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