education - particularly, its scientific outlook - is helping to lift the Hindu mind out of its varnashramic trap / stupor. It is also providing a good opportunity for the non-Sanskritic traditions of India to re-assert themselves after being suppressed for so long by Brahmanism / Varnashramam.

The Tamil world can play a big role in the new resurgence, by taking back Hinduism from the suffocating grips of parochial and self-serving Brahmanism, and regenerating the faith for the benefit of all India and the world at large.


Note 1: see previous blog on: Hinduism: its caste system & priesthood

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The world order: Do people really matter?

The sad fact may be that people are NOT really in control. That may already have been the case for some time now.

People can be persuaded into compliance by stirring or playing up threats (Note 1). They can be cowed into trading freedom / liberty for security.

Much happens with the people sedated (or overwhelmed) into a state of obliviousness (or incomprehension).

The world started to run on fiat money since the gold standard was dropped, thereby effectively detaching wealth creation from real production: the ultimate power is not with the prolific producer but the one who can run the printing press profusely AND make the world accept his paper money. Hence, the need to maintain - at all costs - total military dominance over the entire globe, including space. (Note 2)

The world has been pressed into accepting the new order of "knowledge apartheid" where entire nations can be excluded from types of knowledge and/or their use. The dissenting ones will face the collective wrath of the coalition of the (un)willing: a repeat of the days of slavery when the slavemaster knew that he could rely on his 'loyal' slaves to subdue the errant ones!

The world economy does not run on oil alone, but on wars as well, a compulsion of the military-industrial-academia complex. There shall be a permanent state of war for perpetual peace!

Democracy and freedom shall there be for all people around the world, provided that these people know how to elect governments / representatives acceptable to the true masters of the world.

There is much that the people have already accepted, out of lack of awareness, lack of will or means, or plain indifference.


Note 1: inserted on 19 Feb 06

'There Is No War on Terror', Seattle Weekly, 18 Feb 2006 - interview with Noam Chomsky, MIT Professor and one of the world's greatest living public intellectuals

..... Geov Parrish: How will the U.S. deal with China as a superpower?
Noam Chomsky: What's the problem with China?
Geov Parrish: Well, competing for resources, for example.
Noam Chomsky: Well, if you believe in markets, the way we're supposed to, compete for resources through the market. So what's the problem? The problem is that the United States doesn't like the way it's coming out. Well, too bad. Who has ever liked the way it's coming out when you're not winning? China isn't any kind of threat. We can make it a threat. If you increase the military threats against China, then they will respond. And they're already doing it. They'll respond by building up their military forces, their offensive military capacity, and that's a threat. So, yeah, we can force them to become a threat. ......

Note 2: inserted on 19 Feb 06

'The End of Dollar Hegemony' - speech by Hon. Ron Paul of Texas before the U.S. House of Representatives, 15 Feb 2006

..... Gold no longer is the currency of the realm; paper is. The truth now is: “He who prints the money makes the rules” – at least for the time being. Although gold is not used, the goals are the same: compel foreign countries to produce and subsidize the country with military superiority and control over the monetary printing presses.

Since printing paper money is nothing short of counterfeiting, the issuer of the international currency must always be the country with the military might to guarantee control over the system. This magnificent scheme seems the perfect system for obtaining perpetual wealth for the country that issues the de facto world currency.....

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Interpreting Thiruvalluvar: fadeout ploys

It has been a long tradition and well-ingrained habit of Sanskritists to (re-)cast non-Sanskrit texts and themes in the Sanskritic / Brahmanist mould. This appears to be part of a much broader game played out throughout history: "eliminate by embrace" and “obliterate by obfuscation”.

Thiruvalluvar (திருவள்ளுவர்) seems to be targeted for such treatment in a website maintained by the Divine Life Society founded by Swami Sivananda. Posted on the site is a biography (click here) of saint Thiruvalluvar and is said to have been extracted from the Swami’s book Lives of Saints. Unfortunately, it turns out to be less of a help to correctly understand Thiruvalluvar but more of a measure of how limited and skewed is the biographer’s (Swami Sivananda’s) understanding of Thiruvalluvar.

For instance, Valluvar had no truck with Vedism / Brahmanism, yet the invented story that Sivananda slips in: “He is regarded as an Avatara of Brahma.”

