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| This is an interesting article. More so because of the author's observation which is correct. He writes:- "Inter dining - Langar - was first introduced in India not by the Gandhians and their associates as many believe but by the 3rd Sikh guru, Guru Amar Das (1469 -1524). His express purpose was the intermingling of castes so that casteism may be eliminated. Today, 500 years later, Sikhism has as much casteism as other Indian religions...." It is our own actions that bring SHAME to Sikhism and belittle the efforts of Sikh Gurus who strived to create a fair and just society. Most of what the author writes are beliefs that Sikhsim propagates. However, people don't know it because we don't live our beliefs. Quoting the author again: "we too, as part of the general decay, imbibe some of those very trends we are trying to fight..." Something to think about. As a Sikh I believe that Sikhism has all the answers to the author's concerns because basically Sikh way of life is tolerant and all-embracing. It is a way of life that teaches human respect and dignity. Unfortunately, unless we learn to live it people will not believe us. ******************************************************************************** Related Articles: Sikhism - Concept of Man http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/92580a820b4f11508725663a001e813e!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Parmartha - The Supreme Objective http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/52ae4b3f3dbd44618725664b00659dd6!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Religion and Society...Part 5 http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/f3f507ef7b6c732087256946004c0768!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Sikhism - God's Kingdom On Earth http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/d1fd8137f3c569f287256725006da822!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Guru Tegh Bahadur's Bani http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/5aa44665cca69ef887256652001b5e6a!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Opinion - What I Have Lived For http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/dfbf45c19a8d90228725691500543221!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Sikhism and Human Rights http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/7ca37ae7abaa0cb4872569690060cb05!OpenDocument Sikhism - Basis For A World religion http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/1ad29f26ee0a189c8725672300803b8c!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Justice In Sikhism http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/590741c5764637c28725685d0075f403!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Sikhism - Scope of Human Dignity http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/864b76f90f00e32187256794004372e3!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 Castes - Dichotomy Between Beliefs and Practice http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/discussion.nsf/3d8d6eacce83bad8872564280070c2b3/ef789bb34123e0bc872568f700756f6a!OpenDocument&Highlight=0 ******************************************************************************** CEREMONIES AND THE INDIAN HUMANIST TRADITION Babu R R Gogineni The struggle dates back to 1815 when the Vysya scholar Mamidi Venkaiah (l764-1834), amidst great opposition, performed the initiation ceremonies of his children, using the Vedic rites which tradition denied him. He advocated, as did the leaders of the Kamma caste a hundred years later, the training of his own caste men to conduct initiation, marriage and death rites according to the Vedas. Needless to say, such protestant movements are not humanist by any means. It was an attempt to be equal with the Brahmins, but not to get out of the discriminating hierarchy of caste. It reminds us of Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain who tried to join the ranks of the bourgeois gentilhomme. Marriage And Mortals. But these movements were started by men who were in the first phase of their development towards full-blown humanism. The one name that comes to mind is Tripuraneni Ramaswamy (né Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Choudhary, 1886-1943), one of the ablest writers who enriched Telugu literature in this century. With phenomenal creativity and productivity, this 'king of poets' -kavi raju - as he was called, examined closely the Hindu scriptures and puranas (mythologies) and they withered under his critical gaze. Transcreating the traditionally accepted mythologies, recreating the mythological scenarios through plays he wrote, he is believed to have created a veritable revolution in Telugu society by teaching almost an entire generation of literate people to think and to question. Fifty years after his death the traditional orthodox society still smarts under the blows he dealt them. In 1930, during his deist phase, Ramaswamy wrote a book Vivaha Vidhi ? The Method of Marriage - where he proposed that marriage vows be taken in Telugu language and not in Sanskrit which no one understood. Until then all marriage ceremonies, however progressive, were conducted in Sanskrit, like the liturgical services in Latin. Some of the traditional practices of mangala sutram and kanya danam were retained in Ramaswamy's method (which would be unacceptable to today's humanists). A fire too was lit around which the couple had to go - a vestige of the Hindu practice - in order to fulfil the legal requirement of saptapadi. Later, this was modified in order to make it more modern and completely humanist. In the first five years, only seven marriages were conducted in this manner. Since then many, many hundreds of mariages have been conducted by people initially influenced by Tripuraneni like the rationalist-humanist intellectuals Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy, Ravipudi Venkatadri and their associates. Well known atheists like Gora too performed many non-religious marriages, as did a large number of Communists. My estimate is that an average of 4-5 marriages per month are still conducted in this manner. There are no paid officiants - local humanist leaders officiate, and