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Religious and Social reforms in India - Part 2
1.0 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (1863-1902)
Swami Vivekananda is one of the most eminent personalities from the recent history of our country. Narendranath (his original name) was born in Kolkata on 12th of January 1863, to Visvanatha Datta and Bhubaneshwari.
Narendranath was a sharp student and learnt things very quickly. After joining the school run by Shri Ishwarchandra Vidhyasagar, he completed his primary and secondary education and passed with distinction. Narendranath joined college in the sixteenth year and studied Logic and Philosophy. He also gained mastery over the English language and proved to be an eloquent orator. He also studied Sanskrit, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas.
1.1 Meeting Ramakrishna Paramhansa
Narendranath however was not interested in worldly affairs. Drawn towards spiritualism, he made his mind known to his parents and went to see Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa at Dakshineswar. On the request of Swami Ramakrishna, Narendranath sang some devotional songs. Swami Paramahansa went into trance listening to his songs.
Narendranath asked Swami Ramkrishna Parmahamsa whether he had seen God. Ramakrishna said that he was able to see God in his trance. He added that if one prayed to God in all perfection, one could see Him. Narendranath became a devoted disciple of Swami Ramakrishna Parmahamsa. Later, when Narendranth's father died, he was forced to take up a teacher's job for some time to meet his family's needs.
The name Vivekanand was given to him by the Maharaja of Khetri.
Vivekananda popularised Ramakrishna Paramahansa's religious message and tried to put them in a form that would suit the needs of contemporary Indian society. He stressed on social action as the most important duty of an individual. Knowledge unaccompanied by action in the actual world in which we live was useless, he said. Like his guru, he too proclaimed the essential oneness of all religions and condemned any narrowness in religious matters. Thus, he wrote in 1898; "For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam ... is the only hope". He was also convinced of the superior approach of the Indian philosophical tradition and subscribed to the Vedanta philosophy, which he declared to be a fully rational system.
1.2 Vivekananda’s views on religion
Vivekananda criticised Indians for having lost touch with the rest of the world and becoming stagnant. Throughout his life he tried to arouse Indians to action. He wrote: "The fact of our isolation from all other nations of the world is the cause of our degeneration and its only remedy is getting back into the current of the rest of the world. Motion is the sign of life." Vivekananda condemned the caste system and the current Hindu emphasis on ritualism and superstitions. He urged the people to imbibe the spirit of liberty, equality and free-thinking. Once he remarked:
"There is a danger of our religion getting into the kitchen. Most of us now are neither Vedantists nor Pauranics, nor Tantrics. We are just 'don't touchists'. Our religion is in the kitchen. Our God is in the cooking-pot, and our religion is 'Don't touch me, I am holy'. If this goes on for another century, everyone of us will be in a lunatic asylum."
Vivekananda was also a great humanist. Shocked by the poverty, misery and suffering of the common people of the country, he wrote:
The only God in whom I believe, the sum total of all souls, and above all, my God the wicked, my God the afflicted, my God the poor of all races.
To the educated Indians, he said:
So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold everyman a traitor, who having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
1.3 The famous 1893 speech at Chicago, US
In 1893, the Parliament of the World's Religions was convened at Chicago, USA. With the financial assistance from Maharaja of Khetri, Vivekananda went to Chicago and addressed the audience on the greatness of Hindu religion. His address began with the words "My dear Sisters and Brothers of America…". This thrilled the audience, as this greeting contained the spirit of universal brotherhood. During the return journey, he addressed meetings at London. A young lady by name Margaret Noble became his disciple and later took the name Sister Nivedita and carried out his mission.
1.4 The Ramakrishna Mission
In 1896, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission to carry on humanitarian relief and social work. The Mission had many branches in different parts of the country and carried on social service by opening schools, hospitals and dispensaries, orphanages, libraries, etc. It thus laid emphasis not on personal salvation, but on social good or social service.
Swami Vivekananda said that the youth of the day were moving without any aim. There was no correct spiritual guidance. He felt that religion can lead a man on a moral and righteous path, and believed & propagated that all men of the world are one. Colour, caste and creed had no meaning. He felt that there is a lot to be achieved, and advised the youth to move forward. His words were: "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached". Swami Vivekananda started many institutions under the Ramakrishna Mission to carry on his message of service. He passed away at an early age, on the 4th of July, 1902.
As a modern spiritual thinker, Swami Vivekananda's message to Indians remains undisputedly the best.
2.0 SWAMI DAYANAND AND THE ARYA SAMAJ
The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. It undertook the task of reforming Hindu religion in north India. Swami Dayanand believed that selfish and ignorant priests had perverted Hindu religion with the aid of the Puranas which, he said, were full of false teachings. For his own inspiration, Swami Dayanand went to the Vedas which he regarded as infallible, being the inspired word of God, and as the fountain of all knowledge. He rejected later religious thought which conflicted with the Vedas. This total dependence on the Vedas and their infallibility gave his teachings a slightly orthodox colouring. He was a rationalist in his approach because the Vedas, though revealed divinely, had to be rationally interpreted by himself and others, who were human beings. Thus individual reason was the decisive factor.
