.htmbrp {color: #333333; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size : 11px;}.htmbrp:link {color: #0000ff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, sans-serif}.htmbrp:visited {color: #800080;}.htmbrp:hover, .htmbrp:active {text-decoration: underline; }.htdirp { font-size : 12px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333;}.htdira:link { color: #3333CC; }.htdira:visited { color: #990099; }.htdira:hover { color: #0066FF; }.htdirh1 { font-size : 20px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333; font-weight: bold}/* CSS for aol hat - to hide nav use header_nonav.css or use header_nohat.css to hide completely */div#aol_hat {min-width: 728px; font-size:11px; font-weight:bold; z-index:200; height:30px; margin-bottom:8px; background-color:#CFD9E3;}div#aol_hat form {margin:0; }div#aol_hat ul {float:left; padding:4px 0 0 2px; height:16px; margin:0;}div#aol_hat ul li {padding:0 5px 0 0 !important; border-right:solid 1px #2864B4; line-height:11px; display:inline;}div#aol_hat ul li a {height:12px; display:inline; padding-left:5px; }div#aol_hat_form {padding-top:7px; _padding-top:3px; font-weight:normal; font-size:10px;}div#aol_hat_form input.aol_hat_button {font-size:11px; margin-top:-2px; _margin-top:0px;}div#aol_hat_form input.aol_hat_search {margin-top:-2px; _margin-top:0px; }div#aol_hat ul {padding-top:9px;}#aol_hat ul li.aol_hat_last {border:none;}#aol_hat a {color:#2864B4; background-image:none; text-decoration:none;}#aol_hat a:hover {text-decoration: underline;}#aol_hat div div {height:20px; }#aol_hat_sns div {display:inline;}#aol_hat_sns {width:auto; float:right; height:16px; text-align:right; margin:0 8px 0 0; padding:8px 0 0 0; _padding:7px 0 0 0;}#aol_hat_sns a {text-decoration:none;}#aol_hat_form {width: 300px; float:left; padding:0 0 0 12px; color:#666666;}#aol_hat input.aol_hat_search {width: 118px; height:21px; border:solid 1px #56ba24; vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 2px;}#aol_hat input.aol_hat_button {-moz-border-radius:2.5px; border-radius:2.5px; cursor:pointer; width:59px; height:21px; border:solid 1px #58B926; background-color: #D4F4C5; filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(gradientType=0,startColorStr=#FBFEF9,endColorStr=#BDEEA6); vertical-align: middle; font: 1.0em Tahoma,Arial,Sans-Serif;}#aol_hat input.aol_hat_button:hover {background-color:#83E839; filter:progid:filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(gradientType=0,startColorStr=#F9FEF7,endColorStr=#7BED46);}#aol_hat input.aol_hat_button:active {background-color:#C6FFA9; filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(gradientType=0,startColorStr=#99E576,endColorStr=#F5FCF1);}#content {width:auto;}Socio-Historical Context for SRM's Emergence if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("AOL") == -1) { var sitedomain="hometown"; var siteState = "OrigUrl=" + location.href; var _sns_hostname_="my.screenname.aol.com"; // var _sns_hostname_ = "tweb33.web.aol.com"; // var _sns_hostport_ = "8000"; // var _sns_hostport_ssl_="8443"; document.write(''); _109778(); document.write('');} htmlAdWH('93212820', '728', '90');  Main >> Cultures & Beliefs >> Other Philosophies & Politics _10423(); _11385(); Socio-Historical Context for SRM's EmergenceChapter TwoSocio-Historical Context for SRM's Emergence In The Human Cycle, ShriAurobindo (Aurobindo Ghosh) noted the theory of Lambrecht, who "supposedthat human society progresses through certain distinct psychological stageswhich he termed, respectively, symbolic, typal and conventional, individualistandsubjective."19Applied to the civilization of India, he found "the far-off Vedic age whichwe no longer understand, for which we have lost that mentality"20 assymbolic foundation for later institutions and social order. In the hymnsof the Vedas were factors of religious and historical significance amidstpoetic imagery. But more than that, it was a social logic, justifying theensuing caste system (four-fold order): This appears in the Purushasukta of the Veda where the four orders are described as having sprung from the body of the creative deity, from his head, arms, thighs and feet . . . To them this symbol of the Creator's body was more than an image, it expressed a divine reality. Human society was for them an attempt to express in life the cosmic Purusha who has expressed himself otherwise in the material and the the supraphysical universe. Man and cosmos are both of them symbols and expressions of the same hidden Reality.21 From this symbolic stage the typal grew, and it was characterizedby the subordination of the spiritual and religious to the psychologicalidea and the ethical ideal. The idea of divine principle directly expressingitself in humanhistory ceased to dominate. The conventional stage followed when theexternal signs or supports became more important than the ideal or the spirit,i.e., when birth, economic function, and family custom became the determinantsof caste, or varna (the four-fold order). An individualistic age for society resulted from the realizationthat the typal figure was frozen and the conventional failed and corrupt.Lacking even practical justification, customs were fixed mechanically, andit was left to the individual to discover by his own "reason, intuition,idealism, desire, claim upon life, or whatever other light he finds in himselfthe true law of the world and of his own being."22 What othershave termed an age of Science or Reason emerged first in Europe and enteredIndia only by contact and influence of trade or conquest. Rationalisticcivilization swept across the world, because it was confronted with onlythe vestiges of weakened conventionality. "Speculative and scientific reasonfor their means, the pursuit of a practicable social justice and sound utilityfor their spirit, the progressive nations of Europe set out on their searchfor this light and this law."23 Aurobindo recognized the inherentdangers of the period: unrestrained relativism, tyranny by the majority,rigid economic or governmental management by expert bureaucracies, andutilitarian social morality. Weighing in against these tendencies and equally powerfulcounter-tendencies towards anarchism and reactionism, is the appearance ofthe subjective age. Aurobindo noted the development of psychic research andideas of Nietzsche and Bergson, but he placed his greatest hope in a growingrecognition that the individual is more than his social function, in hisspiritual connection to others. Significantly, he saw in the increasing strugglebetween