at the end give a small speech about the significance of this marriage ceremony. At this function which signifies once more the 'triumph of hope over experience', they advise the newly wed couple on their duties towards each other and their future offspring. Since such marriage ceremonies are not yet legalised in my state, a visit to the registrar of marriages completes the ceremony. One could criticise that these ceremonies are generally dry, without music or hilarity, though the latter element is missing in a religious ceremony as well. About this time in 1925, Periyar (né Ramaswamy Naicker, 1879 - 1973) the militant dravidian leader swept the state of Tarnil Nadu with his strong anti-Brahminism and anti-Gandhism. His idea of Self-Respect Marriages was totally secular and devoid of religious vows. The political party which was inspired by Periyar's ideas, the DMK, which came to power adding the 'more fiery urges of sub-nationalism' to 'the tepid enthusiasm of rationalism', legalised these marriages in the state of Tamil Nadu. In Vijayawada, Gora (1902-1975) the atheist leader replaced flower garlands by vegetable garlands at marriage ceremonies that he conducted. It appears that all the social reformers encouraged inter-caste marriages. But my sympathies do not lie with this advocating of inter-caste marriages because one tends to forget in the process that marriages are ultimately betw een individuals and not between castes and even in an 'inter-caste marriage' the caste consciousness is there. It is interesting, however, to note that most of these reformers have not concentrated much on funeral rites. New Wine? Can modern day humanists make any additions to the rich repertoire of Indian ceremonies? I answer in the positive: Ceremonies which have a properly focussed social and individual purpose could be designed with some creativity. There is a wonderful celebration in the Indian tradition which is my favourite: Aksharabhyasam -'the introduction to writing' ceremony is performed when a child is initiated formally into the world of literacy and is made to write some letters of the alphabet on sand, rice or on a slate. Usually, it is the religious symbol 'Om' for the Hindus. Muslims too have a similar way of marking this important occasion. With suitable amendments, this could be one of the major ceremonies humanists may take up. Can there be a more beautiful and joyous occasion in an illiterate country than the learning of reading and writing? In a society where we have not yet learnt to treat each other as equals, 'the coming of age' ceremony could be a symbolic initiation into the human tribe, when the values of tolerance are introduced formally to the child. This could replace the tradition of Upanayanam. The ceremony must introduce secular values and educate children about good citizenship in a pluralist society. Sex education must be an essential feature of this program. Exposure to the different exciting fields available for a developing human being could also be done at this stage. In India, where mate selection is done on a commercial basis and marriages are occasions for a vulgar display of wealth, the obvious answer would be to humanise this institution. In view of our population problems, any wedding ceremony must be accompanied by an explanation of the need for small families and planned parenthood. During children's naming ceremonies, parents could take care to avoid names which indicate caste. There is a charming family celebration, s hastipoorthi when the male head of the family attains his sixtieth year, when the couple's children perform their parents' second wedding. This is reason for a grand family reunion and charming enough for humanists to adapt, so that the celebration takes care to incorporate an important event in the woman's life or in the couple's married life. The humanist's alternative to a regular cremation would be advocating the use of electric crematoria in order to save valuable wood. This, if the Humanist has not already donated his eyes to the eye bank and his body for medical research. Usually, humanists hold a memorial meeting a few days after the cremation. Non-believing children of religious parents, however, frequently find themselves making the difficult choice between a humanist funeral ceremony and a religious funeral ceremony. Rakhee is an interesting non-religious festival where sisters tie a colourful thread on their brothers' wrists, asking the brother symbolically to protect them. Students of women's colleges visit prisoners in jail on this day, to tie the Rakhee and express their solidarity with the prisoners. However, this is usually a family function. Dr. Mrs Indumati Parikh introduced a reciprocal tying of thread ceremony wherein a brother too symbolically asks his sister to protect him. This is adequate reflection of the humanist attitude towards women. In Delhi, humanists take the opportunity provided by the celebration of Holi - the spring festival of colours - to help members of the Muslim and Hindu communities come together. Ugadi the traditional New Year day, and Diwali, the festival of lamps, are occasions of much joy and celebration. Preparation of delicious sweets is a necessary accompaniment. Humanists adopt these festivals, rejecting the astrology and mythology surrounding these days of celebration. Darkness At Noon Notwithstanding the fact that many humanists may not want any ceremonies at all, I am of the considered opinion that ceremonies cannot be the high priority of organised humanism in today's India. (Individual humanists will naturally continue to design their own ceremonies for rites de passage). One thinks now of Julian Huxley who said that ritual expressions are determined more by the beliefs of people than the other way around. Many have tried and attempted to change and reform Indian society attacking the superficial expressions of its beliefs. The so-called Untouchables themselves practise internal untouchability, discriminating against people lower down in the hierarchy. Christianity, after 2000 years of cohabiting with Hinduism has today Brahmin Christians and Untouchable Christians! Islam has adopted in part the Hindu practice of worshipping the dead - an act expressly prohibited by