He believed that every person had the right of direct access to God. Moreover, instead of supporting Hindu orthodoxy, he attacked it and led a revolt against it. The teachings he derived from his own interpretation of the Vedas were consequently similar to the religious and social reforms that other Indian reformers were advocating. He was opposed to idolatry, ritual and priesthood, and particularly to the prevalent caste practices and popular Hinduism as preached by brahmins. He also directed attention towards problems of men as they lived in this real world and away from the traditional belief in the other world. He also favoured the study of western sciences. Interestingly enough, Swami Dayanand had met and discussed important issues with Keshub Chandra Sen, Vidyasagar, Justice Ranade, Gopal Hari Deshmukh and other modern religious and social reformers. In fact, the ideas of the Arya Samaj with its Sunday meeting resembled the practices of the Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj in this respect.
Some of Swami Dayanand's followers later started a network of schools and colleges in the country to impart education on western lines. Lala Hansraj played a leading part in this effort. On the other hand, in 1902, Swami Shradhananda started the Gurukul near Haridwar to propagate the more traditional ideals of education.
The Arya Samajis were vigorous advocates of social reform and worked actively to improve the condition of women, and to spread education among them. They fought notions of untouchability and the rigidities of the hereditary caste system. They were thus advocates of social equality and promoted social solidarity and consolidation. They also inculcated a spirit of self-respect and self-reliance among the people. This promoted nationalism. At the same time, one of the Arya Samaj's objectives was to prevent the conversion of Hindus to other religions. This led it to start a crusade against other religions. However, this crusade became a contributory factor in the growth of communalism in India in the 20th century. While the Arya Samaj's reformist work tended to remove social ills and to unite people, its religious work unconsciously divided the growing national unity among different religions due to its emphasis on religious learnings of Hinduism. It was not seen clearly that in India national unity had to be secular and above religion so that it would embrace the people of all religions.
3.0 THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
The Theosophical Society was founded in the United States by Madam H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel H.S. Olcott, in 1875. They later came to India and founded the headquarters of the Society at Adyar near Madras in 1886. The Theosophist movement soon grew in India as a result of the leadership given to it by Mrs. Annie Besant who had come to India in 1893. The Theosophists advocated the revival and strengthening of the ancient religions of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. They recognised the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. They also preached the universal brotherhood of man. As religious revivalists, the Theosophists were not very successful. But they made a contribution to the Indian National Movement. It was a movement led by westerners who glorified Indian religious and philosophical traditions. One of Mrs. Besant's many achievements in India was the establishment of the Central Hindu School at Benaras which was later developed by Madan Mohan Malviya into the famous Benaras Hindu University.
4.0 SAYYID AHMAD KHAN AND THE ALIGARH SCHOOL
The Muslim upper classes had tended to avoid contact with western education and culture. Hence movements for religious reforms were late in emerging among the Muslims. It was mainly after the Revolt of 1857 that modern ideas of religious reform began to appear. A beginning in this direction was made when the Muhammedan Literary Society was founded at Calcutta in 1863. This Society promoted discussion of religious, social and political questions in the light of modern ideas and encouraged upper and middle class Muslims to take to western education.
The most important reformer among the Muslims was Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-'98). He was tremendously impressed by modern scientific thought and worked all his life to reconcile it with Islam. This he did, first of all, by declaring that the Quran alone was the authoritative work for Islam and all other Islamic writings were secondary. Even the Quran he interpreted in the light of contemporary rationalism and science. In his view any interpretation of the Quran that conflicted with human reason, science or nature was in reality a misinterpretation. Nor were religious tenets immutable, he said. If religion did not change with time, it would become old and unusable as had happened in India. All his life he struggled against blind obedience to tradition, dependence on custom, ignorance and irrationalism. He urged the people to develop a critical approach and freedom of thought. He once declared "So long as freedom of thought is not developed, there can be no civilised life". He also warned against fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and exclusiveness, and urged students and others to be broadminded and tolerant. A closed mind, he said, was the hallmark of social and intellectual backwardness.
Like other reformers of that time, Sayyid Ahmad Khan believed that the religious and social life of the Muslims could be improved only by imbibing modern western scientific knowledge and culture. Therefore promotion of modern education remained his first task throughout his life. As an official he founded schools in many towns and had many western books translated into Urdu. In 1857 he founded the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College as a centre for spreading western sciences and culture at Aligarh. Later, this College grew into the Aligarh Muslim University.
4.1 Religious tolerance
Sayyid Ahmad Khan was a great believer in religious tolerance. He believed that all religions had a certain underlying unity which could be called practical morality. Believing that a person's religion was his or her private affair, he roundly condemned any sign of religious bigotry in personal relations. He was also opposed to communal friction.