imported Western individualism and traditional conservatism in developingnations the evolution of a novel social tendency and culture - a hybridunpredicted by precedents in Europe and America and destined to supersedethem in the age of subjectivism. Aurobindo's perspective is a useful introduction to this sectionon the origins of the TM movement because it defines and illustrates themost important themes in the history of Indian social movements, while itis itself the statement of the founder of a movement which, like Maharishi's,began in South India and spread north with a message of culturalsyncretism.24Initially one is struck by the ambitious attempt to encompass all of thehistory of a civilization within the scope of a single schema. To comprehendthis tendency as particularly Indian, it is necessary to recall the enormousspan of historyin the Indian conception, which counts the value of events instead oftheir chronological order. Tradition maintains that time is a conceptionto measure eternity, with divisions consisting of life-spans of gods andgreat ages (the present age, or Kali-Yuga, equals 432,000years).25Considering a human life against this background, it is not surprising thatthe many invasions and conquests of India have bred pluralistic conservatismand tolerance for both indigenous and introduced religions. Secondly, in Aurobindo's idealization, historical stages areboth psychological and progressive, suggesting an evolutionary and non-material(or spiritual) image of humanity developing itself into higher forms ofexpression. Thirdly, there is a reliance upon symbolic foundations in theancient Vedic period and scriptural authority as the basis of the socialorder. Indian movements consequently have referred to these ideological resourcesand appealed to caste-conscious malcontents for support. Also there is arecognition of hegemony of Western materialism, rationalism and science inthe current individualistic period. British humanism, English education,and Western technology and bureaucracy have imprinted India and shaped thecultural response of revitalization. Finally Aurobindo's essay evidencesan underlying faith in Indian civilization to overcome tides of oppositionand challenge from foreign faiths and political domination: he believes inthe soul of India - an intuition of the divine plan for a future age in whichspiritual powers will rule again. This too is a theme recalled by reformistand revolutionary movements alike from the Arya Samaj to the movement forindependence.26Cultural Assimilation and Exclusivity Historical precedents for the Spiritual Regeneration Movement(Transcendental Meditation) in India are many, but they all must referencebasic features of tolerance for diversity and a capacity for assimilationof foreign influences. No civilization anywhere in the world, with the possibleexception of China, has been continuously existing as long as that of India,regardless whose interpretation of the Vedas'antiquityis taken as fact. Marx observed that prior to the period of British rule,"Arabs, Turks, Tartars, Moguls, who had successively overrun India, soonbecame Hinduized, the barbarian conquerors being, by the eternal law of historyconquered themselves by the superior civilization of theirsubjects."27 The main characteristics ofHinduism,it has often been said, are receptivity and all-comprehensiveness. If thereis, or has been, a unity to India, it is to be found in the underlyingcivilization that is predominantly Hindu, despite political divisions andhistorical dismemberments. In earlier centuries religion was all-pervasive,encompassing all social relations. Thus movements to reorganize society wereexpressed in religious terms, and individual and social discontent wereinvariably linked to religious issues, whether through introduced religionsor indigenous sects. Islam and Christianity became widely accepted inIndia after large areas were brought under economic and political dominationby foreign rulers. Mahmud of Ghazni began his raids into India from Afghanistanin 997 A.D., successfully looting and destroying Hindu temples and forcingtens of thousands of Buddhists to flee their monasteries for Tibet and Nepal.During the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1506), Turko-Afghan Muslims ruled NorthIndia by vigorously suppressing opposition. Although the number of Muslimscontinued to be just a small fraction of the total population, there weresome low-caste Hindus who believed that their fortunes would improve throughconversion. Cultural assimilation was more difficult among the ruling classes,whose separation was demanded by both communities. Orthodox Hindus and Muslimsboth resisted any interference from the other in religious matters. EvenMuslim elites were excluded from Hindu temples and ritual activities. Bythe sixteenth century, whether Hindu or Muslim, a nearly identical livingpattern existed for rural cultivators, and the same can be said of urbanartisan classes. Muslims developed their own caste system along ethnic lines,although its observance was less rigid and was unsupported by Islamic law.The greatest resentment and aloofness was expressed by the brahmins, thatsegment of the Hindu community which had seen its religious, economic, andpolitical power summarily reduced: In the process of preserving their exclusiveness, the brahmans concentrated upon their own internal resources and traditional literature. This led to a revival of the study of older texts, with detailed commentaries and digests. When the new rulers asked to see the legal basis and interpretation of Hinduism, the brahmans provided the material based on early texts which dealt with a theoretically ideal state which envisaged no conflicting divisions within society.28 The reign ofMughalemperor Akbar (1556-1605) was uniquely a period of Hindu-Muslim cooperation.This was based upon his recognition of the pluralistic character of Indiansociety and the necessity to encourage the majority of his subjects in theirfaith, instead of seeking to forcibly convert them to Islam. Akbar abolishedthe poll tax on non-Muslims (jizya), encouraged not only Urdu andPersian literature but Hindi letters as well, and firmly embraced mysticSufism and many Hindu ideas, like forbidding cow slaughter. He became a kingfor all his subjects, more popular than any foreign leader before or afterbecause he understood some vital features of Indian culture: For it was not as an orthodox Muslim monarch that Akbar ruled, but rather as a divine Indian emperor, the spiritual as well