One cannot help being reminded of the honour bestowed on Gautama Buddha, albeit posthumously. Buddha rebelled against Hinduism, in particular the Brahmanist excesses. There is no place for the concept of God in the Buddhist faith, at best a clear indifference to the concept of God. Yet Buddha was converted back into the Hindu fold as the N-th avatara of Vishnu. {Quiz: How 'manyeth' avatara of Vishnu is Buddha? Answer: see Note 1 below.}

I wonder when Ambedkar / Periyar would begin to be talked of as an avatara of Brahman / Vishnu !?

There is indeed no limit to the inventiveness of these Sankritists / Brahmanists in the matter of myth-making.

Swami Sivananda must be writing for kids. He engages more in stories – of doubtful authenticity - about Valluvar and his devoted wife, and their life together, rather than explain what Valluvar has really said in his 1330 couplets (in Tamil). Of the few that the Swami has selected to mention, one is deciphered or rendered (in English) as follows:

“Learn the Shastras completely and then act according to their injunctions.”


Instead, Valluvar has urged EVERYONE (no exceptions, no exclusions) to:

கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின்
நிற்க அதற்குத் தக (391)

a) learn / study without fault or doubt (with right understanding) - kaRka kacaTaRa (கற்க கசடற);

b) study what are fit for to be learnt - kaRpavai kaRRapin (கற்பவை கற்றபின்);

c) live by what you have learnt / studied - kaRRapin niRka atharkuth thaka (கற்றபின் நிற்க அதற்குத் தக) .

By no chance would Valluvar have limited learning / education to the Shastras that Swami Sivananda has in mind. It is also most likely that Valluvar would not have included much of the Shastras (infused with / contaminated by Varnashramam) as material fit for learning, least of all to be lived by. And Valluvar wanted ALL to learn (seek education), unlike Brahmanism that sought to impose its heinous doctrine of Varnashrama on society and deny education to the lower castes, thereby trapping large sections of Indian society in eternal ignorance, material deprivation and servitude.

EVEN IF one were to read / hear what are NOT fit to be read / heard, Valluvar has left behind a strong advice for, again, EVERYONE (no exceptions, no exclusions):

எப்பொருள் யார்யார்வாய்க் கேட்பினும் அப்பொருள்
மெய்ப்பொருள் காண்பதறிவு (423)

epporul yaaryaarvaaik kETpinum apporuL meypporuL kaanpathaRivu.
WHATSOEVER you may hear from WHOSOEVER seek out its true meaning / import.


You cannot hope to contain the sage Thiruvalluvar within the parochial Sanskritic / Brahminist mould. He is TOO BIG, TOO PROFOUND, TOO HUMANE and too much of a UNIVERSALIST for that. In fact, the humanist philosophy (Kuralism) expounded by Thiruvalluvar is antithetical to the very grain of Brahminism / Varnashramam in very fundamental ways. Swami Sivananda is clearly ill-equipped to interpret this great Tamil sage.


Note 1: Buddha is regarded as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, after Ram and Krishna

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Teaching Hinduism without the facts

Hindutva front organizations are trying to convince education authorities in faraway California to downplay – fadeout - the Hindu caste system in school textbooks.

In an essay titled “Academic Hinduphobia”, OUTLOOK India (10 Feb 2006), Rajiv Malhotra and Vidhi Jhunjhunwala are clearly phobic about the truth finding a place in the textbooks. They seek to protect innocent children from the facts and the shame of a social order (chatur-varna or four-fold caste system, and out-of-castes) and the underlying Brahmanist doctrine (Varnashrama) that have sapped the vitality of Hindu society for thousands of years now. The authors of the essay argue as follows:

“….The political activism of a cartel of elitist academicians is invading the psyche of innocent children: It harasses the Indian students in class, making them feel embarrassed and ashamed of their ancestry….”


This makes me recall my first textbook encounter with my religion, Hinduism. That was many years ago when we had to study world history (based on a series of school textbooks suitably titled “The Story of Mankind”) in English during our 7th & 8th years of education (the first two years of secondary school). This would have been the case also for most others during those days. Until then, during the initial six years of primary school, my understanding of my culture / religion - academically and intellectually – was derived from our Tamil lessons. We were then attending English-medium schools, attended by students of different races, and all students had to study their respective mother tongues compulsorily but as second languages (next to English, the medium of instruction).

During the first six years of education (primary level) – which were during times when the child was not yet expected to be able to write his / her name and more on the first day ever in school - our academic / intellectual engagement with aspects of our culture happened during our Tamil lessons. We had our fill of Auvaiyar, Valluvar, Bharathiyar, etc. in verses, songs and stories. There was much stress on good conduct, right thinking, value of education, compassion, diligence, perseverance, and so on. It was in some songs with lines like “caathigal illaiyadi paapaa” (Note 1) that there was any mention of ‘jati’, but always in the context of being something wrong, bad, not to be talked about, and to be done away with.

