Dr J K Mohana Rao raised these extremely important questions regarding Facebook friends in particular and Indians, in general.
1) Why are there more religious posts on Facebook walls? Should we not show the way to our children in this regard? Why don't we allow them to choose their own religion instead of indoctrinating them with "our" values instead of allowing them to find "their" values?
2) Why is anything that is "western" derided and disparaged? Are there no good occidental values? Is "culture" only the heritage of India? Why do people not consider the present state of the world instead of getting buried in the sands of the boundless deserts of the past?
3) Why not we open more windows to let fragrant air from distant lands freshen the rooms?
4) Is this not the age of science, technology and development? Logic and reason are of paramount importance, is it not?
I want to give a detailed answer. I have been reading, of late, Wendy Doniger’s “The Hindus – An Alternative History”. It was contested by some Indians as being extremely offensive to Hindus and offending religious feelings is an offence under IPC. Penguin India, in an out of the court settlement agreed to withdraw these books from India. The book reminds one of Mother India by Katherine Mayo published in 1927, which Gandhiji dismissed it as “a drainage inspector’s report”. India and the whole world, in fact, have sewerage pipes and drains but that is not the whole world.
Your questions reflect Western thinking which has roots in Greek dichotomy between mythology and Greek epic poetry (Iliad etc.) on one hand and Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophy, rational analysis, Logic, Physics and Meta Physics etc. on the other hand. Plato said bards and poets must be banished and a philosopher should rule the country. Western thinking lost the rationality with the advent of religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which have consolidated the concept of socio-political groupings called religions. Crusades, holy jihads, to holocaust are the result. India never had such religion and the distortion of Indian History is due to assigning the same categorization to a fuzzy geographic pseudo-religious label called Hinduism which is by today’s definition what is not the 3 Abrahamic religions and it was Western political acumen that added Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, which were really branches of Sanathana Dharma to the rest of religions. European Renaissance which ushered in scientific and industrial revolutions has brought back Greek rationality in the Western world. With this background in mind I shall give my supplementary observations rather than answers to your questions.
I said your questions are based on Western thinking. This thinking was introduced in India by Nehru with his vaguely defined concepts – socialism, secularism and scientific temper and these are deep rooted even today in the minds of many Indian intellectuals and media and are reflected in their stands. The result of this is that the so-called Hinduism is now visualized as an unrecognized, unorganized folk religion which is bundle of superstitions, pantheism and mythology with its characters like monkey, elephant, lion, horse and goat-headed gods riding all sorts of animals and birds and temples sporting symbols bordering on pornography . This is the extreme western view directly or indirectly expressed by Indologists from Max Muller to Wendy Doniger. The missionaries and the intellectuals funded by nations and churches are already celebrating “post-Hindu India”. Simultaneously with the concept of global village (more correctly global urban slum) the languages of slum dogs are being erased from the face of India by English.
Comments on questions.
1. In this context FB is doing a marvellous job of providing a degree of understanding about the culture and traditions of India. In my opinion there are no religious posts on FB at all. All the posts concerning epics, puranas, gods are personal cultural matters and are not of any organized religion. Siva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna , Dattatreya, Ganesa Kumara or a Guru are parts of Indian life. Only if there is social group, a congregation with a dogmatic definition of believers, non-believers and apostates, a book and a self-appointed rep of a God, called the God, then only it is a religion. Choosing a religion means converting to such a narrow cult. Hindus (other Indians not belonging to religions of prophets) should protect their children from religions which market themselves relentlessly. Indian culture (it is Hindu alone) is the only worthwhile topic for FB and not Indian politics. Values are to be inculcated in children by example.
2. Why anything that is “western” is derided and disparaged? In fact, whatever, people say the fact is we are imitating the West rather than imbibing what is good in the West. Rigveda says “Let noble thoughts come to us from every side”. We wish Sarve janah Sukhinobhavantu. I agree that India is not civilized in the sense of the West. After Indus valley 3000 BCE, we had no other great sustained civilization worth its name. Our fast growing urban areas are probably among the worst in the world. We blamed the British for providing an education suitable for making us clerks, but we cannot even provide affordable education even at that level to all at least up to 10th Class now. Exporting Mango juice and importing Coke is the type of thing that is useless. It is a fact that all our young men and their parents are looking only at USA as future home. Dallas and Seattle are better known and whereabouts of Guwahati, Kohima or Leh. See FB, every parent is happy to visit children in USA.
3. Why not we open more windows to let fragrant air from distant lands freshen the rooms? This is poetry and not reality. Thank Gods if we can avoid Ebola. We can open windows we do not know what comes in is the truth.
4. Is this not the age of science, technology and development? Logic and reason are of paramount importance, is it not? Has earth become a happier, healthier, humane place with all this? Human values are more important. S&T motivated by war and commerce will continue to grow. Newer gadgets will adore our hands. Our cities may become smarter. Logic and reason are integral part of our civilization. All our knowledge bases, including those of religion and science are based on Logic and reason. They are used where there are needed. For life to be meaningful introspection is more important than Logic. Human rationality is bounded in any case. Human rationality ends with economic rationality – minimum cost, max profit are terms a human understands. More important questions are investigating the purpose of life, relationship, bondage and freedom. Here contemplation is more important than analysis.