as the secular father of all his people. Perhaps like the predisposition to a social system based on a hierarchy of castes where birth alone confers high or low status for life, something in the soil or climate of India made its populace more amenable to royal rule (raj) of a 'divinely', imperial variety than to other forms of government.29South Indian Brahmins While tolerance and cultural assimilation are general historicalfeatures throughout Indian history, acceptance of Maharishi's SpiritualRegeneration Movement by brahmins in South India was consistent with socialmovement formation particular to that region - founded on caste differencesbetween brahmins and non-brahmins. The relationship between castes in theSouth has been distinct from that of the North for more than ten centuriesans stems from the development of a social movement based on Tamil devotionalismas a form of native resistance to Aryanization. Most historians see South India as the recipient of native Dravidianculture driven south and consolidated by earlyIndo-Aryaninvasions.30Theclassical Guptaperiod (300-700 A.D.) in northern India had brought acceptance of Aryanpatriarchal society and establishment of brahmin status as educators andinterpreters of the Vedic tradition. Theinstitutionsof the southern regions were more firmly established by this time andmaintained continuity through successive Hindu dynasties, Islamic invasions,and British administration. During the period from about 500 to 1300, Aryanculture was assimilated with the native Dravidian culture at the upper strataof society, but this provoked a reaction in the non-Sanskritic and predominantlyTamil popular culture that was to spread north and influence the entirecontinent. Although imposed by royal edict, brahmanic Aryanization wasresisted by the common people. In opposition to it and the growing influenceofJainismand Buddhism, thebhakti movement spread among worshippers of both Siva andVishnu. The leaders of the movement were Tamil poet-saints known asNayanars(Shaivite) andAlvars(Vaishnavite), who transformed stories of gods from the epics and Puranasinto devotional hymns and exuberant songs that could be repeated and sungby their followers. Romila Thapar notes the waxing of power for brahminsduring this period of assimilation of Aryan influences and popular reactionby Dravidian elements: Perhaps the most obvious sign of the influence of Aryan culture in the south was the pre-eminent position given to brahmans both in status and in gifts of land. Aryanization is also evident in the evolution of educational institutions in the Pallava kingdom. In the early part of this period education was controlled by Jainas and Buddhists, but gradually the brahmans superseded them. The Jainas had brought with them their religious literature in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but they had also begun to use Tamil. Jainism had been extremely popular, but the competition of Hinduism in the succeeding centuries reduced the number of its adherents.31 The Vedic tradition brought from the North and held in the custodyof brahmins acquired the veneration of royalty throughout theSouth.32However, during the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., Tamil devotionalismachieved its greatest popularity, carried to the rest of the sub-continentby lower caste artisans and cultivators turned saints: Although never so recognized by the brahmans, the Tamil devotional cult was in part a resistance to the Aryanization of the region. The brahmans enjoyed royal patronage, but the cult was widely supported by the ordinary people, although, in later centuries, when the established order had arrived at a compromise with it, royal patronage was frequently extended to the cult. The brahmans propagated Hinduism through esoteric theories and the use of Sanskrit; the devotional cult expressed itself in easily understood forms and used only the popular language, Tamil. The brahmans were obsessed with caste regulations and rigidly excluded non-brahmans from participation in religious knowledge; the Tamil saints not only ignored caste but excluded no one for caste reasons alone .33 Caste-consciousness thus became an important feature of socialrelations in the South during the period ofChola ascendancy(900-1200). Brahmins successfully separated themselves from non-brahminsthrough their privileged position as both custodians of Sanskrit religiousknowledge and tax-exempt landowners: They were the symbols of what was in origin an alien culture, but their very security and status brought them added respect. Unlike the North Indian brahman landowners, the southern brahmans were more adventurous and invested their surplus income in commerce. In certain areas their commercial enterprises were such that the brahmans came to be associated with the trading castes. . . The main stress in the ordering of castes appears to have been the division of society into brahmans and non-brahmans. Among the non-brahmans there is, as compared to north India, little mention of kshatriyas and vaishyas but the shudras are prominent . . divided into the clean shudras . . and the unclean shudras, who were debarred from entry into the temple.34 While formal education in Sanskrit was maintained by the brahminsto the exclusion of Tamil, oral instruction in the vernacular language wasprovided to illiterate audiences in the form of devotional hymns. Shaivismwas more popular in the South, and theistic worship of Shiva became partof many new sects at this time. Most noteworthy among them was theLingayat or Virashaiva sect which came under attackby the brahmins for its liberal reformist doctrine and open questioning ofVedic authority. Vaishnavism remained more popular in the North, althoughmany of its leaders, such as Ramanuja, Madhva, and Vallabha, had come fromthe South and inspired devotionalism (Bhakti) and reform movements.Both Sufism and Sikhism were born in the North in this waveof reform, which opposed both Islamic and Hindu orthodoxy in favor of reorderingsociety along egalitarian lines. Understandably recruitment was highest amonglower castes (shudras) and untouchables, because conversion to thesenew religious sects was a means of changing one's status by losing one'scaste affiliation.35Islam and Christianity in the South The history of South India is thus distinguished from that ofthe North by the existence of two distinctly different Hindu traditions -an adopted brahmanical and Sanskritic orthodoxy and a popular Dravidiandevotionalism. Prior to British