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Ramblings
The Indian Legacy
by Arvind Pandey
It is neither my patriotism nor my religious affiliations that make me
think of the legacy of the land of my birth. By this land, I do not mean
the current political boundaries of India, but the region where one of
the earliest thoughts of mankind was born in the form of the Vedas,
Upanishad and the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. It is the wisdom
and the aura of that legacy, that would have made this world a much
better place and even today can help us live in much greater
harmony and peace that shape my thought.
When, even in the twenty first century, we are struggling with religious
fanaticisms, domination of one political thought over the others, I
cannot help wonder the philosophy of assimilation that is so old (more
than 5000 years at least) and yet so relevant in the current
contemporary context. Swami Vivekananda expressed it so well in his
address at the parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. “… I am proud
to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and
universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but
we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which
has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all
nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have in our bosom
the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and
took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was
shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny... which has sheltered and is still
fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.”
Some flash- backs of human history cross my mind: The persecution of
Jews by the Romans and the Nazis, the Christian persecution of Jews and
crusaders that fought for superiority over Islamic people of the Middle
East, the spread of Islamic religion by wars and massacre. Against those
images, I see the images of our “Rishis” and of Gautama Buddha which not
only is India the calm, compassion, and wisdom personified but here are
they are two great world religions, Hinduism and Buddhism from this land
that live in harmony and complement one another. What is more
significant is that we are talking about a culture at least 2500 years
old that demonstrated such wisdom. One wishes that religions that came
later learnt from this land. There are other great religions that were
born here, and people of those religions -– Jainism older than Buddhism
and Sikhism relatively new, about 500 years old, live in harmony as
well.
History calls Alexander, the Great. Courageous I will agree; military
strategist, sure. Great, I am not so sure. In India we call Ashoka the
Great. Both lived about the same time period 200 – 300 years BCE. Ashoka
is Great, because he gave up wars after a great victory and spread
Buddhism not by conquest but as messengers of a faith. We call Akbar the
Great, even though he was of Islamic religion but tried to assimilate
all religions and did not use political power to spread his faith. It is
significant to note that during the times of Akbar, Christianity and
Islam was waging unrelenting wars in the Middle East. It is quite an
amazing legacy that changed the invaders as well. In this land, people
like Aurangzeb, who tormented non-Muslims, were not successful and did
not come a million light years close to being called great. In fact,
Aurangzeb’s rule brought an end to the glorious Mughal era, which had
been flourishing in the reign of his more secular ancestors.
It is not just in religion but in the quest of knowledge, commerce and
in governance that we see much of the world that has been waging wars or
persecuting others like the inquisitions of the Christian world that
stopped progress of knowledge in the middle ages or the political
domination to spread the western thought and commerce by colonization or
the Islamic jihad to spread the word of the prophet. Even today that
this tendency is manifested by the American and British administrations
in the name of Democracy and Freedom, (no talk of tolerance) called the
“War on Terror”, and by the Islamic resistance in pushing back the Jews
and the Western influence.
Once again the images of my land that come to me are that of spread of
Indian commerce and religion in south-east Asia by assimilation and
acceptance. I am currently living in Bangkok and can take some pride in
the legacies of Hinduism in neighboring Cambodia’s Angkor Vat and
Buddhism in Thailand. None of them was a result of conquest.
In “Amazing Thailand” the amazing legacy is such that Buddhism has
merged with Hinduism in their version of Ramayana called “Ramkien” that
has been developed by an essentially Buddhist nation. I am reminded of
Mahatma Gandhi, who fought the imperialist by non-violence, and of
Pandit Nehru, who in the turbulent times of this region, laid the
foundations of democracy and freedom in India. Not surprising that the
universal suffrage rights came to India before the USA, where
African-American could not vote until sixties. Looking around, I pity
for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka where medieval politics
of totalitarians or old ethnic conflicts are so overpowering. Once
divided from the old India, they have lost the legacy. Even some of our
own problems of today can find answers in that legacy.
Religious and political thought has moved around the world largely by
domination of one group over the other. However, such is the legacy of
India that it cannot be spread by domination. One needs to live it and
learn it. May be a few learned Indians or those with understanding of
this Indian legacy will be messengers in the UN and other international
forums can help to spread the message of tolerance, acceptance and
freedom.
August 27,
2006
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Ramblings
The Week of August 27, 2006
Blind Men of Hindustan by Rajinder Puri
Japan: A Great & Unique Nation by Dr.
Subhash Kapila
India, The West & Muslim Minorities by Gaurang
Bhatt, MD
To Reject Vande Mataram is No Treason
by V. Sundaram
Empires and Dust: Travels in Modern India - 1
by Ashish Nangia
Disaster Ready India? A Distant Dream by Col
Rahul K. Bhonsle
Soaring High to Sublimity by TA Ramesh
Wise Old Man Under the Banyan Tree by Dr.
Vidur Jyoti
Education for Character Building by Pradip
Bhattacharya
Reflected Glory by J. Ajithkumar
Terrible Temblors by VK Joshi
Heavy Metals in Ayurveda by Dr. Dheeraj
Malhotra, MD
Cord Blood: Biological Insurance? by Usha Raman
Tales Child Brides Tell by Nilanjana Bhowmick
Back to Farming Basics by Neeta Lal
Youth Leaders Want a Place at the Table by
Nitin Jugran Bahuguna
The Indian Legacy by Arvind Pandey
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