Appealing to Hindus and Muslims to unite, he said in 1883:
"Now both of us live on the air of India, drink the holy waters of the Ganga and Jumna. We both feed upon the products of the Indian soil. We are together in life and death; living in India both of us have changed our blood, the colour of our bodies has become the same, our features have become similar; the Musalmans have adopted numerous Hindu customs, the Hindus have accepted many Muslim traits of conduct, we became so fused that we developed the new language of Urdu, which was neither our language nor that of the Hindus. Therefore, if we except that part of our lives which belongs to God, then undoubtedly in consideration of the fact that we both belong to the same country, we are a nation, and the progress and welfare of the country, and both of us, depend on our unity, mutual sympathy, and love, while our mutual disagreement, obstinacy and opposition and ill-feeling are sure to destroy us".
Hindus, Parsis and Christians had freely contributed to the funds of his college whose doors were also open to all Indians. In 1898, there were 64 Hindu and 285 Muslim students in the college. Out of the seven Indian teachers, two were Hindu, one of them being a Professor of Sanskrit. However, towards the end of his life, he began to talk of Hindu domination to prevent his followers from joining the rising national movement. This was unfortunate because it led to increasing communalisation of the polity.
4.2 The politics
Sayyed Ahmed Khan’s politics were the result of his firm belief that immediate political progress was not possible because the British Government could not be easily dislodged. On the other hand, any hostility by the officials might prove dangerous to the educational effort which he saw as the need of the hour. He believed that only when Indians had become as modern in their thinking and actions as the English were, could they hope to successfully challenge foreign rule. In this aspect he represented the views of the moderates of the Congress. He, therefore, advised all Indians and particularly the educationally backward Muslims to remain aloof from politics for some time. In fact, he had become so committed to his college and the cause of education that he was willing to sacrifice all other interests to them. Consequently, to prevent the orthodox Muslims from opposing his college, he virtually gave up his agitation in favour of religious reform. For the same reason, he would not do anything to offend the government and, on the other hand, encouraged communalism and separatism. This was a serious political error, which was to have harmful consequences in later years. Moreover, some of his followers deviated from his broad-mindedness and tended later to glorify Islam and its past while criticising other religions.
Sayyid Ahmad's reformist zeal also extended into the social sphere. He urged Muslims to give up medieval customs and ways of thought and behaviour. In particular he wrote in favour of raising women's status in society and advocated removal of purdah and spread of education among women. He also condemned the customs of polygamy and easy divorce.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan was helped by a band of loyal followers who are collectively described as the Aligarh School. Chiragh Ali, the Urdu poet Altaf Husain Hali, Nazir Ahmad and Maulana Shibli Nomani were some of the other distinguished leaders of the Aligarh School.
5.0 MUHAMMAD IQBAL
One of the greatest poets of modern India, Muhammad Iqbal (1876-1938) also profoundly influenced the philosophical and religious outlook of the younger generation of Muslims as well as of Hindus through his poetry. Like Swami Vivekananda, he emphasised the need for constant change and ceaseless activity and condemned resignation, contemplation, and quiet contentment. He urged the adoption of a dynamic outlook that would help change the world. He was basically a humanist and raised human action to the status of a prime virtue. Man should not submit to nature or powers that be, he said, but should control this world through constant activity. Nothing was more sinful in his eyes' than the passive acceptance of things as they were. Condemning ritualism, he urged men to work for and achieve happiness in this world of the living. In his earlier poetry, he extolled patriotism, though later he also ended up encouraging Muslim separatism.
6.0 RELIGIOUS REFORM AMONG THE SIKHS
Religious reform among the Sikhs began at the end of the 19th century when the Khalsa College was started at Amritsar. But the reform effort gained genuine momentum after 1920 when the Akali Movement rose in the Punjab. The main aim of the Akalis was to purify the management of the gurudwaras or Sikh shrines. These gurudwaras had been heavily endowed with land and money by devout Sikhs. But they had come to be managed autocratically by corrupt and selfish mahants. The Sikh masses led by the Akalis started in 1921 a powerful satyagraha against the mahants and the Government which aided them.
The Akalis soon forced the Government to pass a new Gurudwara Act in 1922 which was later amended in 1925. Sometimes with the aid of the Act, but often through direct action, the Sikhs gradually turned the corrupt mahants out of the gurudwaras, even though hundreds of lives had to be sacrificed in the process.
7.0 CONCLUSION
The religious reform movements of modern times had an underlying unity - most of them were based on the twin doctrines of Reason (Rationalism) and Humanism, though they also sometimes tended to appeal to faith and ancient authority to bolster their appeal. Moreover, it was to the rising middle classes and the modern educated intellectuals that they appealed most. They tried to free human intellect's ability for logic and reason from all anti-intellectual religious dogmas and blind faith. They opposed the ritualism, superstitions, irrationality and obscurantism irrespective of their religion. Many of them abandoned, though to varying degrees, the principle of authority in religion and, evaluated truth in any religion or its holy books by its conformity to logic, reason, or science.
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