rule it is differentiated also by its relativelyundisturbed continuity of Hindu social rules due to fewer invasions fromthe North and by earlier contact and a smoother assimilation of Islamic andChristian elements with existing Hindu culture. Successful cultural integrationwas achieved in instances where new immigrants did not seek political orcultural domination, including religious conversion. Even missionaries, however,were more effective when they adapted themselves to Indian customs andappearances, honoring caste divisions and the traditional role of the itinerantsaint. All of this is relevant to the reception given Maharishi three tofour centuries later, although his cultural strangeness was mostly linguisticand did not approach that of the Western "firingis" (foreigners). One result of the diffusion of Bhakti devotionalism into theNorth was a kind of unification of the Indian subcontinent in terms of religiousbeliefs and social protest. This conflicted with another trend towardsregionalism and the development of local loyalties encouraged by the emergenceof linguistic diversity; in the South, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu eachacquired allegiances independent of Tamil or Sanskrit. Politically the southernpeninsula was dominated from about 1300 to 1564 by a rivalry between twokingdoms, one Hindu and the other Muslim - Vijayanagara and Bahmani. TheDelhi Sultanate had failed to establish its power in the South despite disruptivecampaigns by Ala-ud-din and Malik Kafur in the early fourteenth century,but these invasions had served to prepare the region for the separate revoltswhich led to the foundings of the Bahmani and Vijayanagara dynasties withina decade of each other. Despite what appears to be political conflict basedon religious differences, historians insist that Vijayanagara policies werenot anti-Muslim in character: It has often been asserted that the rise of Viajayanagara represents a Hindu revival in the south, but there is little evidence for this. Royal patronage was responsible largely for embellishing older temples and building new ones, and was not concerned with stirring up anti-Muslim sentiments . . The Hindu kingdoms did not form an alliance against the Muslims, and the kings of Vijayanagara did not hesitate to attack Hindu kings wherever they felt them to be an obstacle . . 36 The assimilation of Islam took place unobtrusively, and the so-called Hindu 'revival' did not lead to any dramatic conflicts intellectually or otherwise. That there was a conscious Hindu revival is extremely debatable. It would be more valid to attribute the patronage of Hindu institutions under the kings of Vijayanagara to the fact that this was the only substantial kingdom ruled by Hindu kings who were rich enough to endow Hindu institutions.37 South India's first contact with Islam had come not with Turksinvading from the north but with Arab traders who had arrived on the westcoast of Malabar in the eighth century.38 The Malabar Muslims,or Mappillas, lived in communities and were assimilated into Indian societymore smoothly than their brethren in the North because they were not contestantsfor political power or purveyors of religious conversion. Portuguese andDutch merchants were also welcomed and treated with respect until their greedand religious zeal generated hostile reaction in the early sixteenth century.Although the Portuguese were pushed out of Kerala, they established Goa astheir capital in 1510 and maintained it for nearly four and a half centuries.Jesuit missionaries succeeded in converting many South Indians to Catholicismwhen they were able to effect the appearance of concerned saints traditionally respectedin the region: The first comers were Franciscans and Dominicans, but no great progress was made til the advent in 1542 of the saintly and devoted Francis Xavier, whose ascetic habits appealed to Indian sentiment, which associates holiness with abnegation of physical comforts. There appears to have been a mass movement to Christianity among the fishermen along the south-west and south-east coasts, which he chiefly labored, but it may be doubted whether the converts were acquainted with anything but the rudiments of the Christian faith, for Xavier was ignorant of Indian languages . . After a time he himself appears to have despaired of any success commensurate with his hopes and left for Japan, saying that to ask people to become Christians was like asking them to submit to death. Jesuit missionaries followed Francis Xavier in growing numbers, and their propaganda became active and effectual, partly no doubt because they were backed by secular authority and partly because they adapted themselves to the country, becoming 'Indians in all secular matters, dress, food, &c.' (Sir W. W. Hunter, The Indian Empire, 1893)39 Probably the most successful of the missions was that of theItalian Robert de Nobili which sustained itself in the Madurai area for acentury and a half (founded 1606) by abandoning virtually any associationwith disreputable Christians: It initiated a new line of missionary attack, for it dissociated itself from the civil power, and carried on its labors in territories outside Portuguese jurisdiction, where it could count on no protection. Its members, forsaking all for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, adapted themselves to Indian customs and habits of life, in order to attract converts. One of them explained that their whole attention had to be given to concealing the fact that they were Firingis, i.e., Europeans, as the slightest suspicion of this on the part of the people would be an insurmountable obstacle to the propagation of the Gospel. De Nobili passed himself off as a Brahman and wore the sacred thread. He subtly attacked Hinduism from within, giving out that the Christian teachings were contained in a Hindu scripture which had been lost and which it was his mission to restore. He endeavored to organize an Indian church on the basis of caste. Not only was the retention of caste divisions and caste practices permitted among converts, but corresponding distinctions were adopted by the priests who ministered to them.40 The Madurai mission was in fact divided into two branches, onefor brahmins and another for the lower castes, observing caste rules andrefusing to cross caste boundaries even in the most extreme of circumstances.Nevertheless, or rather because of their recognition of caste, they weresuccessful in converting some 150,000 to their faith by the time Portugalhad suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1759.British India The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were dominated by growingBritish commercial and political control over India. Because it includesall but the last decade before the emergence of the Spiritual RegenerationMovement, this period provides the most relevant historical elements forcontextualizing Maharishi's success in the 1950s. The British took advantageof basic Indian cultural tolerance to gradually establish an insurmountablehegemony by pragmatically limiting their enforcement to matters of administrativeefficiency. Respect for bureaucratic authority became part of modern Indianculture and Maharishi adopted it into his movement. TheBritish succeeded where the Portuguese had failed to establish basesfor expansion because they did not mix their commercial and later politicalobjectives with religious considerations. Operating out of forts locatedat present-day Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, the English invested in pepper,cloth, silk, and indigo under the aegis of the East India Company. They carefullypursued a policy of plunder and protection towards native nawabs ofthe Mughal empire, by then in rapid decline. Governor Clive himself reportedin 1765, "such a scene of anarchy, confusion, bribery, corruption, and extortionwas never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal; nor such and so manyfortunes acquired in so unjust and rapacious a manner."41 Withthe growth of wealth, property, and power, the British replaced the Mughaladministrative system with their own even more efficient methods of revenuecollection but cautiously developed their control so as not to arouse resistance: Like Malcolm and Elphinstone, Metcalfe was a pragmatist, testing each toehold cautiously as he climbed the perilous ladder of power, wisely leaving untouched whatever native institutions, officials, and procedures he found that were not strongly antipathetic to the new Raj. The last thing any of Old Villainy's disciples wanted to do was 'reform' India overnight or remodel it into an Eastern reflection of contemporary England. They were in fact continually amazed at the swift success of their daring ventures, and they daily expected the uprising or outcry from the population at large that - given effective leadership - could so easily have overwhelmed Britain's miniscule force in India. But for a single abortive mutiny at Vellore (near Madras) in 1806, and localized uprisings of peasants in North India led by orthodox Muslims and mullas, who zealously sought to arouse violent opposition to British consolidation, there was nothing but passive acquiescence. 42 The British ruled the whole country that is India (and Pakistan,Bangladesh, and most of Afghanistan and Burma) with the (often explicit)assumption that they were the best qualified to administer the affairs ofthis and any other country. Governor-generals, collectors, and consuls atevery rank expressed an aristocratic air and arrogant style which both impressedand depressed their Indian subjects: British success in retaining control over India, after wresting land from indigenous powers on the field of battle, was primarily due to the methodical, even-handed way in which newly conquered territories were 'settled'. Land revenue demands were no lower than those previously claimed by the Marathas, but peasants soon learned that once their share was paid to the British collector, they were free to live quietly for the rest of the year, unassailed by neighboring robbers, demanding another third or quarter of their wealth. The petty pilfering and princely warfare that had become endemic to the Deccan, and in fact to most of India, during the latter half of the eighteenth century was virtually eliminated by the strong hand of the British Raj in the early part of the nineteenth century.43 They introduced the railways, electric telegraph, and a uniformpostage system; public health measures and a criminal justice system; privateownership of land and strict protection of private property under Britishcommon law; and caused the decline of cottage industries and the beginningsof Indian industrial capitalism. Their bureaucracy, known as the Indian CivilService, was an elite corps, the most efficient administrative system inthe world with a tradition of proud integrity and self-less dedication tothe "white man's burden". Recruited in England by competitive examination,ICS remained British (two-thirds even by 1935) in the belief that theparticipation of Indians would benefit the country far less than efficiencyin government.English Education as Class Division In South India Maharishi spoke in English because his Hindiwould not only be little understood outside of the North, but it would provokehostility among many who were fighting for linguistic self-determinationin the period immediately following Independence. The use of English, however,had greater connotations, as it presumed an audience of Indians familiarwith British administration and education. More significantly, it appealedto the "learned classes," mostly brahmins, but also lower caste officialswhose families had escaped their more humble backgrounds by means of acquiringan English education. Traditionally, English education has signified "middleclass" in India, and that has meant a class of interpreters and intermediaries- at first, between British and Indian, and later between foreign traders,educators, or the central government and the great mass of lower class Indians.Such a group would be centrally located in society to provide contacts andresources vital to the spread of a social movement at home and abroad. Although the first Europeans interested in "civilizing" Indians throughWestern style education were missionary reformers seeking "heathen converts,"even Lord Wellesley, then Governor-general, admitted in 1801 the usefulnessof instructing company servants. British officials debated the wisdom ofintroducing English education into India from its inception with the Actof 1813 until their departure in 1947. Initially the company decided uponteaching English to facilitate their administration and as a simpler alternativeto expecting their own countrymen to learn the native Indian dialects. Europeanscholars of Indian language and culture opposed English education in favorof a greater understanding of India's indigenous languages, especially Sanskrit.Sir William Jones, Charles Wilkins, and Henry Colebrook, with the directencouragement of Warren Hastings, the