Islamic scripture. The black veiled Muslim women have demanded that their Islamic personal law be retained. Some Hindu women even protested against the abolition of sati a few years ago. One cannot understand this, but it is important to know that it happens. Can Humanism Too Go Pop? Even the Buddha who refused to entertain any questions about God has himself been made a deity, both by his followers as well as by the Hindus he had opposed. The humanist Tripuraneni Ramaswamy is claimed as their own by the Kamma caste. The political parties that the Dravidian movement has spawned are today champions of orthodoxy and destroyers of democracy. If one looks carefully, many of us are not as rational as we ought to be, not as radical as we claim to be and not as open and democratic as we profess to be. We keep a mixed company in India and we too, as part of the general decay, imbibe some of those very trends we are trying to fight. Is There A Way Out? The only redemptive metaphor is the metaphor of rebirth. In India, Humanists too believe in Rebirth - not the Hindu or the Buddhist concept - but the humanist concept: that of a Humanist Renaissance. Long back, in 1935, Will Durant wrote in his book 'Our Oriental Heritage', "India awaits with unformulated longing her Renaissance, her Reformation and her Enlightenment". Just as Will Durant made this comment, one of India's foremost intellects and certainly the greatest revolutionary of his time, the Radical Humanist M.N. Roy (1887 - 1954) was engaged in analysing the problem of the 20th Century Renaissance. Thanks to imperialist hospitality in a district jail, during six years in solitary confinement, Roy re-examined his Marxist ideas and came to the conclusion that no worthwhile social revolution could be brought about without the base of a cultural and philosophical revolution that precedes it. With the advantage of lessons learnt during his terrorist-nationalist-communist past, this freedom-loving Humanist and self-proclaimed 'lie-hunter' talked of the revolution ary role of ideas, and of his burning passion of bringing about a Humanist Revolution through a 20th Century Cultural Renaissance. Such a cultural revolution would "involve the dissemination among the people of?values and attitudes followed by setting up of appropriate political, economic and social institutions through which those values and attitudes may be expressed." Plus ça Change...? Such a revolution is imperative in contemporary India. Even eternal India is slowly changing. The stock market scandal and the industrial and ecological disasters, sure indicators of modernity, have come to stay. The Indian nation today is caught in the cultural crossfire of weary religiosity and troubled modernity. With a newfound fundamentalist longing for the decadent past and the progressive's Sehnsucht towards the uncertain future, India is painfully coming to terms with her atavistic social heritage and her present economic disaster. There is now an attempt - at least by some - to reconcile her authoritarian, centralised institutions with the incipient and uncertain democratic aspirations of her people. Breaking apart for the wrong reasons, troubled by terrorism, in the grip of religious hatred, this country is reluctantly recognising her fractious-plural character. I think the Indian Nation is trying to come to terms with its own identity, while the torturous and crucial search for a consensual secular basis of nationhood continues. In this context, Humanists have a vision of what this country should be like, and try to prepare the ground for the desired changes. By creating the political and economic blue prints for a future post-religious humanist society, by making fertile contributions to the theory and practice of democracy, by spreading secular moral values, by promoting amity among the people, by cherishing, defending and living freedom, and by promoting the cause of Human Rights ? in short, by living their philosophy, humanists in India strive towards the construction of the Sane Society. It is this Renaissance work that humanists in India will be busy with for a long time to come. Of course, the dwindling numbers of humanists are trying to put on a brave front in the impossible context of profligate demagoguery, exploding population, extreme indigence - and now a right-wing government in power. We know well that even in the past our society had not lent itself willingly to humanist experiments, and that we may be only a few steps away from a fascist society, if present tends continue. But the humanist hope for a modern democratic and tolerant nation remains: and hopefully some day we will be able to celebrate, with an appropriate ceremony, this national rite of passage. Slightly revised version of speech Ceremonies in India made at the 1992 IHEU World Humanist Congress, Amsterdam. The original version has been reproduced in Free Inquiry (USA), Indian Skeptic (Tamil Nadu), The Modern Rationalist (Tamil Nadu) , The Humanist Way (collection of Essays), and in translation in Les Cahiers Rationalistes (French, France) and Hetuvadi (Telugu). 6 years after, the author stands by the central ar guments ? that ceremonies are not a priority for India, and that humanists should extend their penetrating critical gaze on themselves, so that they could become better. In view of History's unpredictability, the historical facts mentioned here may be open to dispute. After the BJP came to power in India, and has reconstituted the membership of the Indian Council of Historical Research, we are only a step away from accepting that the Taj Mahal was not constructed by Muslims - but by Hindus -; that the Aryans had never invaded India ? they always lived in this holy land -; that there were no two races of Aryans and Dravidians ? that is an Imperialist plot to divide Indians, etc. etc. This survey does not trace the history of organisational humanism in India- Indian Humanism does not fit into an organisational mould. Also, a comprehensive survey of humanism's impressive influence in modern Indian literature, specially in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil & Telugu is yet to be attempted. Bihar Buddhiwadi Samaj Links |
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