But it was only upon stepping into secondary school and when we came to study Indian history that we had to read - for the first time – in cold English text, details about the Hindu caste system, including untouchability.

Until that time I had not known that the aiyars / archagars whom we had seen working as priests in some local temples were part of a caste called Brahmins and that they were, according to Hindu holy books (the Vedas, about which I was hearing – perhaps, so distinctly - for the first time), descended from the head of the Hindu God (Brahma) and occupy the top layer of Hindu society.

I was the only one who was of Indian origin and a Hindu in class. My understanding of the matter was not much better than that of my classmates. I could only relate the Tamil word “theetu” (impure) to this concept of untouchability. But “theetu” had been used in such situations like: after returning from the barber shop (but there was also a more rational explanation given as to why one should take a bath: to avoid tiny fragments of hair falling into the food when eating, which explanation had the effect of shifting the focus away from the barber, also from the act of a haircut, to the loose hair fragments left on one’s scalp); when the elders return from a funeral.

Beyond that, I could not reconcile what I was starting to read in my history textbooks with what I had come to know and think of my culture and cultural history over six years of Tamil lessons in primary school. It was also starting to become known more explicitly that the caste system and untouchability were not some vague memory of a distant past (merely history), but a living reality of contemporary India.


The purpose of my sharing the above is to explain why I can fully understand – empathize – when the authors of the abovesaid essay talk about how young Indian students in America today could feel embarrassed and ashamed when they get to read about the Hindu caste system and untouchability in their classrooms.

But is it academically right to shut out from the students of history (or social / cultural studies) - doesn't matter where in the world they may be - so compelling a fact about the Hindu religion that the Hindu caste system surely is, AND which is a matter of practice and observance even today (in India), AND for which full scriptural authority continues to be claimed (and with the late Kanchi Sankaracharya Chandrasekhara Swamigal himself re-affirming – Note 2), AND, therefore, NOT a mere deviation, aberration, excess or peripheral phenomenon, in spite of what the Indian Constitution may or may not say?

And I have more questions:

WHY is there NO corresponding concern for the millions and millions of young (and older) bodies, minds, hearts, and souls in India that are being repeatedly and brutally bruised, violated, maimed and scarred – often irreversibly - by the harsh realities of the varnashramic casteist social order that they have to live out (not merely read about) - day in and day out - EVEN today in the 21st century and EVEN after nearly 60 years of independence?

EVEN after Mahatma Gandhi. EVEN after Ambedkar. EVEN after Periyar.

Are they less human than those who were fortunate enough to have left India or to be born outside India?

WHEN will these downtrodden millions have their release and freedom from the suffocating grip of Varnashrama, indisputably the world’s oldest and longest lasting doctrine of social apartheid?

WHY NOT?

The Hindutva forces should seek to regenerate Hinduism by ridding it of the toxicity of Varnashramam, failing which India may lose the 21st century as well. The battleground is in India, not in faraway California.


Related reports / URLs:

“Now, Multicultural Hindutva”, by Raju Rajagopal, Outlook India (7 Feb 2006)

“Palpable Falsehoods”, letter by Prof Vinay Lal, Outlook India (7 Feb 2006)

“Speaking out Against the Hindutva Assault on California’s History Textbooks” – Friends of South Asia (FoSA)

Indian American Public Education Advisory Council (IPAC)


Note 1: to be filled

Note 2: see blog: "Hinduism: its caste system & priesthood”


Comments:

Kausalya:
Wed, 15 Feb 2006

My humble opinion that I wish to share with you.

I might not be the right person to say on this as I myself never had bothered about the caste system. For me, I feel, the caste system is invented by the human race and not the God. In this case it is right to take it from our history of culture. When this topic is not discussed anymore even as a history, then we might see declining practice and observance of the system. Am I right?

ARUL:

The sad fact is that it is a painful reality that millions are being forced to live out, day in and day out. What is an embarrassment for many of us to even read or hear about, unfortunately, cannot be merely wished away. Each one of us who is so embarrassed is a potential agent for change. It is the pressure of such rising opinion – as a result of growing awareness of the problem - that will help speed up changes in public policy and societal practices, thereby leading to the decline and eventual disappearance we hope for.

Comments may be forwarded to: anbarul@yahoo.com