British administrator, had foundedthe Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 to foster research into the ancientroots of Indian culture and its relationship to European languages. Until1829, Orientalists were numerous and influential enough to direct educationalpolicy, as evidenced by the 1823 report of the Bengal Committee of PublicInstruction: This body held that its functions were to encourage Oriental, and not English, education for the benefit of a limited class. It promoted the establishment of institutions devoted to Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian, because in its own words, \&'it is to such alone, even in the present day, that the influential and learned classes, those who are by birthright or profession teachers and expounders of literature, law and religion, maulvis and pandits, willingly resort.'44 In 1829 Lord William Bentinck declared his intention to makeEnglish the official language of commerce and administration throughout India.In the same year under encouragement of both Christian evangelicals and Hindureformer Ram Mohan Roy, he abolished \fIsati\fR, the traditional Hindu practiceof widow suicide. Thomas Macaulay joined Bentinck in 1835 and added his influencein favor of English education for the upper and middle urban classes. Hiswell known "minute" argued a utilitarian purpose, \&"to form a classwho may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a classof persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions,in morals, and in intellect."45 Brahmins were the first and foremost caste to encounter theBritish, as can be seen in the aforementioned description of the "learnedclasses" contained in the 1823 report of the Bengal Committee of PublicInstruction. Due to their traditional ease of access to education, they tookto English education with great enthusiasm, despite the fact that the Britishhad broken with precedent in opening higher education (previously Sanskrit)to non-brahmins. The British education plan, based on limited resources andfaced with a huge native population, was known as the "filtration theory"- educate the leaders and they will educate the masses. It was overly optimistic: In fact, the pupils who enrolled themselves in the English schools were a motley throng, and their instinct was by no means to disperse to the villages and teach, but by all means to lead their working lives away from the villages. In a country of priests and peasants, the religious leaders and the landlords stood aloof. But as India progressed economically and administratively, those who had the advantage of an English education gradually, by right of the prosperity, authority, and enlightenment it brought them, were to become themselves a leading class as powerful as any of the old, and having this attractive power that its ranks were not closed to the lower castes or to the common people.46 Although attempts were made to encourage education in thevernaculars, these British sponsored schools were rejected in favor of existingtols, vidyalayas, chatuspathis, and madrasas. Drawing theirstrength from religious authority, they resisted change and secular learning.Nothing was done by the British to discourage traditional institutions, inspite of a gradual weakening of popular support for their maintenance. Afterthe Mutiny of 1857, an era of social and educational non-interference ensuedin which missionary activities like conversion and vernacular instructionwere curtailed. English education became not only an avenue to employment butalso a means of escape from the social conditions ofbirth.47While members of higher castes ventured more freely into unaccustomed fieldsof endeavor, a democratic spirit attracted men of lower castes: Ill at ease, unhappy in their official lives, carrying with them in their elevation the sense of degradation which was their inheritance - unforgettable either by themselves or by those with whom they had to work, they were yet examples to their own community, which held its head higher on their account and, ignoring their unhappiness, was encouraged by their success.48 Brahmins in the British South British administration in South India was significantly differentfrom that in the North. As Governor of Madras Presidency in the early nineteenthcentury, Thomas Munro initiated the Ryotwari Settlement for revenue collection.In contrast to the Zamindari Settlement in Bengal, taxation was imposed directlyupon the peasant agriculturist and for a fixed period of time rather thanpermanently. The result was closer contact between the ryots (peasants)and the government, affording greater opportunity for interaction and redressof grievances. The British had wanted to create a small number of nobles, nota class of them. But uncertainty of profit in agriculture, tenancy problems,and taxes on early land settlement created an interest in white collarprofessions in Madras Presidency. Due to the British influence in the South,a new middle class emerged, made up of traders and merchants, money-lenders,rent-receiving landlords, and white collar professionals (lawyers, teachers,civil servants, doctors, journalists, clerks). It was a heterogeneous aggregateof men of different castes and creeds in trades forbidden by theshastras to the "twice-born" brahmins, kshatriyas, andshudras. Social mobility was greater in North India than in the Southduring the nineteenth century, so that brahmins, with their superior educationaland economic advantages, were alone in securing new middle class positions.This discrepancy rooted in caste rigidity was the cause of the anti-brahminmovement and affected the development of the nationalist movement in theregion. Significantly, after the seventh and eighth centuries all theland in Malabar was held by Nambudiri Brahmins. During the period of growthof Aryan culture, kings and princes bequeathed land to temples, and thiswas held in trust by a body of brahmins known as urala samiti. Overthe centuries, the land was gradually usurped by private hands, so that bythe eleventh century regulations restraining private ownership were totallyineffective. When the British arrived, they too acquiesced to these claims.Thus the altogether peculiar nature of land tenure in Malabar (northern sectionof Kerala): land was not held by kings or farmers, but by brahmin intellectuals.This is an example of the strange yet relatively harmonious relationshipbetween the British and the brahmins. For example, Hindus were pleased bythe British invasion of Kerala, in that it ended Muslim