1) Why are there more religious posts on Facebook walls? Should we not show the way to our children in this regard? Why don't we allow them to choose their own religion instead of indoctrinating them with "our" values instead of allowing them to find "their" values?
2) Why is anything that is "western" derided and disparaged? Are there no good occidental values? Is "culture" only the heritage of India? Why do people not consider the present state of the world instead of getting buried in the sands of the boundless deserts of the past?
3) Why not we open more windows to let fragrant air from distant lands freshen the rooms?
4) Is this not the age of science, technology and development? Logic and reason are of paramount importance, is it not?
I want to give a detailed answer. I have been reading, of late, Wendy Doniger’s “The Hindus – An Alternative History”. It was contested by some Indians as being extremely offensive to Hindus and offending religious feelings is an offence under IPC. Penguin India, in an out of the court settlement agreed to withdraw these books from India. The book reminds one of Mother India by Katherine Mayo published in 1927, which Gandhiji dismissed it as “a drainage inspector’s report”. India and the whole world, in fact, have sewerage pipes and drains but that is not the whole world.
Your questions reflect Western thinking which has roots in Greek dichotomy between mythology and Greek epic poetry (Iliad etc.) on one hand and Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophy, rational analysis, Logic, Physics and Meta Physics etc. on the other hand. Plato said bards and poets must be banished and a philosopher should rule the country. Western thinking lost the rationality with the advent of religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which have consolidated the concept of socio-political groupings called religions. Crusades, holy jihads, to holocaust are the result. India never had such religion and the distortion of Indian History is due to assigning the same categorization to a fuzzy geographic pseudo-religious label called Hinduism which is by today’s definition what is not the 3 Abrahamic religions and it was Western political acumen that added Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, which were really branches of Sanathana Dharma to the rest of religions. European Renaissance which ushered in scientific and industrial revolutions has brought back Greek rationality in the Western world. With this background in mind I shall give my supplementary observations rather than answers to your questions.
I said your questions are based on Western thinking. This thinking was introduced in India by Nehru with his vaguely defined concepts – socialism, secularism and scientific temper and these are deep rooted even today in the minds of many Indian intellectuals and media and are reflected in their stands. The result of this is that the so-called Hinduism is now visualized as an unrecognized, unorganized folk religion which is bundle of superstitions, pantheism and mythology with its characters like monkey, elephant, lion, horse and goat-headed gods riding all sorts of animals and birds and temples sporting symbols bordering on pornography . This is the extreme western view directly or indirectly expressed by Indologists from Max Muller to Wendy Doniger. The missionaries and the intellectuals funded by nations and churches are already celebrating “post-Hindu India”. Simultaneously with the concept of global village (more correctly global urban slum) the languages of slum dogs are being erased from the face of India by English.
Comments on questions.
1. In this context FB is doing a marvellous job of providing a degree of understanding about the culture and traditions of India. In my opinion there are no religious posts on FB at all. All the posts concerning epics, puranas, gods are personal cultural matters and are not of any organized religion. Siva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna , Dattatreya, Ganesa Kumara or a Guru are parts of Indian life. Only if there is social group, a congregation with a dogmatic definition of believers, non-believers and apostates, a book and a self-appointed rep of a God, called the God, then only it is a religion. Choosing a religion means converting to such a narrow cult. Hindus (other Indians not belonging to religions of prophets) should protect their children from religions which market themselves relentlessly. Indian culture (it is Hindu alone) is the only worthwhile topic for FB and not Indian politics. Values are to be inculcated in children by example.
2. Why anything that is “western” is derided and disparaged? In fact, whatever, people say the fact is we are imitating the West rather than imbibing what is good in the West. Rigveda says “Let noble thoughts come to us from every side”. We wish Sarve janah Sukhinobhavantu. I agree that India is not civilized in the sense of the West. After Indus valley 3000 BCE, we had no other great sustained civilization worth its name. Our fast growing urban areas are probably among the worst in the world. We blamed the British for providing an education suitable for making us clerks, but we cannot even provide affordable education even at that level to all at least up to 10th Class now. Exporting Mango juice and importing Coke is the type of thing that is useless. It is a fact that all our young men and their parents are looking only at USA as future home. Dallas and Seattle are better known and whereabouts of Guwahati, Kohima or Leh. See FB, every parent is happy to visit children in USA.
3. Why not we open more windows to let fragrant air from distant lands freshen the rooms? This is poetry and not reality. Thank Gods if we can avoid Ebola. We can open windows we do not know what comes in is the truth.
4. Is this not the age of science, technology and development? Logic and reason are of paramount importance, is it not? Has earth become a happier, healthier, humane place with all this? Human values are more important. S&T motivated by war and commerce will continue to grow. Newer gadgets will adore our hands. Our cities may become smarter. Logic and reason are integral part of our civilization. All our knowledge bases, including those of religion and science are based on Logic and reason. They are used where there are needed. For life to be meaningful introspection is more important than Logic. Human rationality is bounded in any case. Human rationality ends with economic rationality – minimum cost, max profit are terms a human understands. More important questions are investigating the purpose of life, relationship, bondage and freedom. Here contemplation is more important than analysis.
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