Misreading Hinduism: Challenging Caste Hierarchy Is Necessary But Using It To Demonise Sanatan Dharma Is Ignorance
By
Ram Madhav
September
16, 2023
Hindu- or
Sanatan-phobia, which the Hindu American Foundation in the US describes as a
“set of antagonistic, destructive, and derogatory attitudes and behaviours”
towards Sanatan Dharma, is a disorder rearing its head globally. As the
influence of the Hindu ecosystem grows in Bharat’s public life, its detractors
have started resorting to Hinduphobic attacks through events like the
Dismantling Global Hindutva conference in 2021. These attacks continue in
various forms.
South India in general, and Tamil Nadu in particular, has produced many
great saints and scholars who occupy a place of pride in the Sanatan hierarchy.
(Representational Image)
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We now
witness such trends in Bharat also. Statements by DMK leaders in Tamil Nadu
equating Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism with the plague, malaria and dengue and
insisting on “eradicating” it betray the ugly face of Hinduphobia.
These
Hinduphobics lack proper knowledge of Sanatan Dharma and are filled with blind
hatred based on a faulty interpretation of the philosophy peddled by their
leaders. The vast body of knowledge and philosophical doctrines that evolved
over millennia as Sanatan Dharma, which a foreigner like Annie Besant described
as “so perfect, so scientific, so philosophical, so spiritual”, is branded by
these Hinduphobics as a rigid, oppressive and inhuman social order.
The British
colonisers had deliberately misrepresented the Hindu social order. British
educationist Thomas Babington Macaulay resorted to a diatribe calling Sanatan
Dharma as “pernicious” in the “highest degree… unfavourable to the moral and
intellectual health of our race”.
That
Macaulayist mindset continues to haunt sections of Dravidian activists, who
seek to reduce Sanatan Dharma to the present-day caste system and call for the
annihilation of the cultural and civilisational structure that is the lifeline
of the world’s third-largest religious group of more than a billion believers.
South India
in general, and Tamil Nadu in particular, has produced many great saints and
scholars who occupy a place of pride in the Sanatan hierarchy. From Sage
Agastya in Vedic times to Ramanuja and Avvaiyar in medieval times to Ramana
Maharshi in the recent past, sages of the Sanatan tradition have emerged from
the Dravida lands and are revered by the entire nation.
Challenging
caste hierarchy is in no way an attack on Hinduism. But using it to demonise
the entire Dharmic order is ignorance. Ritualism and hierarchical casteism in
Sanatan traditions attracted criticism and revolt from time to time. Buddha and
Charvaka led early revolts against the ritualistic aspects of Sanatan Dharma.
These continued as reformist movements in later centuries. The caste system as
an institution was subjected historically to continuous scrutiny and reform for
evils like hierarchical discrimination and untouchability.
In Plato’s
Socratic Dialogues, an Athenian prophet called Euthyphro of Prospalta gets into
an argument with Socrates over “what is pious”. “What is dear to the gods is
pious. What is not is impious,” he proposes. Socrates argues that some gods may
see certain actions as pious, and others may not. Euthyphro then modifies his
definition, saying “the pious is what all the gods love, and the opposite, what
all the gods hate, is the impious”. Socrates then asks the most important
question: “Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it
pious because it is being loved by the gods?”
This is
called the Euthyphro Dilemma. Many Sanatanis face this “Euthyphro Dilemma” on
the question of the caste system because of its divine origin tracing back to
Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, who informed Arjuna that the Varnas
were created by him.
But it was
not exclusive to India. Medieval Europe had rigid classes like royalty,
clergymen, nobles, burghers and serfs. Ancient Iran had its class structure in
the form of Atharva (priest), Rathestha (warrior), Vastrya
Fsuvant (head of the family) and Huiti (manual worker).
Plato too
resorts to a similar tripartite division of the soul into appetitive, spirited
and rational parts. “The common people are driven by base desires, soldiers by
a yearning for honour, while rulers look to reason. Mostly, it is a matter of
birth – we are born to be blacksmiths or soldiers or philosopher kings”, writes
Keanan Malik explaining Plato’s logic.
In the
Sanatan tradition, birth-based division was never accepted in ancient times,
nor was any hierarchy codified. Sankara Digvijaya by Madhavacharya makes
knowledge the basis for social organisation, proclaiming that “by birth, all
are Shudras only. By actions, men become Dwija — twice-born. By reading the
Vedas, one becomes Vipra and becomes Brahmin by gaining the knowledge of God.”
A passage
in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata states that a person, in whom the
qualities of truth, munificence, forgiveness, gentleness, abstinence from cruel
deeds, contemplation and benevolence are observed, is called a Brahmin. “A man
is not a Shudra by being born a Shudra nor a Brahmin by being born a Brahmin,”
it states categorically. The Shanti Parva rejects the idea of some Varnas
being superior to others.
The evil of
birth-based casteism is a distortion of the Varna system. Not just
Ambedkar, even the Hindu icon Savarkar vociferously rejected it. “Just as I
felt I should rebel against the foreign rule over Hindustan, I also felt that I
should rebel against the caste system and untouchability in Hindustan”, he
wrote from the Andaman jail in 1920. A reformist RSS chief, Balasaheb Deoras,
categorically stated that many things in the Manu Smriti had become outdated.
It is “no longer wise to accept every word of it, as valid in modern times,” he
declared. Gandhi, who always called himself a Sanatani Hindu, called caste a
“monster”. “It is this travesty of Varna that has degraded Hinduism and
India,” he bemoaned.
Casteism
should go. But the Sanatan-phobic Dravidianism that seeks to defame and, if
possible, destroy Sanatana Dharma, too should go. Besant’s caution that “there
is no future for India without Hinduism” should always be remembered.
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(The
article was originally published in Indian Express on September 16, 2023 as a
part of Dr Madhav’s column titled ‘Ram Rajya’. Views expressed are personal.)
Source: Misreading Hinduism
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