economic power whichhad come with the rule of Tipu Sultan and Haider Ali of Mysore. By contrast,local Muslims, known as Mappilas, resisted British control in repeated uprisings(fifty-one reported during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries)which usually took place during the holy month of Ramadan. Under the British, lower castes were freed but did not takeadvantage of their new opportunities. The pattern of brahmin superiority- of every Hindu government directed and led by a strong brahmin minority,with lower castes restrained socially and economically - was maintained withlittle change in custom from the tenth century onwards. In keeping up ceremonialobservances and caste distinctions, in invoking traditions and customs toregulate social life, South India was more bigoted and reactionary than NorthIndia. This was especially true for Kerala (meaning Travancore and Cochin)where physical restrictions were placed on travelling and living spacesegregation was paramount, and where the \&"unseeability rule" was customary.The British did not interfere with caste rules unless they were protestedby the people themselves. They extended judicial authority to the brahmins.In Travancore and Cochin outcastes were forbidden to approach post offices,schools, markets, courts, and private and public offices which were mannedby caste Hindus. Missionaries also respected caste rules and maintained churchesfor Paraya and Pulaya converts separate from the Nayar and Ezhava castes.Nevertheless, conversions to Christianity increased in Kerala among Hinduuntouchables, especially in Travancore where the Salvation Army was activein the late nineteenth century. Changes in these conditions came very lateto the South. Even as recently as 1924 in Travancore, there were separateschools, virtually no public services, and different roads for travel; disputesover right of way were cause for communal riots.49Roots of Reform and Independence English education thus came to signify mutual accomodation betweenthe Indian and the foreigner - it was the "cultural capital" required toadvance in the period of British domination. Significantly, that opportunitywas seized by the brahmins, especially in the southern state of Malabar,where Maharishi's movement first gained a following. But language acquisitionwas used not only to secure influence, as the brahmins throughout India becamethe leaders of social movements for Hindu reform and independence from theBritish. These movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries set precedentsfor the TM movement in that they rotated about a fulcrum of cultural syncretismand the question of whether British education, founded on principles of rationalism, science, and equality,should supercede traditional Vedic (Sanskrit) education and brahmanicalauthority. In 1824 Bishop Heber noticed that there was a change of a most extensive and remarkable nature permeating the Indian mind. The working of the new leaven was seen in movements in which western ideas were applied to the problems of social and religious life, such as the agitation against sati, in which progressive Hindus made common cause with the missionaries, and in the reforming movement which led to the formation of the Brahmo Samaj. There was a revulsion against the restrictions of the caste system and the domination of sacerdotal authority as represented by the Brahmans. Rationalism instead of authority was accepted as a guiding principle by a certain number of more advanced thinkers who, forsaking the faith and practices of their forefathers, became more or less Europeanized and formed a small society of their own. These, however, were a small minority. The majority of the intellectual elite continued to live on the thoughts and traditions inherited from previous generations.50 For many Indians, Western technology and communication, Englisheducation, and commercial expansion contributed to increased contact andfamiliarity with the West. However, unlike their predecessors who settledin India and gradually became Indianized, the British always remained aloof,as temporary migrants who insisted on upholding their own standards ofcivilization and exclusive privilege. Differences in language and religionwere the most obvious though not necessarily the most disturbing or consistentdistinctions: These national traits are apt to display themselves in an indifference, having no root in racial antagonism, which cultured Indians are too sensitive to ignore, and too polite to expostulate against, but which causes a feeling of irritation, or exasperation, or rankling resentment according to their temperament. The attitude of the orthodox Hindu to Europeans is like that of Shylock to Christians: he will buy with them, sell with them, talk with them, walk with them, but he will not eat with them, drink with them, nor play with them. Caste is incompatible with the British idea of dining together as a mark of friendship and makes conviviality impossible.51 The situation created by British administration with itsaccompanying educational and occupational opportunities was the beginningof a separation into classes, with the ruling class composed chiefly of brahminsattracted to Western ideas as well as to efficiency and financial rewards.Many of the early leaders of cultural syncretism and Westernization wereproducts of the new Bengali aristocracy of Hindu bankers and absentee landlords(zamindars) which replaced their Mughal predecessors. Families likethe Roys, Sens, and Tagores were strongly attached to the British and hinderedthe spread of insurrection to Bengal during the Mutiny of 1857-58. Muslims,on the other hand, opposed English education and were slower to trade withthe Europeans and later to accept positions in the bureaucracy (excludingthe military). This is not to say that Hindus or even brahmins adopted rationaland secular (or Christian) values en masse; the great majority ofEnglish educated Indians maintained close familial ties and traditional ritualobservances. Brahmins preserved Sanskrit and the Vedas as their sole possessionlate into the nineteenth century, although orthodox sanskritic culture wasused by low and middle castes seeking change in social rank. However, asthis trend continued, upper caste brahmins increasingly westernized as ameans of furthering their status differential.Brahmo Samaj - Cultural Syncretism Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) has been called the father of theHindu Renaissance, the term given to the synthesis of Anglo-Indian culturewhich emerged in the nineteenth century among Calcutta's urban elite. Hewas born a Kulin Brahmin, his father a follower of Chaitanya, his mothercoming from a Shakta family. As his father's family had long been connectedwith the Mughal government of Bengal, he studied Persian and Sufi classicsat Patna, then Sanskrit and Vedic literature at Benares. In 1796 he beganto study English and proceeded to acquire a knowledge of English literaturewhile an employee of the East India Company. This experience provided himwith a considerable financial cushion and an interest in Western education.Upon retirement from the ICS in 1814, he established a society called theAmitya Sabha among upper class Bengalis for discussion of Hindu scriptures.He devoted himself to the study of the Upanishads and the Vedanta Sutras,which he considered to be the purer and unadulterated religion of his ancestors.Making the acquaintance of Serampore missionaries, he learned both Hebrewand Greek in his pursuit of essential Christian Gospel, although his subsequentpublication of "The Principles of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness"aroused only indignation from the Mission. While he was greatly attractedto Christian ideals and ethics, he denounced the Church and its theologyand urged social reforms of Hinduism which reflected Western influence, includingabolition of polygamy and sati. He did not oppose caste, however. With the support of wealthy patrons that included Dwarkanath Tagore,he inaugurated the Brahmo Samaj in 1828, as a small society which met toread the Upanishads and sing Bengali hymns. The congregational service wasa Christian form. Roy himself did not believe in transmigration and opposedconventional Hindu worship as idolatry. His efforts succeeded in encouragingBentinck's abolition of sati in 1829 (although he opposed directlegislation) and the foundation of Hindu College in 1816 for English education(although he opposed the opening of a Sanskrit college in Calcutta as aretrogressive move). Ram Mohan Roy was a North Indian brahmin concerned with intellectualand social problems (like \fIsati\fR) relevant chiefly to brahmins. His successwas due to British intervention and British influence upon the brahmin communityof Bengal. He proceeded cautiously because he had not won over even the brahmins- men who had effected English manners and ideas and who had no stake inthe system and only a romantic sympathy for the masses. His impact on publiclife was restricted by class and region, as there was little effect on SouthIndia. Roy was succeeded by Debendra Nath Tagore who sustained thebelief in Upanishadic spirituality but opposed reliance upon Christianity.Prayers and devotional exercises were added to the service, and the Vedaswere themselves eliminated in favor of "reason and conscience." In 1864 thesociety split into two over the issues of caste and Christianity, with theadvocates of greater adherence to Christian morality and social service idealsfollowing Keshab Chandra Sen in the formation of a new Brahmo Samaj. Theyopposed child marriage and advocated widow remarriage, education for girls,and service to the poor. Sen himself became increasingly devoted to prayerand meditation and, assuming much charismatic authority, alienated many ofhis more westernized followers. The result was the further division of theBrahmo Samaj into three and its attendant decline in popularity. Under Keshab's leadership the society in many ways resembled Roy'sBrahmo Samaj. It lacked the consistent organization it had acquired underDebendra but more firmly embraced Christianity. Like Roy, Sen believed thatVedanta was all that India needed in the way of theology, and, in the matterof ethics, he saw the teachings of Christ as the path to peace and happiness.By the end of the century, the influence of the Brahmos waned significantly,limited by its cultural syncretism to the educated elite (bhadralok).The British abandoned much of their support for reform after the Mutiny of1857, an uprising which they perceived as a brahmanical protest againstinterference with established custom.52 In the early years of the nineteenth century, there was anenthusiastic response to Western culture from the educated classes eagerfor intellectual stimulation and association with those who so confidentlyruled their country. Contrary currents also flowed. Adopted manners and customsof the Europeanized elite were ridiculed as those of a de-nationalized class,and a reaction set in against the frank acknowledgement of the superiorityof an alien culture. Sir Surendranath Banerjea wrote: Our fathers, the first fruits of English education, were violently pro-British. They could see no flaw in the civilization or the culture of the West. They were charmed by its novelty and its strangeness. The enfranchisement of the individual, the substitution of the right of private judgement in place of traditional authority, the exaltation of duty over custom . . . In due time came the reaction, and with a sudden rush. And from the adoration of all things western, we are now in the whirlpool of a movement that would recall us back to our ancient civilization and our time-honored ways and customs untempered by the impact of the ages.53 European rationalism and egalitarianism were thought by sometraditionalists as destructive of brahmanical dominance. Raja Siva Prasadwrote in 1859: They plainly see that Hinduism is declining every day, and a day will soon come when the Brahmins will be reduced to the same level as the Sudras. They trace and find no other cause of it but the intercourse of the natives with the Europeans alias the advancement of civilization.54 The reaction which set in among the Hindu community appearedalso among Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, and Parsis. In general old faiths weredefended against progressive reforms insinuated by English education andChristian evangelism. Some groups opposed sati, child marriage, andidol worship, while seeking to revive more fundamental teachings and practices.Others were completely orthodox, and this resulted in the formation of sectarianmovements and caste associations.GO TO NEXT PAGE(SRM's Emergence)RETURN TO Tableof ContentsCoplin CurriculumVitaeTo correspond with the author:drcoplin@aol.com|Dr Coplin'sHomePage||Coplindissertation.descriptivepages||Introduction||SRMOrigins||Socio-HistoricalContext for SRM'sEmergence||SRM'sEmergence||Notesfor Chapter2||Chapter 3:Cultural Revitalization| |
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